Kathryn Crawley joins the Spotlight to chat about her historical novel, Walking on Fire
Author Name: Kathryn Crawley
Book Title: Walking on Fire
Book Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date: June 13, 2023
Publisher: She Writes Press
Welcome Kathryn! How would you describe Walking on Fire?
Nancy Drew Meets Zorba the Greek! An American woman falls in love with charismatic Greek communist student and gets caught in a dangerous political scheme.
What sparked the idea for this book?
The book is grounded in my own experiences in Greece in 1974 and the events that forever changed my life. What had been a planned memoir, however, flew wildly into fiction as my writing shifted to the third person POV and my protagonist Kate introduced herself to me.
How long did it take for you to write the book? Did you do any research?
My first Greek story, a Christmas Day pig slaughter in which someone, seeing my distraught expression, said the words “Vietnam, Vietnam” to me, was written shortly after I returned to the US in 1977. The highly-charged political nature of post-dictatorship Greece and the dilemma of a feminist whose heart is highjacked by romance became the basis for many stories in classes and writing groups.
This novel began its present form in 2017 and was completed in 2022. My research included the letters home found in a box in my mother’s closet; books (Salonica: City of Ghosts, Old Salonica, Firewalking and Religious Healing, Thessaloniki of the Jews); Google; the stories told by my Greek friends of their families’ histories; and strolls through the streets of Thessaloniki as well as through the pathways of memory.
What’s your favorite part about writing/being an author?
I relished returning each day to the Thessaloniki of 1974 and creating scenes with beloved friends, especially those no longer with us, who became the basis for some of my characters. I can visit with them anytime I open to particular chapters. Since I’m a “pantser” (working without an outline) rather than a plotter, I love how writing is a bridge to the subconscious and reveals deeper truths that are hidden from my conscious mind.
It’s also been fun getting to know other writers and sharing journeys. In particular, I found an author, Sophia Kouidou-Giles, on the She Writes Press website, who was born in Thessaloniki and has lived in Seattle for decades. Through email conversations, we discovered that her high school classmate was one of my best friends, the prototype for someone in my book. Happily, we met in person this past year in Thessaloniki and also have a vibrant zoom friendship.
If you were speaking to someone who hasn’t read your writing before, why should they want to read Walking on Fire?
If you’re enamored with Greece and want to know more about the history of that ancient, exotic land. If you like adventure stories of coming of age and love in a foreign land. If you are drawn to stories of self-discovery. If you’ve ever been curious about the Greek language and its basis for many English words. If you want to know more about the early feminism of the 1970s and what happens when a burgeoning feminist loses her heart in a compelling relationship. If you’ve ever wondered how revolutionary politics can mix with romance to take someone to unimagined places. If you question whether, after a transformation, you can ever go home again.
Where can readers find you?
https://www.kathryncrawley.com
https://www.facebook.com/KathrynCrawley12
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0BV7FSXJH
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22989151
https://www.instagram.com/katcrawl.2/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091998431595
Readings:
SOMOS in Taos, New Mexico July 23rd 4:00
Dal Paso Museum in Lamesa, Texas July 26th 4:00
Wild Lark Bookstore in Lubbock, Texas July 27th 4:00
Old Town Books in San Angelo, Texas July 29th 4:00
Belmont Public Library in Belmont, Massachusetts fall of 2023
Thank you Kathryn! Walking on Fire is out now.
Walking on Fire
Greece. Politics. Love. Danger. Reeling from a failed marriage and spurred on by a burgeoning sense of feminism, twenty-five-year-old Kate accepts a position as a speech therapist in a center for children with cerebral palsy in Thessaloniki, Greece. It is 1974, and the recent end of Greece’s seven-year dictatorship has ignited a fiery anti-American sentiment within the country. Despite this, as her Greek improves, Kate teaches communication to severely disabled children, creates profound friendships, and finds a home in the ancient and historied city. From a dramatic Christmas pig slaughter to a mesmerizing fire walking ceremony, her world expands rapidly—even more so when she falls in love with Thanasis, a handsome Communist.
Through Thanasis, Kate meets people determined to turn a spotlight on their former dictators’ massacre of university students, as well as their record of widespread censorship and torture of dissidents. The more she learns, the more her loyalty to her country and almost everything she was taught in her conservative home state of Texas is challenged. Kate is transformed by her odyssey, but when her very safety is threatened by the politics of her lover, she must choose: risk everything to stay with Thanasis and the Greece that has captured her heart, or remove herself from harm’s way by returning to her homeland?