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Here’s another talented Austin mom! Be sure to check back next week for our Mother’s Day Giveaway, which will include an autographed copy of her book!!

Name: Kari Anne Roy

Occupation: Writer, mama

Age: 31

Number of Children: 2 – Samuel, 5 and Georgia, 22 months

Current Projects: Here’s a list of the stuff that’s keeping me busy…

A middle-grade space adventure novel, Mike Stellar: Nerves of Steel, due from Random House in Spring 2009

About 14,000 other partially written novels. I really need to just settle on one and get to work.

An old-school 90’s-era paper zine, Aprön, that I’m working on with a friend of mine. Who knows when it will actually get finished, but it’s fun working on it.

My blog: http://www.haikuoftheday.com

Freelance copywriting for various ad agencies around town (mama’s got to buy groceries)

Tell us about yourself:

I am a high-strung, OCD-plagued worrywart disguised as a laidback funny lady. I do a good job of being messy, lazy and pretty free-wheeling, even though my brain in constantly freaking out about a variety of hypochondriac things, money, politics, and the end of the world.

You are a writer and a mother. Do they blend nicely together?

I am really fortunate that I’m able to stay home and work. It’s never easy, but the fact that I can write anywhere – in the car at a red light, in the bathroom, during naptime, whenever – is fantastic. Plus, the kids are always doing something ridiculous or hilarious (like naming their babydolls things like Oobaloo), giving me a constant source of material. Did I just admit that I steal writing ideas from my kids? Yes. Yes I did.

What’s a typical day like for you?

My super awesome husband gets up with Sam, my oldest, and makes his lunch and takes him to school while I sneak an extra few minutes of sleep.

Georgia, the youngest, wakes up between 7 and 7:30 and I moan and groan and lay in bed with her and try to force her to watch Sesame Street (which she always refuses to do) and then we get up. I shower while she dumps a baggy of Cheerios all over the bathroom floor and then it’s on to breakfast and checking email.

We happily mess around for most of the afternoon, taking time to play and scream and poop and nap (well, Georgia does), and I furtively try to sneak in time to email and write and catch up on worldly happenings.

By 2:30 we’re off to pick up Sam from school and then we’re back home for some afternoon PBS, more furtive writing, more screeching (sometimes happy, sometimes not) and pooping, and some playing outside. This is also when we like to have our 1-minute dance parties to inappropriate music.

On good days, my super awesome husband is home by 6, where he does his best to feed us, if I haven’t gotten around to it. Then he baths the kids and gets them to bed by 8 or 8:30 while I start working for the night. We watch a little TV, he crashes out on the couch and snores through World’s Deadliest Catch, and I work and email my friend ridiculous web links until midnight-ish when I collapse into bed.

Tell us about Haiku Mama.

Haiku Mama is a book of over 100 irreverent, silly haiku about how crazy, fun, frustrating and surprising it is to be a mama. It’s not a sappy book about motherhood and it doesn’t really offer advice. Mostly, it’s a funny book other mama’s can empathize with.

Here’s one of my favorite haiku from the book:

Bubbles are awesome,

but don’t pop them with your eyes.

Then they kind of suck.

How long did it take you to write it?

It’s hard to say. I’d been jotting down the haiku and sending them to friends for quite some time. I didn’t think of turning them into a book until I had an agent for my other book and I was looking for something else he could try to sell. So in just a few weeks I put together a proposal with a bunch of the haiku I’d been writing, and he sent it out.

When did you know that you wanted to become a writer?

I was in first grade and I sat down at my grandpa’s electric typewriter. I wrote three stories (with every word spelled wrong except “panther”). I knew then – probably before then – that I wanted to write.

What is your favorite book? Favorite genre?

Oh, this is so hard. I have to say that when I read To Kill a Mockingbird I was really, really amazed. I am not always a fan of award-winning literature, but I just really loved it.

Right now I’m crushing on Mary Roach. Her books Stiff, Spook and Bonk are infinitely interesting and hilarious. If only I could write hysterical footnotes like she does…

Mostly, though, I read kid’s books. Middle-grade and YA fiction. I love Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling, just like everyone else. And I also enjoy Jeanne DuPrau. I’m big on the old-school authors, too. Lois Lowry, Beverly Cleary, Paula Danzinger.

It’s hard to pick a favorite genre because it depends so much on the writing style. I gravitate towards the DuPrau-esque fantasy stories, but I love a well-written non-fiction book, too.

What do you like to do to unwind at the end of the day?

I like to snuggle up with my TV. Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, 30 Rock, Deadwood, the X-Files. Netflix is my friend.

Where are you from? If you’re not from Austin, how did you end up here?

I lived in a very small town in Florida as a child, and then when I was in 8^th grade my family moved to Plano, TX, just north of Dallas. Talk about a shock! I went to college at the University of Texas at Austin, and fell in love with the city. I’ve been here ever since.

What serves as your inspiration in life?

Can competition be an inspiration? Ha! I am inspired to do my best by seeing other people do similar things that I do. I think, “Well, damn, I bet I could do that just as well, or better” and so I try.

Also lack of time inspires me. When I know I only have a few hours a night to really work I buckle down and get things done. I’ve always worked better right on the sharp edge of a deadline.

So, competition and deadlines. Inspirational! Who knew? 

Tell us one of your secret indulgences.

Expensive pedicures. This is a new thing for me and I love it! The rest of me may be falling apart, but my toes will always look lovely.

If you were portrayed in a movie, who would play your character?

I have to say Tina Fey. I love Tina Fey. I worship her. I have for years.

What would your theme song be?

Can it be the 30 Rock theme? Is that too stalk-y? It feels pretty stalk-y. How about Take Five by the Dave Brubeck Quartet? I really love that song.

What is your best childhood memory?

I have very fond memories of going to the Georgia-Florida football game every November. We would drive from Tampa to Jacksonville and meet our millions of relatives at a dive-y motel in the shadow of the stadium. It was a long weekend of red and black clothes, boiled peanuts, BBQ sandwiches, shouting creative insults to Gator fans, visiting with grandparents, watching football, and sneaking in a curse word here and there. It was incredible fun.

What is the one thing you want your children to know before leaving home?

I want them to know that loving themselves is vital to being happy. I know it’s cliché, but if you’re not happy and confident with who you are and what you think and how you feel, you will never be whole.

Why do you like living in Austin? What do you dislike about the city?

I love Austin because it is overcome with liberals and breakfast tacos. It is also drowning in libraries and trees, which can never be a bad thing (discounting late fees and allergies, respectively). I am not a huge fan of the endless traffic and the fact all of the nice Austinites you meet everywhere turn into raging psychos when they’re behind the wheel (me included). I also worry about all of the development and high rent prices steamrolling over the original, old-school funky Austin. I miss Quack’s on the Drag. Not that I would ever get a chance to go there anymore, but still.

Are you married? How did you meet your husband? How long have you been married?

My husband and I met when I was still in high school. We had a drawn out long distance courtship all through college (so many agonized letters, so many million dollar phone bills). We’ve been married for 9 years.

What’s your favorite flower? Why?

It’s a three-way tie between plumeria, gardenia and magnolia. The smell of any of those three flowers is somehow relaxing and intoxicating. I love them all.

Posted by livemom on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 7:50 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.