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An Interview With mimi greenwood knight

Tell us a bit about yourself. What would you like us to know about you?

My true love is writing essays about the wild and wacky world of parenting but I pay the bills writing articles. (What cha gonna do?)

What are you doing now? (Career? Married? Single? Children? Pets?)

For the first time in ten years I can honestly say I am writing full time. I have been freelancing for Parents Magazine and a few others like Working Mother and American Baby, Sesame Street Parents, (when they were in publication) plus a handful of Christian magazines like Campus Life, Christian Parenting Today, Today's Christian Woman and most recently for In Touch web site and magazine. Now I have hooked up with an outfit out of Texas that publishes 166 (what they call) "community magazine". I went into it with a "we'll check this out but I'm not too sure about it" attitude. (Even used a pen name.) But I have surprised myself by loving it. I truly can't wait to wake up each day and see what assignments come my way. I'm still keeping some freelancing on the side and lately have sold a ton to the Chicken Soup folks.

What is your favourite food?

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate
(dark, please)

What is your favourite colour?

I'm all about RED.

What is your favourite sound?

My husband and kids laughing.

Who is your favourite person?

Oh now, come on. You're just trying to get me in trouble. I have six sisters, four kids and a husband. I'm not falling for this one.

What is your favourite place?

My kitchen on a Sunday when the kids have a few friends over and they are in and out of the yard filling me in on their games and I'm doing a little baking, listening to some 40s tunes (I just discovered the 40s) and maybe swapping silly text messages with one of my sisters. Yes, I am a cheap date.

What is your favourite memory?

Hmmmm, well since I am an approval addict, I'm sure it has something with praise from an editor or a reader. I love it when I get an email or phone call from someone who has read something I've written and taken the time to track me down and tell me how much it meant to them.

What is your favourite article of clothing?

I have this one great pair of jeans (stretch flare from the GAP) They fit just right about the third day I wear them and, I may be completely wrong about this, but I think I look pretty hot in them. And anyone who knows anything about women knows that, if we feel like we're hot, we are.

What is your favourite word?

Oh my, you'd ask that of a writer? Whatever it is, it would be a verb. That perfect verb that says in one word what you were tempted to say in a dozen but just nails it and gives the reader a percise picture of the action you were going for. You write it and go, "Yeah, that's it!" and you feel like you can die happy now.

What is your favourite writers' quote and why?

I repeat this one a lot. Ann LaMott said (paraphrase) that all writers are like streams following into the same river.
I get a lot of requests from writers who are just starting out to offer advise. I'm always eager to give them a little time. (Because, hey, if I can do it, anybody can.) I think what Ann meant was that good writing is good for all writers. It's like having all the antique shops on one block. Great antiques just make you fall deeper in love with antiques and want to buy more. Great writing makes you want to read and reading is good for writers.

What is your most favourite quality about yourself?

Wow, who came up with these questions? I'd have to say that I think I'm pretty fun and (I actually get berated for this.) I'm happy most of the time. It's hard not to be when you are as blessed as I have been.

What is the least favourite quality about yourself?

Ewww, I can hear my husband's voice ringing in my ear and would have to say sarcasm.

If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?

If we're talking pie in the sky, I'd say Italy. A little more down to earth and I've been dying to take the kids to Colonial Williamsburg. I am queer for history.

What inspires you to write and why?

Definitely my kids. Motherhood is the most exquisite, frustrating, inspiring, gut wrenching, fullfilling, devastating thing I've ever done. If I don't write about it, I'll implode. (Do you take off for spelling?)

What is your favourite book and why?

Of course that changes over time. It is whatever I'm currently reading or rereading by Ann LaMott of Kaye Gibsons. If you put me in a room with a bare light bulb and forced me to choose, I would say Kaye Gibbons On The Occasion of My Last Afternoon. (Killer!)

List your three favourite authors (any genre) and why?

Okay, I'm repeating myself here. Kaye Gibbons, Ann LaMott and Amy Tan.

What do you think makes a writer successful?

