Interview with
Francesca Huemer Kelly
Interview by Jenna Glatzer
Francesca Huemer Kelly is a freelance writer and the editor-in-chief of
Tales from a Small Planet (www.talesmag.com),
an online magazine for people living overseas. She has sold articles and essays
to Family Circle, Parents, Redbook, Writers' Digest, and other American
magazines, as well as to British and international magazines. Her essays have
also appeared in two anthologies: Blow-Drying the Frog, a book of
humorous parenting stories, and Realities of Foreign Service Life. Ms.
Kelly is a trained classical soprano who has sung as an oratorio soloist in
Chicago, New York, Washington and overseas. She is married to Foreign Service Officer
Ian Kelly and has four children. She and her family have lived in Milan, St.
Petersburg, Moscow, Belgrade, Vienna, Washington, Ankara and are currently in
Rome, Italy. Ms. Kelly is at work on several book projects, including a romantic
suspense novel set in Turkey.
How did you get your start as a writer?
I started writing when I was a struggling musician in New York and working at a music conservatory. I felt compelled to enter the New York Magazine Competition several times (don't know if that still exists, but it was a writing contest that came out in the back pages of the magazine several times a month), and also had a great time with an office-mate (another singer who later turned writer and is still one of my best friends) writing silly lyrics, bogus film titles, and satirical opera plots. We were constantly trying to crack each other up. So I started out writing a lot of humor just for fun.
After my husband joined the Foreign Service and we moved a gazillion times (and I
always seemed to be pregnant or nursing a baby whenever the packers knocked on our door), I started a little newsletter for other Foreign Service spouses called the SUN (Spouses' Underground Newsletter). The purpose was using humor as an outlet for frustration - here we were being the 1940s kind of wife, who has to entertain foreign dignitaries all the time and be gracious and smiling and represent her country, and I found we all really needed a place to make fun of that. I started a silly little satire/serial called Rebecca Long Fairchild, Foreign Service Spouse-- and was surprised when people liked how she got into trouble, made tactless remarks, ruined her own parties, etc.
You've broken into several major magazines, such as Family Circle, Parents, and Redbook. Any tips for writers who are desperately trying to break into magazines like these?
You know, everyone says, start small and get some published clips in the small magazines first. I'm sure that's true, and I did have one or two small magazines that published my stuff when I first started writing, but for some reason that's not been my experience. I was lucky enough to get into Redbook on the first shot, probably because someone I knew from high school ended up working there, and I sent her a personal letter, apologizing for being tacky, but also saying that I just wanted to know that someone was actually READING my stuff. Also, I remember acting very confident in that letter, even though I didn't really feel that way, saying that I knew I would get my writing published sooner or later whether she was able to get my stuff read or not, but that of course I'd like it to be sooner. The essay I sent was on a topic that happened to be a good one that they hadn't featured before, and that was enough to get my first big break. Then of course I felt like a fraud for a year, thinking I'd only gotten in because of knowing someone-- until I sold my next article to a big magazine where I knew no one! And this editor, who was very professional, also rejected as many of my ideas as she accepted, which actually made me feel better, because I knew they wouldn't waste their time just to be nice. But it is funny how a writer's insecure little mind can work...
Do you feel more pressure when you're writing for the "biggies"?
I did at first, definitely. The first time an article of mine was killed by a big magazine, I thought that was the end of the world as we know it, that finally the truth was out that I wasn't that good a writer after all, etc. But you know what? The editors at big magazines aren't sitting around talking about me, Francesca Kelly, "that fraud." Who knows? Maybe they're too busy feeling like frauds themselves. ("I'm a senior editor at a big-time New York magazine? How did that happen??") Or they're just too busy, period, which is much more likely. :) Anyway, as I got to know other magazine writers I realized that killed articles happen all the time for many reasons, that everyone is rejected much of the time, and that it really is true that you just keep trying and find a different approach and don't give up.
Do you query these kinds of magazines by e-mail or snail mail?
Ultimately, I do what the editors want me to do, but I have to say that I've had more luck with
e-mail queries than snail mail queries. If I'm approaching the editor through a colleague, I always mention that. They tell you to start your query with this incredibly compelling first line, often in question form. You know, something like, "If I were to tell you that one in every three deaths in France is due to escargot poisoning, would you believe me? And yet, every single day another French citizen-- or foreign tourist-- succumbs to a little-known snail toxin
called... etc." But in fact, I still think the best way to start a query is, "So-and-So gave me your name." (So-and-So, of course, being the name of one of the magazine's frequent contributors whom I met at a party, or So-and-So being the name of another editor at another magazine at the same company where I've sold articles.)
In short, if there's any way I can use e-mail queries, I do, because it is more immediate, you tend to get an answer sooner, and I still have my doubts that anything arriving in a big manila envelope ever gets out of a huge tottering pile of thousands of other big manila envelopes. On the other hand, I'm preparing a snail mail query right now for a big women's magazine because I know absolutely no one there, nor anyone who knows anyone there! And it's weird, to be honest-- I've been using email so much lately that I've almost forgotten all that stuff about formatting a piece for the printer, double-spacing, etc.!
Once you've broken into one big magazine, is it easier to get taken seriously by others?
Absolutely. I make sure I mention the big-name credits fairly early in a query to a new magazine, but I don't list every place I've ever been published, just a few big name magazines. ("I'm a
freelance writer who's sold articles to... etc.")
