Katherine Center is back today to talk about #literarycrush, #literaryconfessions and more! Be sure and check out the Interview with Katherine (1. It’s great! and 2. You can #win a copy of The Lost Husband!)

 

Author Spotlight: Katherine Center

Who are some of your favorite authors?

This is a tough question for me, because I don’t read like a reader—but like a writer.  I try to read for fun when I can, but I often wind up studying the books I read.  If I like them, I wind up underlining and trying to get at what I like about them.  It’s hard to turn it off and just enjoy the story!!  Lots of different people for different reasons. I’m kind of all over the place.  Jane Austen is always my #1.  Then, after that, it varies a lot depending on my mood.  I love fiction, but I also love non-fiction.  I read in my genre, but I also love others.  It’s hard to name names because I never want to leave anybody out!

 

When you are not writing, what are some of your favorite things to do?

I love to goof around with my kids!   I love to mess around with the butterfly garden in our backyard.  I love to fantasize about re-decorating my house.   I love to sew and make things.  I am always happiest when I’m making things—whether writing a book, or sewing a skirt, or making a collage.   We also crank up the music in our house and dance around a lot.  And sing goofy songs.

 

What are some of the books you are looking forward to reading in 2013?

I’ve just ordered Elizabeth Strout’s The Burgess Boys.  I heard a fantastic interview with her on NPR, and she’s now next on my list.  Also on my list for the next few months:  Elizabeth Berg, Lisa See, and Geraldine Brooks.

 

Do you have any #literaryconfessions?

I tried to read Moby Dick last year and could not get through it.  There it is.

 

Do you have a #literarycrush?

Maybe Captain Wentworth from Jane Austen’s Persuasion.  You’ve gotta love that kind of loyalty.

 

What books will you always make room for on your shelf?

Anything I love even one line from.  Even if the rest of the book’s a disaster, if it’s got something redeeming to it, it stays!  I have a hard time parting with books.

 

Is there a book that has already been published that you wished you had written?

I have tons and tons of pieces of other people’s books that I admire: snippets of dialogue, great lines, even whole story concepts.  I have characters I adore, turns of phrase that catch my breath, surprises I wish I’d come up with.  I am awash with all kinds of admiration for other writers’ work in all kinds of ways.  But I don’t think there’s an entire book by someone else that I would love to have written.  I guess other people’s books feel too much like other people…

 

*Special thanks to Katherine Center for agreeing to this author spotlight!

 

Katherine Center is the author of four novels about love and family: The Bright Side of Disaster, Everyone Is Beautiful, Get Lucky, and The Lost Husband.  Her work has appeared in Redbook, People, USA Today, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and Real Simple—as well as the anthologies Because I Love Her, CRUSH, and My Parents Were Awesome.  People magazine calls Katherine’s first novel, “cleverly told and uncommonly appealing,” and USA Today calls her newest one “heartwarming.”  BookPage named her a new writer to watch, Varsity Pictures optioned the movie rights to her first novel, and the Houston Press just named her a Top Ten writer in Houston.  She is a graduate of Vassar College and the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program.  Katherine lives in Houston with her husband and two sweet children.