More Than a Librarian

You hear about professors publishing books or writing journal articles, but what about a librarian? At first glance the Physical Science Librarian, Kathleen Clauson seems like a typical librarian here at Western, in her office on the computer busy typing away replying to emails and daily memos surrounded by piles of chemistry and physics books with papers every where, displaying her busy schedule. But Kathleen finds time to write books, publishing her first one last year. Surprisingly her first novella, Eva Galuska and the Christmas Cargo had nothing to do with science. It’s about a young successful polish man with wife and children who unlocks a forgotten door in his childhood memories and is seduced by a young seductive polish girl.

What was your first book you’ve written?
Kathleen Clauson (KC): Eva Galuska and the Christmas Cargo, it’s based in an old polish neighborhood in Chicago.

What was your inspiration to write the book?
KC: To be honest I was a freshman in college and my Professor had the class write a short story my 1st semester, one day after class the professor said he needed to talk to me, Ithought oh no what did I do, but he said “This is good, with a little work you could publish this.” After that all these years I’ve liked to write. Then I met my favorite writer Stuart Duirkek from Chicago and talked about my story I wrote in my class and he thought the ideas was good. Somehow I thought that I was going to revise it and publish it.

How did you feel when your novella came out last year?
KC: I was excited, really excited, wish it had come out in December instead of October because it is a Christmas book. The book coming out was very exciting, one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

What is your next book about?
KC: My next book is a novella; I still haven’t decided what the title will be. The novella is a series of short stories that are apart of one big story. It’s about a girl or woman and some aspect of their life that intertwines with another character so it’s a thread that goes through all the stories. It’s like the movie 9 Lives where they have profiles of the characters lives and in some way all of them are connected to one another.

What was your inspiration for this book?
KC: First of all I like to write stories about women and personally I’ve been through stuff, I know women that went through stuff. I like to include something that reflects real life and real problems.

Where do you find the time to write?
KC: Oh this is very difficult; normally I get up really early and write the stories before work. I’ll wake up and come to the office 6 in the morning, to 7 at night on Saturdays and Sundays which works the best, on the weekends that’s all I do is write. At night after dinner I’ll write or take a nap and write while everyone is asleep which works, no interruptions or people asking me questions.

What types of books do you like to read?
KC: Fiction, witty essays like David Sedaris, his are funny. I don’t like anything too weird but I like magical realism.