Interview with Kenneth J. Kirsch

Jen: Will you please share a short bio with us?
Kenneth: Sure. I was born in New Jersey and raised in rural Pennsylvania. I went to college in Bloomsburg, Pa. and received a BA in Journalism in 1988. From 1983-1989, I served in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard as an infantryman, and just missed having to serve in the first Gulf War. I was married in 1990 and have two wonderful daughters. I currently reside in Audubon, Pa. and work as a Commercial Analysis Manager for a Pennsylvania pharmaceutical company.

Jen: Tell us about Demon Alcohol and the Monstermen and where it's available.
Kenneth: Demon Alcohol and the Monstermen is an inspirational, Prohibition-era tale of the impact of alcoholism on families. It’s based in small-town Pennsylvania.

It was published in August 2008 by PublishAmerica, and is available through the publisher at www.publishamerica.com; www.amazon.com; and www.bn.com

My book chronicles the life of Leysa Henko, a 4-year-old Russian immigrant who comes to America with her family in 1917. Leysa’s father, Devak, is an abusive alcoholic who opens a tavern in Pennsylvania, and her mother, Ionna, is an angelic figure who tries to protect Leysa – and her sister Maryska – from Devak.

When Prohibition hits, Devak’s tavern struggles to survive. Leysa and Maryska are pressed into service delivering vodka door-to-door to the town’s horrific alcoholic “shut-ins,” whom I refer to as “The Monstermen.” Sadly, at about the same time, Leysa loses her mother Ionna to tuberculosis and must face the remainder of her childhood (she’s 9 when Ionna dies) at the whim of her father.

The story has a supernatural side as well, as Leysa’s ancestors (including Ionna) reach out to her to help. But Leysa becomes an alcoholic adult and, when her grown children abandon her, she faces a fateful decision: Recover, or die alone.

Despite the trials and tribulations of Leysa’s life, the story is an inspirational one with a happy ending, and one to which I think a lot of people impacted by alcoholism can relate. This book is really a tribute to the tiniest victims of alcoholism, the children who are victimized by abusive parents. A lot of the attention given to this disease is wrongly focused on the alcoholics themselves. Groups like Al-Anon, Alateen, and Adult Children of Alcoholics do such a tremendous job helping the real victims recover and lead normal lives. I wanted to bring their efforts to light in a heartwarming way.

Jen: At what age did you discover writing and when were you first published? Tell us your call story.
Kenneth: Almost from birth, haha! I can remember as early as 2nd Grade getting positive feedback from my teacher about my writing, and just knowing that it was a natural and undeniable part of who I was.

I started writing for my school newspaper in high school, and was actually the first underclassman in my district’s history to be nominated for membership in the Quill and Scroll Society, an honors group for writers.

I was a managing editor on my college newspaper, got a BA in Journalism, and worked as a reporter for 2 years. Unable to make a decent living as a reporter, I gave up writing for more than 15 years and switched careers, becoming a data analyst in the pharmaceutical industry.

I started writing again in 2006. I’d discovered to my surprise that the stories that I’d heard throughout my childhood in rural Pennsylvania about alcoholism, and the damage I saw all around me firsthand from children impacted by it, were amazingly well-preserved in my memory. I really couldn’t keep them in any longer, and the book practically wrote itself to a very real extent.

Jen: How does your family feel about your writing?
Kenneth: My family is wonderfully supportive. My wife and I met as journalism majors in college, and she’s a former reporter herself, so it’s a very natural thing for us. Also, my two daughters love that Daddy is an author. My youngest comes up with ideas for books all the time and jots them down. My oldest daughter (age 9) has already won two district-wide writing awards, so it’s definitely “in the blood.”

Jen: How do you approach your writing? Do you plot or go with the flow?
Kenneth: Because a lot of Demon Alcohol and the Monstermen was based on my own experiences and those of my best friends growing up, the temptation was definitely there to just “go with the flow,” and there were definitely entire sections that felt like that. But I forced myself to do an outline and lay out the plot from beginning to end. And I just filled in the details once I got writing.

