Look and Listen

Biography

My name is Kim McDougall. I am a writer and photographer with a BA in English literature from Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. My goal is to bring fantasy fiction to literary readers, but still retain all the romantic and epic qualities that traditional fantasy readers crave. My website, Between the Cracks Fiction, specializes in this kind of unclassifiable literature. Visit www.kimmcdougall.com to read my fiction and poetry, for articles and reviews or to sign up for my monthly newsletter. My fiction has appeared in small-press magazines and I have a novel published by Avalon Books, New York (under the pseudonym Lacey Green). Most recently, my prose poem "Mother Crone" will appear in Aoife's Kiss in September of 2007, and "Larry's Shrine" will be in the fall edtion of Albedo One Magazine. For Fifteen years, my day job was to sell cameras. I have published photos in calendars. In the past, I operated Finn Photo Craft, my own greeting card company, that sold my cards on the internet and at craft fairs. I have, for the moment, given up this enterprise to focus on my writing, though I still maintain an online gallery at http//:store.kimmcdougall.com My goal for 2007 is to acquire the services of a literary agent. I have a completed, novel length manuscript entitled "Caul, Shroud and Veil" which is a recreation myth about severing of the maternal and paternal deities. I currenlty live in Pennsylvania with my husband, daughter, dog, three cats, bunny and hamster. Yes, it's a busy household.

Inspiration

Though fantasy is my first love, I write anything from children's picture books to erotica short stories. I believe that genres are crippling literature. A story takes on what ever form it needs. I do not set out to write a fantasy or a romance. Rather, I write the story as is demands to be written and then try to fit it into a category only for convenience sake. Needless to say, some of my stories fall through the genre cracks. Still, I get excited about fiction that pushes the boundaries of current labels, fiction that creates new labels. My favorite authors accomplish this feat. Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage, is the best fantasy novel that I have ever read, but don't look for it in the fantasy section of your book store. Likewise, Guy Gavriel Kay's fantasy novel Tigana has little magic, no elves, space ships or anything otherworldly. Still, it is a rip-roaring epic that delights in thwarting the readers' expectations. Here are some other things I believe about modern literature: Genres are crippling for both writers and readers. They help only the marketing people at bookstores. There is always a market for a really good story. Readers cannot be classified. Someone who reads Tolstoy might also enjoy Dan Brown. Real readers read anything they can get their hands on. A writer will have enough rejection slips to paper her office before hitting it big, and this is how it should be. Writers create the dialogue of our times.