I fell in love with Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral when I was still a grad student in the early 2000s.  Since that time I have given away several copies of the book and red bandanas to people that meant the most to me.  The characters in the novel pulled me into the story with them and what a ride they took me on.

So after talking to the latest person I shared Annie with (@sportsfan12921), I found her creator on twitter, went to her webpage and requested an interview.  She was gracious enough to answer my questions and I now share them with you. I hope after this interview you drop whatever you are doing and go get one of Kris Radish’s novel…. I promise you, you won’t be sorry!

Grace Rooney: Before we get started I would like to tell you how I stumbled upon the first novel of yours I read.  I was wandering around one of the chain bookstores and out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of red high-tops and a convertible.  I have a love affair with chuck Taylor’’s and my first pair were red high-tops so I was immediately drawn to your book.  I read the back blurb and knew I had to have this novel.  I didn’t know what a treasure I stumbled upon that day, but it has been 6 years and I am still giving copies of Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling funeral and red bandanas to those that will fall in love with the book the way I have.

Kris:Thanks for that….annie is just something else and she keeps on going and going and many women are having living funerals because of her….!!!!!

Grace Rooney: After you wrote Run, Bambi, Run, a true crime work and The Birth Order book, you said that “then wind shifted, the sky turned a lovely shade of blue, six dogs barked and it was simply time for me to become a full-time novelist”. Had those three things not happened what would you be doing instead.  And it has to be something you haven’t already experienced.  I will provide a link to your site for the Grace the Spot readers to see what amazing things you have done prior to becoming a best selling author,

Kris:I was born to be a writer and would have eventually gotten to the novelist part of my life but I also could have gone back to school to become a clinical psychologist.  Really, it’s a little bit of what I do in my novels anyway – cheaper though for my readers!!!!! I also considered law school when I was very involved in political and legal work as a full-time journalist and then, of course, I have always wanted to be a jazz singer….low cut black dress, red lips, throaty voice and all.

Grace Rooney: You consider yourself a truth novelist because your stories parallel your life, which character most resembles you? Which character most resembles Madonna?

Kris: So many characters…so little time. When I am writing I really become the person I am writing about. I like to think a part of me is like Annie and I have been a good friend…I also like Mary, the woman in my first novel who loved being a mother. There are a couple of real pissers in my new novel, Hearts on a String, coming out in May.  There’s a torch singer in there who is a great character.  I want to be her this week.  Madonna?  My lovely Madonna?  She hasn’t totally appeared yet but she is coming up – she is going to be a hot, Harley riding chick, who smokes cigars, loves wine, picks up stray cats and loves leather – all true by the way!

Grace Rooney: Madonna is a court Master’s Sommelier and certified wine professional. In the past you said you drank lots of beer and now you love to drink wine, which do you prefer? (I will also provide a link to Madonna’s wine website, though I suspect many of the GTS readers are beer drinkers.  I drink beer more often than wine but I also don’t have a sommelier to school me in the finer points of choosing a perfect wine!)

Kris: It is grand to have your own personal sommelier lying next to you each night. My taste buds sort of reflect my age.  Beer has the calories but I have to tell ya….I could put beer on my cereal.  There is nothing like a cold beer after, well….anything….or before!!! But wine is a bit more earthy and I’m an old hippie at heart and the grapes and soil tell such a grand story when you open the bottle.

Grace Rooney: I would like to say I have read all your novels and I will read them all, do they all contain lesbian characters?

Kris: It’s funny because I have to stop and think about that! A part of me just assumes everyone is gay or a lesbian…and that discussion could fill up the entire website.  Most of my novels have lesbians and/or gay men in them because that is what the world is like – we are everywhere and I have this inner device that wants to make certain the characters I create are a reflection of the real world we live in.  My work celebrates the love women have for each other on all levels – female friendship is such a powerful force. My “true fiction”, I think, reflects the truth of how we all live.

Grace Rooney: If you could recommend only one of your novels to someone who has not read any of your work, which novel would it be, why, and is it your favorite?

Kris: It depends on where a woman is at in her life. I often recommend Dancing Naked at the Edge of Dawn because so many women are living lives that were designed by someone else and this novel is al about living the way your heart and soul tell you to live – not someone else.

Grace Rooney: Your novels provide positive lesbian visibility that is currently lacking in the visual entertainment media. Have you ever or would you ever consider adapting any of your novels into a screenplay? ( A friend of mine and me have already casted Annie, I would love to see that on the big screen)

Kris: Me too! My agent is working on all of that movie business and Annie was optioned for a movie but the option has since lapsed.  I think it will happen. And I think it’s wayyyy past time for a new Thelma and Louise movie and a movie the shows lesbians as who we really are….mothers, friends, lovers, sweethearts….I am a bit tired of the dykeorama, boot wearing, chain-smoking lesbians I see in movies all of the time….not that I don’t love wearing my boots some of the time but we are NOT all the same person.  Yes, yes, yes! I’d love to see a mess of A-List actresses parading around on the screen in one of my novels!!!!

Grace Rooney: Have you acclimated to Florida, I would imagine it is quite different than Wisconsin. Is it hard for you to be so much further away from your kids Andrew and Rachel?

Kris: I absolutely love it here and have discovered a community of fabulous women! My son, Andrew, graduates from college in two months so he is ready to take on the world and my daughter, Rachel, is about to crash here for spring break with her pals….speaking of beer!!!  I’ve raised them both to be strong willed, independent, life-loving humans and they call this “home base” and as they follow their own life paths we keep the light on and the frig stocked at all times….!

Grace Rooney: Is there anything you would like to share about your upcoming 8th novel, a little preview perhaps?

Kris: Hearts on a String is my seventh novel…wow! and it was such fun and a challenge to write.  Think Thelma and Louis on Prozac, locked in a hotel room, wild storm, lots of booze….the possibilities are endless.  The women meet in an airport bathroom – and that’s the soft part of the novel. There are powerful personalities, lots of secrets, a huge storm, bad men, pounding waves, more secrets and in the end that unmistakable connection all women have.

Grace Rooney: Is there anything you would like to add?

Kris: You know my work but I’d like women who have not stepped into Radishland to know that my work is very important to me.  I feel as if I am carrying the banner of female empowerment every minute of every day.  Life is for living.  We need to have that beer, laugh always, get over it, and by all means – dance naked!!!!!

Grace Rooney: I want to thank you for bringing such empowered woman to life through the pages of your novels, they do jump right off the pages and carry the reader along for adventures with them.

Kris: Thank you so much for this chance to share my life and work.  I wish I was at the big D with you and all the girls.  I’m leaving it up to you to give everyone a kiss and hug for me. Whoooo!!!!!!

For more information on Kris Radish visit her website

www.krisradish.com

For more information on Madonna Metcalf, Kris’ partner visit her website here  http://winemadonna.com