Janice Airhart interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

Janice Airhart, whose stack of books to be read is always greater than time available to read them, has been a medical technologist, biomedical research tech, freelance writer and editor, science teacher, adjunct English professor, and avid community volunteer. She’s currently working on a second memoir about her mid-life career as a high school teacher for pregnant and parenting girls. Her essays and articles have appeared in the Concho River Review, The Sun, The Science Teacher, Lutheran Woman Today, Story Circle Network’s Real Women Write 2019 and 2021 anthologies, and One Woman’s Day blog. Airhart lives with her husband, Tim, just north of Austin, Texas.

When did your love of books begin?

From before I could read! I had an older sister and brother, and I was jealous of their ability to pull stories from books. My father also read to us daily from classic literature and poetry when we were children. Books were like magic to me.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

From about the age of 10, I composed stories with a friend that we wrote into lined notebook paper and shared with classmates. I also loved science, though, and it seemed a career that was more financially stable. I began to write seriously (for pay) much later in life, when I was in my 40s.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

I think there are advantages to waiting to write seriously after you've experienced a fair amount of life and studied the craft via classes and reading. I can't begin to say how many writing classes I've taken, beginning in the 1980s. All of them have taught me something and allowed me to practice. I taught high school and college classes for 13 years, which gave me little time for writing anything but lesson plans. Once I retired from teaching three years ago, I finished a memoir and was able to write several essays that are now published. Covid shutdown helped a little, too :-) I now try to write 2 - 3 hours every weekday. My first memoir will be published later this year, and I'm already at work on a second.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

Study the craft and practice, practice, practice. You truly get better with each piece you write.

Tell us about your book/books:

My book blurb:

An estimated 20% of US adults suffer from mental illness; 5% of Americans will lose one or both parents by the age of sixteen. Merging those realities multiplies the trauma for survivors like Janice Airhart, author of Mother of My Invention: A Motherless Daughter Memoir. Winner of the Minerva Rising Press 2021 Memoir Contest, her book traces Airhart’s search for the identity of the mother she lost first—as an infant—to mental illness, and then to death 13 years later in a Louisiana psychiatric hospital. That no one in the family would speak about her schizophrenic mother convinced her it was shameful to ask questions and that fears of inheriting her mother’s illness were justified.

 

Long after her mother’s death, and after the deaths of everyone who’d known her before, Airhart obtained her mother’s hospital records, detailing everyday interactions and psychiatric treatments of the 1950s. These documents and a handful of photos and mementos helped bring to life the mother the author could only imagine in theory. At the same time, she discovered her true inheritance was the kindness of caring teachers, family members, and friends who’d enriched her life. Mother of My Invention explores the unique challenges faced by motherless daughters and suggests that mothers can sometimes be found in unexpected places if we’re open to finding them. 

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

I love having other writers/readers to bounce ideas off of. Some of the best ideas for my book came from suggestions of other writers. I also belong to a book discussion group and enjoy discussing books with others; there's nothing more satisfying than discussing really interesting ideas with people who may have different perspectives. I think that's why I love writing--it lets me explore ideas.

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

Look around you and notice those who have guided and supported you. Thank them when you can. My memoir's audience is motherless daughters--I would tell them that mothers are all around them if they're open to finding them.

Where can people connect with you?

Through my website: https://janiceairhart.com/