Today I’m interviewing Lily Iona Mackenzie, the author of Fling! a comedy that sounds hilarious. Thank you for answering my questions!

How long have you been writing?

When I was 13, I started a diary, but I was afraid someone would see what I had written. I do recall using a coded language that I can’t remember. I would love to see those pages again so I would have a better sense of my writing self at that age. I didn’t start keeping a diary again until I was in my mid-20s and going through a deep depression. The writing was my attempt to understand what was happening. I began then to journal daily not only about what I was thinking and feeling, but I also recorded my nightly dreams. I’ve continued this practice ever since, learning much about myself in the process. I feel the keeping in close contact with my dreams has fed my writing and enriched my imagination. At this time, I also started exploring the craft of writing, entering an undergraduate creative writing program.

What is your favorite genre to write?

I entered SF State’s Master’s in Writing Program as a poet, but I took a couple of fiction craft classes and workshops. Since then, I’ve published widely in poetry, short and long fiction, and essays. Each genre satisfies a different need for me as a writer, so I don’t have a favorite. Some days I’m drawn to fiction. Others poetry. Still others expository writing.

Which genre have you never tried before, but would you like to try out?

I’ve tried to write a play. I’ve also written scripts for a radio show a friend and I produced on the former KTIM in Marin County, CA. And I’ve flirted with a screenplay. But none of these genres interests me because I love writing narrative and description. Focusing mainly on dialogue and staging doesn’t please me so much.

Please tell us about your book.

I’ve actually written four novels, but Fling! is the one being published in July 2015. It began because I was curious about my mother’s mother, someone I had never met. Early in the 20^th C, my grandfather, a former Scottish schoolmaster, had immigrated to Calgary, Canada, hoping to find a better life there for himself and his family. Meanwhile, WWI broke out, and his wife and four kids couldn’t join him for seven years. When they did, my grandmother couldn’t adjust to the brutal winters or to her husband. After being there a year, she moved out, refusing to put up with my grandpa’s meanness, and became a housekeeper for a wealthy family. The story is that her boss took her to Mexico with him. She never returned. I wanted to try and recreate what life might have been like for her once she left Canada, and that then brought in a number of other characters that inhabit the novel.

Here’s a brief description:

When ninety-year-old Bubbles receives a letter from Mexico City asking her to pick up her mother’s ashes, lost there seventy years earlier and only now surfacing, she hatches a plan. A woman with a mission, Bubbles convinces her hippie daughter Feather to accompany her on the quest. Both women have recently shed husbands and have a secondary agenda: they’d like a little action. And they get it.

Alternating narratives weave together Feather and Bubbles’ odyssey. The two women travel south from Canada to Mexico where Bubbles’ long-dead mother, grandmother, and grandfather turn up, enlivening the narrative with their hilarious antics.

In Mexico, where reality and magic co-exist, Feather gets a new sense of her mother, and Bubbles’ quest for her mother’s ashes—and a new man—increases her zest for life. Unlike most women her age, fun-loving Bubbles takes risks, believing she’s immortal. She doesn’t hold back in any way, eating heartily and lusting after strangers, exulting in her youthful spirit.

Readers will believe they’ve found the fountain of youth themselves in this character. At ninety, Bubbles comes into her own, coming to age, proving it’s never too late to fulfill one’s dreams.

Which character was your favorite, and why? Which character was your least favorite, and why?

I love all of the characters for different reasons, so I don’t have a least favorite. Feather often acts as a foil for Bubbles, her mother, who is really the heart of the book. She’s a kind of savvy female Mr. Magoo who gets into very funny situations. The grandmother turned out to be a complete surprise to me. She’s much different from what I imagined she would be. I can’t say much more about her here because I would give away too much of the story

What was the hardest part about writing your book?

Oddly, it was making Bubbles likeable for the reader because, while she’s a humorous character, she also can be frustrating for Feather to deal with. So I had to show through Feather’s gradual acceptance and appreciation of her mother a way for the reader to also love Bubbles.

What is your writing routine? Are there things you absolutely need to start writing?

I try to write a minimum of one hour per day. I usually can fit in that amount of time, and I’ve produced an amazing amount of material over the years as a result: three poetry collections, one of which is published; four novels, two of which are on their way to being published, and I’m sure the other ones will be as well; a short story collection; travel articles; reviews; memoir; and much more.

As for what I need to start writing, it depends on the genre I’ll be working in that day. If it’s poetry, I find it inspiring to read a few poems before I begin. With fiction, I always have to review an earlier section so I can enter the rhythms again of the prose and reconnect with the character(s).

How long did it take you to write your book from start to finish?

