An interview with Quinn Cummings, Author

When I was a kid, I adored Quinn Cummings because I imagined her to be just like the characters I saw her play on screen.  I thought she was quirky and sarcastic, bookish and wise beyond her years. In sum, I thought she was just like me as a kid.  Quinn Cummings and Melissa Gilbert were my imaginary BFF's. Now that I have discovered her blog (The QC Report) and her new book, Notes from the Underwire, I realize that she is quirky and funny and bookish and wise. She is also an entertaining and witty writer with a prolific vocabulary.  Those are traits I always admire in a person. I can still imagine us as good albeit clumsy friends.  

Notes from the Underwire is a collection of non-fiction, funny and poignant essays about Cumming's everyday life.  It is a great read for us Moms because you can read a chapter at a time in your stolen moments of freedom. 

Quinn (oh yes~we are on a first name basis now:-)  graciously allowed me to e-mail her some questions to post here on the blog. Here they are...

One of the things I really like about your blog is that your posts  
range from commentaries on Jon and Kate to an analysis of the Lily  
Pulitzer catalog and Instyle magazine to the history of the Spanish  
influenza and excessive gift giving during the holidays (which is a  
personal favorite of mine). So, I am curious how you decide each week  
what to write about (and what not to write about) and who you envision  
your readers to be.

 

The nice thing about it being my blog is that I don't have to answer to anyone. If I feel as if the cat needs to be a topic three weeks in a row, she is. If Kate Gosselin appalls me, I wait around for a few days asking myself "Yes, but what exactly do I find so maddening about her?" and I can rest easy knowing that if I can't finish it by Tuesday (the ideal publishing day for me), I send her and the rest of her benighted family up on Wednesday or Thursday. Sometimes, it's just a phrase and I have to wait around and see if it leads anywhere or is just a weird little stand-alone. And some weeks my mother's cat bites me and I have to go to the ER and even in the middle of my pain I'm thinking "Well, THAT'S the blog for the week." My reader? GOOD question. I've never thought exactly about it before, but I think she's something like my friend Veronica. Veronica knows me well and loves me anyway. When I was in the final throes of getting the book in, I cut my bangs in a moment of weakness. When I told her, she hooted "What are you, twelve?" and then offered to help me figure out how to hide them. I like to think my readers would help hide weird bangs.


I loved the chapter in the book on summer camps! I laughed so hard.   
Since it is summer and my boys happened to return from "Camp Utopia"  
this weekend, I was wondering what you and Alice have planned for the  
summer?

Not nearly enough, because I thought I might be travelling for the book and I was going to arrange for her to go with me any time I went anywhere. Only it's 2009 and no one is doing book tours and I'm doing the blog book tour, which I love. But a blog book tour means I'm at home a lot, begging for quiet from a child who has the same need for exercise as an Arabian horse. Cobbling this summer together even as we speak. 

I read your explanation in the book about why you never wanted to get  
married but I am wondering if after all of these years with Consort,  
your fears have changed at all?

Every couple of years, I'll hear about some friend of a friend who had been with her boyfriend for many years-- complete with offspring and a house--who decide to get married, only to get divorced within a year. I get chills and shout inwardly, "Ah-HA!!!" and continue in my shacked-up way. We're not married not because I take what we have lightly, but because I take it so seriously that I'm loathe to do anything which make shake the dynamic. In short, my phobia rages unabated, thanks for asking.

You have had some fun and difficult jobs, which has been your favorite  
thus far?

 

Mom. Never had a job before where I wake up to learn someone has vomited, and both their bedding and their person are expected to be cleaned by me. And I think nothing stronger than, "Should have picked up some extra fitted sheets at Target last week." I love this job. 


One of the things I found most appealing about your book is that you  
are so willing to make fun of yourself and I could totally identify  
with that.  I walk into doors too.  I am seriously craft challenged  
and I often say exactly the wrong thing.  So, although I was hugely  
entertained by your self-effacing humor, now I want to know what you  
are really good at (aside from writing)?

Gosh. All manner of homeless animals know to come find me. I'm very punctual. I'm a good friend in a crisis. I remember random science stuff. And I can make exactly one thing well; a caramelized onion, tomato and basil frittata. The kid despises it but trust me, it's delicious.

Any more books in the works? I hope so.

 

Sure. Oh, no. Maybe. Probably. Possibly. 


Thank you so much Quinn. It has been a delight! If you are reading this, I must tell you that I sustained an injury while purchasing your book.  A Barefoot Contessa cookbook leapt off the shelf at me slicing my ankle and dripping blood all over the bookstore carpet. I am fine but I knew you would appreciate the irony:)  It is catchy!

You can order Quinn's new book on her website.  You can also get it at your local bookstore or on-line. You will laugh out loud!!!  You might even shed a tear or two during the chapter where you read about her fierce loyalty to her Mom.