Candidness (Is that a word?) Ann LaMott divulges things about herself that make me blush. I wish I wasn't so worried about what people will think and could let it all hang out the way she does. She's so real and she gives her reader permission to be vulnerable and real too.

Whta is it that makes you successful as a writer?

It's probably my insane appetite for attention and approval (Grow up the 11th of twelve kids and see if you don't spend the rest of your life trying to be noticed). It's what keeps me going also I had it rough early on as a new mom and feel maternal toward those other new moms out there who might be feeling the same way.

How long have you been writing and how did you start as a freelance writer?

About ten years. It started with two straight years of rejection. Thankfully I'd read Writers Market cover to cover so was prepared for it. My office used to be in my laundry room and I covered two walls ceiling to floor with rejection letters, before I made my first sale. Since then it's just been perserverance. I figure, if I have 15 or 20 queries floating around out there, someone has got to buy something.

Was it through traditional publishing or online publishing?

I've only recently started being published on line. It funny not having something you can hold in your hand and say "I am in print". Guess I'll have to get used to it.

What was the first article you sold and to whom?

That was the best part. It was a tribute to my late mom that ran in Parents Magazine for Mother's Day. A copy of it hangs in my family room. It's a bit of a tear jerker. I love to watch people meander up to it at a party and start reading it then watch their hand wander up to wipe away a tear. I think "Gotcha!"

Describe how you felt when you received payment for this article.

I beleive the correct word would be WOO HOO. But I must say seeing it in print and knowing people were reading it far outweighed the money, still does.

What are your goals as a writer?

The obvious one is a book. I have collected fifty of my favorite humorous parenting essays and would love to see them published as a collection. We'll see.

What is the best tip you can give to fellow writers?

Be prepared for rejection and don't let it waylay you. Invest in a copy of Writers Market for your particular genre. Join or start a writer's group and be faithful about attending. Read every day. Write every day. Thank God for the extravagence of words.

What do you hope to provide your readers with through your writing?

Definitley commaraderie for other moms. Motherhood (parenthood) is tough and we need each other. I want someone to read what I write and think, "It's not just me. I'm only human and that's okay. I'm doing the best I can."

List your three favourite online writer-resource sites and why (include URLS).

Writer's Gazette, of course.
Anthologies on line www.anthologiesonline.com
AWAD wordsmith.org

If you have published a book, tell us about your publishing success (title, publishing date and company, where it is available to purcahse).

N/A

How long did it take you to write your book(s)?

N/A

What would you do differently if you could repeat the same publishing experience?

N/A

What have you learned about the publishing world?

Hmmmm I guess that people are people, even editors. I've always been treated kindly. Last year when our town was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, I was amazed at the concern from different editors I'd worked with, some of them only a few times. I'd had maybe two contacts with a book agent before the storm. Afterward she not only went to the trouble to get in touch with me but sent a check to a fund my family had set up for my sister who lost everything. (Unfortunately that was right before she told me she was going to pass on my book.)

This is your chance to 'Talk Back' to your readers. What would you like to say to them?

Since I write primarily for moms, I would remind them to enjoy every minute of this all too short chapter in your life. Drink in your little ones but don't forget to take some time for yourself. One of the best things we can do for our kids is get away from them and spend some time laughing and cutting up with our friends, commiserate, gripe, brag, laugh till you wet your pants, cry if you need to. You'll go back to your husband and kids with a fresh outlook and ten times more patience. Guard that time with your girlfriends and make it happen, no matter how hard you have to work to do it.

What's the one thing that you want them to know about your writing?

There's so much I want you to know, so many mistakes I made that I want to spare you from making. When I manage to take a step back and see the forest for the trees and realize how blessed I am to be called into this ministry called motherhood, I want to share it with you and hope I can help you to step back too. I hope my writing can give you that feeling you have when you peek in on your freshly scrubbed, sweet smelling, sleeping child and manage to forget that he ate your best lipstick and shaved the cat today, love him so much it hurts and pledge to enjoy him more tomorrow.

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