 I keep lengthy notes on all of my novels. They’re part of the writing process for me. So when I reviewed the ones for Fling!, I was surprised to discover I actually started the book in 1999. I probably completed it around 2008, but I also worked on other projects in the meantime. I like to have multiple things in process. If I get bored or stuck with one, then I have something else to work on.

 I sent Fling! out over the years to numerous NY agents, but no one picked it up for representation. I decided then to send it to a professional editor in 2012, and he gave me good feedback that helped me to do more rewriting, ultimately leading to the version that will be published.

Can you tell us about your editing process?

I love rewriting, which means I love shaping and reshaping sentences. I love letting words spark other words that take me in directions I might not have thought of originally. I also enjoy not having a map of where I’m going and letting the characters and situations show me the way. It’s a dynamic process, and that’s what keeps me engaged as a writer.

Is this book part of a series? If so, how many installments do you have planned?

 No. I feel finished with these characters.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?  

Write. Rewrite. Write some more. Get feedback from respected editors. Revise, revise, revise. Keep writing.

Why should everyone read your book?

 The book should appeal to a broad range of readers. While the main characters are middle-aged and older, their zest for life would draw readers of all ages, male or female, attracting the youthful adventurer in most people. The heart of the book is how they approach their aging selves and are open to new experiences.

If you could meet three authors, dead or alive, which authors would you choose?

It’s hard to choose just three! There are too many that I love, and for vastly different reasons. But who wouldn’t want to meet Shakespeare, the master. I’m amazed at his output with only a quill pen and would want to know how much of his personal life contributed to his work.

Virginia Woolf’s lyrical prose is very seductive. I would like to ask her how she carved out a place for herself in English letters among all of the famous men.

A more contemporary writer that I would love to meet is Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His One Hundred Years of Solitude found me at a time when I needed a model for the magical realism approach that seems natural to me and inhabits much of my work. I’ve read nearly all of his books and return to them frequently for inspiration. He’s a kind of muse.

What inspired you to write your book?

I believe I answered this question above.

Are you working on something at the moment? If so, can you tell us more about it?

I’m two-thirds of the way through a collection of short pieces entitled The Sinner’s Club. Each character is part of the same church setting and has an intriguing story to tell. The various sections offer a kaleidoscopic view of this religious community and its characters’ foibles.

About the Book

Feather, an aging hippie, returns to her Calgary home to help her mother, Bubbles, celebrate her 90^th birthday. Bubbles has received mail from the dead letter office in Mexico City, asking her to pick up her mother’s ashes, left there seventy years earlier and only now surfacing. Bubbles’ mother, Scottish by birth, had died in Mexico in the late 1920s after taking off with a married man and abandoning her husband and kids.

A woman with a mission, and still vigorous, Bubbles convinces a reluctant Feather to take her to Mexico so she can recover the ashes and give her mother a proper burial. Both women have recently shed husbands and have a secondary agenda: they’d like a little action. And they get it.

Alternating narratives weave together Feather and Bubbles’ odyssey with their colorful Scottish ancestors, creating a family tapestry. The “now” thread presents the two women as they travel south from Canada to San Francisco and then Mexico, covering a span of about six months. “Now” and “then” merge in Mexico when Bubbles’ long-dead mother, grandmother, and grandfather turn up, enlivening the narrative with their antics.

In Mexico, the land where reality and magic co-exist, Feather gets a new sense of her mother. The Indian villagers mistake Bubbles for a well-known rain goddess, praying for her to bring rain so their land will thrive again. Feather, who’s been seeking “The Goddess” for years, eventually realizes what she’s overlooked.

Meanwhile, Bubbles’ quest for her mother’s ashes (and a new man) has increased her zest for life. A shrewd business woman (she’s raised chickens, sold her crafts, taken in bizarre boarders, and has a sure-fire system for winning at bingo and lotteries), she’s certain she’s found the fountain of youth at a mineral springs outside San Miguel de Allende; she’s determined to bottle the water and sell it.

But gambling is her first love, and unlike most women her age, fun-loving Bubbles takes risks, believing she’s immortal. Unlike her daughter, Bubbles doesn’t hold back in any way, eating heartily, lusting after strangers, her youthful spirit and innocence convincing readers that they’ve found the fountain of youth themselves in this character. At ninety, she comes into her own, coming to age, proving it’s never too late to fulfill one’s dreams.

Fling, a meditation on mothers and daughters, and art suggests that the fountain of youth is the imagination, and this is what they all discover in Mexico. It’s what Bubbles wants to bottle, but she doesn’t need to. She embodies it. The whole family does.