What’s interesting is that, in the original draft, Leysa Henko dies and achieves a sort of “state of grace” that way. But, once I read through it, I realized that wasn’t a fitting end for someone who struggled so much in life, so I changed the ending.

Jen: Do you have a specific time or place that you write?
Kenneth: I write in our upstairs office. It’s a bit cramped, with two computers, an overflowing bookshelf, and various and sundry doodads all over the place (we do after all have two kids). And I’m a morning person, so I prefer to get up early and get to it right away.

I often find myself imagining a scene, picturing it in my mind, and then just getting myself into an almost trance-like state where all I can see is the scene in front of me -- the characters, the setting. And without much thought as to what I’m actually doing, I just close my eyes and write what I see.

A lot of the time I’m very surprised at the end result of my “meditation.”

Jen: What kind of research did you do for this book?
Kenneth: I studied the Bolshevik Revolution, and the operation of taverns both before and after Prohibition.

The point in the story where the Henko girls are forced to deliver vodka door to door was a very real occurrence during Prohibition. Some of the more desperate tavern owners actually did that to stay afloat.

Jen: Do you do anything special to celebrate a sale, new contract, or release?
Kenneth: When Demon Alcohol and the Monstermen was released, we got a cake, invited family over, and really just celebrated like it was a big birthday party. Not surprisingly, I don’t drink, so I just enjoyed the company of family and the well-wishes of my loved ones. For me, that’s what it’s all about.

Jen: What five authors or people, from the past or present, have been important to you as an author? What question or comment have you always wanted to say to them?
Kenneth: Charles Dickens. His views on salvation and purgatory, as told in A Christmas Carol, were definitely a thematic influence on my own book.
Stephen King. I’ve read everything he’s ever written and his ability to spin a scary yarn helped me craft some of the spookier scenes in my book.
Bruce Springsteen. I’ve been listening to his music for 30 years and I have been influenced by his music in too many ways to count. One of his darker songs, Adam Raised A Cain, played in my head quite a bit while I was writing my book.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. His tale Faust is a masterwork that I read in the original German when I was a student, and its various lessons about the intense appeal of immortality have stayed with me to this day.
Anna Brown, my high school German teacher. She taught me an invaluable lesson -- that you can’t learn a second language until you master a first. I’ve always wanted to say Thank You.

Jen: If you could travel back in time for one year, what time and place would you choose? And if you could only take 3 things with you, what would they be?
Kenneth: I’m going to assume here that I can rewrite history on this magical trip.

So I would go back to 1963 and be there in Dallas to stop the Kennedy assassination. Our country has never been the same since.

I’d take a military helmet and bulletproof vest for President Kennedy, and a digital camcorder to record the entire scene and answer the “grassy knoll” question once and for all.

Jen: What do you do in your free time?
Kenneth: I enjoy spending time with my family. My kids are elementary school age, so I’m very involved in their social lives. We’re also trying to raise a puppy, so that takes up a lot of my time. Whatever time is left over I spend read, or enjoying football on TV. Very normal Daddy-type stuff.

Jen: What's next for you?
Kenneth: For right now, it’s all about promotion. I am doing all my own marketing, so it’s almost like having a second job. I do book signings and as many interviews as I can. It consumes almost all of my free time. Hopefully, in the next year or so, I’ll start on a second book.

Jen: Where can you be found on the web?
Kenneth: My two homes on the internet are Facebook, where I can be found as Kenneth James Kirsch, and on my blog at www.kennethjameskirsch.blogspot.com

Jen: Do you have anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Kenneth: I’d just like to ask them to keep supporting experimental fiction and new writers. The small publisher and first-time author are the lifeblood of this industry, and as the mainstream publishing industry gets more caught up in celebrity bios, cookbooks, and chick lit, it’s going to be the first-timers like myself who take the chances, and provide the real fictional “juice” for thirsty readers. Don’t forget us!

Jen: Kenneth will be stopping by the blog to answer any questions you might have for him. He'll also give away a copy of Demon Alcohol and the Monstermen to a random commenter. The contest will run until about 5:00 pm PDT on Sunday, December 21. And just a reminder that leaving your email address will ensure that you will be contacted if you are chosen as winner of the contest, otherwise it's up to you to come back and see if you've won.