What are some of the differences between writing for big and small publications? Do you find any difference in the amount of research you do, how many times you rewrite, the kind of experts you can quote, etc.?
The differences are more in the professionalism side of things: for example, it goes without saying that I'll have a very clear contract when writing for a big magazine, whereas with a smaller magazine, I often have to ask for one. I also find that if I'm working on a piece for a big magazine, the experts are, without exception, eager to be interviewed and quoted because they know the readership is going to be huge, and that's great publicity for them. Then again, I've published many more essays than feature articles, so I really haven't done that much research and interviewing.
When you write a personal essay, how do you know if it will resonate with people? How do you make your experiences interesting and relevant to people who don't share your background?
Because I specialize more in personal essays than in any other kind of writing, I'm proud of my ability to relate to a lot of different sorts of people. I think in some ways this kind of writing has more to do with being able to read people than with being a good writer, although of course you have to be a good writer, too! You have to have a sort of innate capacity to empathize, to know what makes people tick, what makes them laugh, and what makes them cry. At any given time there is always a bit of tragedy and a bit of comedy in almost everything we do, and to write a personal essay that a large audience can relate to, you have to be able to capture both.
Of course, different magazines have different audiences, and it helps to find the best fit for your kind of writing, but it also helps to be able to frame events and experiences differently depending on the audience you're writing for, too. The current essay I have out on the newsstands right now, a tribute to my late father in the June issue of Family Circle, is an essay that anyone who's lost his or her father can relate to. In this case, it's easy to find an audience, and yet it's also about demographics, of course: this kind of essay isn't going to sell to Seventeen because most teenagers haven't lost a parent. Family Circle readers by definition have growing children, perhaps even grown children, and many of them are dealing with the aging or death of a parent while still having to go on with their lives as parents themselves. How do you grieve for a parent while still going on in all the many daily activities of American family life? Sometimes grief-- and joy-- come out in surprising ways. That's what this essay addresses.
What is your writing schedule like? Do you write for a certain number of hours a day? Send out a certain number of queries a week?
Oh, these are the questions I dread, because I'm sure people are looking for inspiration in the answer, and all they're going to find here is perhaps some reassurance that even the most disorganized, easily-distracted people in the world can still sell their writing! There are days and days when I don't write. There are weeks and weeks that I don't send out queries. That's because I'm tied up with editorial duties at my online magazine, Tales from a Small Planet
(www.talesmag.com), but mostly because I'm mothering four kids and often in the middle of an overseas move, or attempting to do errands in a strange new city in a strange new language. So writing is definitely a part-time business for me now. What I have barely managed to do is to keep my finger in the magazine-writing pie, so to speak, so editors don't completely forget me. However, my goals for the next few years are in fact to set up exactly the kind of schedule you mention above: writing every day, sending out a lot more queries, and/or finishing one of the many half-baked books I've got going.
How closely do you study a magazine before querying?
Because I live overseas but can still receive domestic US mail because my husband works for the US government, I subscribe to a lot of different magazines: any magazine I've ever written for, plus any magazine I might possibly write for someday. I write those expenses off on my taxes-- because they really are necessary business expenses. I'm scrupulously honest, too, not that the IRS cares much about this nickel and dime stuff, but still: I read Country Living because I love it, but will probably never write for it, so I don't write that one off. If I ever were to sell them an article, I'd write off any future copies on my taxes! But almost all women's and parenting magazines, I write off, because that's more or less my specialty. I also tend to buy out the newsstands whenever we're visiting the States, as there are always interesting new magazines out I've never even heard of. I keep files of different magazines and leaf through them when I'm getting ready to send out a query.
What has been your favorite writing assignment?
My favorite writing "assignments" are when a magazine buys an essay I've already written, because, whoopee, I've already done all the work! As for feature articles, of which I've only done a handful, I like doing research on a topic which I'm already very interested in-- it's fun to learn more and churn out what you've learned in a new way. I also like writing travel articles and evoking a sense of place-- considering how much traveling I've done, I'm surprised I haven't exploited this avenue more. I probably figured that since travel writing is so hard to break into, I'd continue along the vein I'm already doing well in-- but who knows? I may try dipping a toe into the travel-writing waters in the near future. In fact, first I'll see if any of your other online interviews feature advice from veteran travel writers!
What's your best advice for freelance writers?
Not to be afraid to make and use contacts. Join e-mail lists for writers, write for free when you're first starting out and make sure you enter into some sort of dialogue with the editors of the magazine you're writing for, so they remember you (because editors, even of magazines too poor to pay you, often have other contacts who can pay you), and don't be afraid to ask editors you feel comfortable with if they'd mind recommending you to someone else. The worst they can do is say no, and then you can ask them to give you some constructive criticism on how to improve your writing.
Which brings me to one more thing: the best thing to ever happen to my writing was to be in a writers' group. If you're too afraid to have people read and honestly critique your stuff, then you're in the wrong field. Someone once told me that they didn't want anyone reading their manuscript before sending it to an agent/editor. That's probably someone who will never get published. Much better to have a trusted writer friend tell you your manuscript needs work than the editor who's rejecting you, I always say!
Anything else you'd like to add?
Not really-- except that even those of us who have broken into the "big time" are still finding our way. My goals now are to move towards writing full-time as my children get older, and to finish writing at least one novel and one non-fiction book in the next few years.
Visit Tales from a Small Planet at www.talesmag.com.
