A Glimpse into Other People’s Lives
 
an interview with Betty Kreier Lubinski

by Donna Sundblad  

 
The low key, down-to-earth voice that permeates Betty Kreier Lubinski’s most recent publication gives the reader that comfortable sense of sitting across the table from a friend, sipping on a mug of coffee while catching up on the latest news. Her eBook, "Other People’s Lives" lives up to its title. This collection of short stories published by ePress captures the vivacity of interaction between believable characters with all their peculiarities. A spectrum of situations draws us into emotional settings where the characters become transparent to the core as Kreier Lubinski peels away outer pretenses and takes readers by the hand into Other People’s Lives.

This married grandmother with four children, eleven grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren admits, "I have never not written." On the job writing responsibilities once included case studies or newsletters (like in the Mental Health Field) or business plans, grant proposals, brochures and flyers (for the Parks Department). This technical outlet tapped her writing energy but did not satisfy her creative need. "I scribbled pieces and snips of stories or character descriptions I intended to finish."

Need for Interaction
As an author, Betty works to find balance between time alone and being with people. "I need quiet time, but my imagination gets charged from other people. I particularly need contact with other writers." Retired, Betty sometimes finds it physically difficult to get out of the house. She suffers from fibromyalgia and arthritis. She makes contact with other writers primarily through emails, online classes and study groups. "I need to be involved with other writers who I can share ideas with, get stimulated by, talk about successes and failures, writers who believe in me more than I believe in myself."

Kreier Lubinski attributes a good portion of her writing success to Steve and Lee Spratt, authors of Networking at Writers’ Conferences: From Contacts to Contracts and Scars. "They were my writing teachers before I joined their serious, hard-working writers’ group. In their class, they told me to write one complete story each week and promised if I did that, by the end of the year my writing would improve tenfold." Betty wrote seventy short stories in two years. "I certainly proved that waiting around for the muse to whomp me on the head was not the way to build a writing career."

The first writing group Kreier Lubinski joined still meets some forty years later. "I’ve been in one writers’ group or another most of my adult life. In the Spratt group our goal was to write to sell and very little time was wasted with social niceties. Members would bring manuscript copies to distribute to each other once a week. Our critiques were due in writing by the following week. It was a very full schedule for someone employed full-time, but it taught me that if I wanted to really be a writer, I had to give it some priority in my life."

Betty joined Writers’ Village University in 1998. "Writers Village has been a strong influence in my life, even if it is strictly online." Relationships within the cyber walls of this online school transcend the boundaries of continents and time zones as writers from around the world work together to sharpen their skills. "One very dear friend happens to live only one state away, and I had the opportunity to meet her in person one weekend this summer. She wrote the introduction to my book."

Push Beyond Disappointment
Writers who submit work regularly know rejection is part of the process, and Betty is no exception. "Rejection letters put me in a funk for that one story only. They never make me feel like I can’t write, just that that particular story didn’t work." When rejection bites, Betty’s been known to write an article giving all the silly reasons editors might use to reject manuscripts. By the time she’s done, she’s ready to go again.

Being involved with other writers, taking classes and working on new material also helps her push beyond the disappointment brought on by a rejection letter. "The closest I’ve ever come to writer’s block has been this past year when I was editing and rewriting the material in "Other People’s Lives". I found it difficult to free my mind up from the book material to consider anything new. I’m champing at the bit to get started on something new."

No Formula
The slice-of-life stories found in "Other People’s Lives" portray varying themes that entertain while each strums a different heartstring. "The starting point for most of my stories begins with real situations, character traits or emotions of people I have known. I like to write about universal problems that everyone can identify with. However, by the time I mix and match my characters and situations, they bear little relationship to my starting point."

Kreier Lubinski doesn’t use a formula to develop her characters. "I usually start with some situation and then play "What if?" games with the characters. How would I react if I were in that situation? How would my family and friends react? Often I write the beginning and end of the story first and then have to waffle around trying to see how the characters get from Point A to Point Z."

"My dad used to upset me by asking, ‘How much did you get?’ as though the money were the most important thing; that especially disturbed me because some of the stories and articles I was proudest of brought in the least amount of money. If I were writing to get rich, I would have quit a long time ago."

"My family alone could provide material for a dozen novels." If you slice into Betty’s family tree, each ring provides tidbits of history that may eventually mingle with her imagination and take on her trademark, down-home, slice-of-life flavor. "One of my great grandchildren is a high-functioning autistic child. Another died when he was a week old with an undiagnosed bad heart. Two of my great grandchildren have muscular dystrophy. One of my grandchildren was a 14-year-old mother who gave up her child to an open adoption." Family scenarios go on to include a granddaughter that fled in the night to leave an abusive husband, a schizophrenic nephew as well as the experiences she and her husband shared raising teenage grandchildren."

"We have a number of clean and sober alcoholics and drug addicts in the family and others whose drug of choice is food. We are people with problems, but that makes us people who understand the problems of others. I choose to write stories about people who attempt to deal with their problems. Sometimes they succeed; sometimes they fail; sometimes they must just accept the difficulties and just go on. I write stories sometimes that picture a dire need in the hope that someone somewhere may find an answer to that need. I write stories to draw pictures of feelings that no one wants to show. I write humor because I need to laugh, even if the laughing is to keep from crying."

Benefits of ePublishing
At age 72, Betty looks to the future. "I want to write the very best short stories I can and will consider myself a real writer when I can indeed turn out a story a week. I actually like the discipline of writing taut, where every word has to count and carry its weight."

Betty believes the publishing process from beginning to end can be shortened with ePublishing. "It’s possible to write, have a book accepted, and get it available online in a much shorter timeline than it could ever be in print. With a printed book, after all the editing, formatting, and printing, the book still has to go through a lengthy distribution process to be available to buy. Therefore material in an eBook could be more up-to-date and timely."

"Generally the whole process of submission and acceptance or rejection is accelerated in ePublishing over regular publication. It’s rare to hear of books sitting in the slush pile for months or years in ePublishing, but that happens all the time in regular publication."

"I think ePublishing is the trend of the future."