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| Katherine Norland |
Here's a sneak peek at Roadmap Girl's Book Buzz's Interview with Katherine Norland:
How did you come up with the notion of the “10 Plagues” from the Old Testament as the basis for a book of poetry? When did you first start writing it?
I was being plagued by so many things: doubt, money issues, relationship problems, fear, work related issues. It felt like I was riddled with at least 10 plagues coming at me at once. I combed through my poems as if I was combing through a child’s hair looking for lice -- and compiled them into a first draft of all the modern-day plagues that I felt are now an epidemic, plaguing our society. And I combined the Biblical 10 plagues with plagues that we’ve faced throughout history like typhus, the bubonic plague, the Moscow plague of 1771, etc.
Has writing this book helped you heal yourself?
There’s a tendency in the church to pretend like everything is okay. When someone asks how you are, you say, “I’m fine, God is good, I’m blessed” because sometimes there is this fear of being ostracized if you’re in a battle, or you feel like you should have it handled and this thing shouldn’t be plaguing you, and you feel like “Maybe I’m not a good Christian if I’m still struggling with this thing.”
There’s just something freeing about writing poetry. I’m able to say things I wouldn’t dare share with someone in a conversation. This book exposed me to God, my friends, and my family in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible and that are hard to think about. People who’ve known me for years have said, “I know you so much better now after reading your poems.”
Has writing this book helped you heal yourself?
There’s a tendency in the church to pretend like everything is okay. When someone asks how you are, you say, “I’m fine, God is good, I’m blessed” because sometimes there is this fear of being ostracized if you’re in a battle, or you feel like you should have it handled and this thing shouldn’t be plaguing you, and you feel like “Maybe I’m not a good Christian if I’m still struggling with this thing.”
There’s just something freeing about writing poetry. I’m able to say things I wouldn’t dare share with someone in a conversation. This book exposed me to God, my friends, and my family in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible and that are hard to think about. People who’ve known me for years have said, “I know you so much better now after reading your poems.”
Your book is divided into four parts with humorous titles:
I. The Plague: It’s Like a Locust Infestation
II. Aware: Place Roach Motels in Every Room
III. Combat: Armed with Pesticide, Wearing a Flypaper Dress
IV. Eradicate: Time to Tent the House
What does “Place Roach Motels in Every Room” mean exactly? Can you give us an example of a “Roach Motel” remedy as it appears in one of the poems?
“Place Roach Motels in Every Room” is in the poem “They Just Wanna Fight.” It’s a metaphor for what you have to do to take matters into your own hands and protect yourself if you’ve got people in your life crawling all over you and consuming all that you have, pointing out your flaws. If you’re around people who never bring any good into your life, you must debug and get rid of them or they will multiply. Those frenemies have nothing on Egyptian desert roaches. Here’s an excerpt from that poem:
These dark deeds they deduce I do,
So odious they think I am,
Are sewage that they dine upon.
When I flip on the light, they scram!
They crawl all over picnic plans
Swimming in my lemonade.
Bug bombs I pitch with fervent clip
Anti-parasite grenades.
It’s time to stop being the victim in your own story. When you finally recognize what the problem is in your life and where it’s coming from, it’s your duty to do something about it for your health and well-being. We must use the brains God gave us to get out of those situations.
As the mother of an autistic child, what life lessons have you learned and have they found their way into this book and/or your previous books?
Patience. And pack clean underwear. My son has taught me a lot. He’s helped me to not take everything so seriously. The lessons from him are in this book indirectly, but they taught me to embrace humor in the midst of my mess and let that shine through.
I’m now writing about my son in two different memoirs: one about his premature birth, four months early, and a second on what it was like for us when he was diagnosed as being a special needs child.
I. The Plague: It’s Like a Locust Infestation
II. Aware: Place Roach Motels in Every Room
III. Combat: Armed with Pesticide, Wearing a Flypaper Dress
IV. Eradicate: Time to Tent the House
What does “Place Roach Motels in Every Room” mean exactly? Can you give us an example of a “Roach Motel” remedy as it appears in one of the poems?
“Place Roach Motels in Every Room” is in the poem “They Just Wanna Fight.” It’s a metaphor for what you have to do to take matters into your own hands and protect yourself if you’ve got people in your life crawling all over you and consuming all that you have, pointing out your flaws. If you’re around people who never bring any good into your life, you must debug and get rid of them or they will multiply. Those frenemies have nothing on Egyptian desert roaches. Here’s an excerpt from that poem:
These dark deeds they deduce I do,
So odious they think I am,
Are sewage that they dine upon.
When I flip on the light, they scram!
They crawl all over picnic plans
Swimming in my lemonade.
Bug bombs I pitch with fervent clip
Anti-parasite grenades.
It’s time to stop being the victim in your own story. When you finally recognize what the problem is in your life and where it’s coming from, it’s your duty to do something about it for your health and well-being. We must use the brains God gave us to get out of those situations.
As the mother of an autistic child, what life lessons have you learned and have they found their way into this book and/or your previous books?
Patience. And pack clean underwear. My son has taught me a lot. He’s helped me to not take everything so seriously. The lessons from him are in this book indirectly, but they taught me to embrace humor in the midst of my mess and let that shine through.
I’m now writing about my son in two different memoirs: one about his premature birth, four months early, and a second on what it was like for us when he was diagnosed as being a special needs child.