1/10/2007 11:24:00 AM
Local feature writer staying busy
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| Local feature writer Mary Matsumoto still stays busy at her keyboard, including work on a novel or two. |
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By Gina Kabat
TC News correspondent
Thousands of people have read her stories over the years.
Some people might have been interviewed by her for a feature article in the Neighbors section of the Tri-County News. One question many people would like answered is, "Where's Mary Matsumoto?"
It's not hard to find her. In fact, she is a rural Kiel resident, but burrowing in this season to finish a novel she has been working on for over six years.
"Portrait of Eva's Mother" is the brainchild of Matsumoto, undergoing revisions and several edits before she sends it out for possible publication. "Right now, I'm revising my novel and making some contacts to help get it published. The field is extremely competitive, so it'll require a lot of work," she said, knowing this road all too well.
According to Matsumoto, the story line is quite complex. The plot of this novel revolves around her character Eva Linquist, depicted as a prisoner of her past for most of her life, who now in her 70s finds an opportunity to make a drastic change in her life by facing her worst fears. What she encounters when she goes home, according to Matsumoto, is not quite what she expects.
Inspired by a newspaper story
What inspired her story idea? "The idea for Portrait of Eva's Mother actually started from a Tri-County News article (written by Steve Groessel) about an elderly man with amputated legs living in a nursing home who was determined to walk home with his artificial limbs. I don't think he ever made it, but I'd pass his old homestead, windows broken, walls caving in, and I'd wonder, what would a person so determined to go back find after all those years? The man in question became Eva in my novel, and I set out to follow her home."
Matsumoto also has a second novel in the works titled "Forgiving Father." Her idea was born from a newspaper article about a woman whose close friend died in a plane crash. "I wondered how suffering grief from something like that would change a person's life," she said. This novel started in 2002 also has the markings of a possible publication. Matsumoto is currently working with her agent to rekindle her first novel for print.
Matsumoto has traveled throughout the counties of Manitowoc, Calumet and Sheboygan finding subjects and local interest stories to write about. She has had articles printed in the Tri-County News, Herald Times Reporter, Lakeshore Chronicle and various booklets and magazines over the years. Recalling her experiences writing for the Neighbors section at Delta Publications, Matsumoto has a fountain of memorable experiences. "Each story was unique, but in my quest for stories, I rode with a policeman on his night beat, went to jail, left the house at 5 a.m. to ride with a driving instructor and his students on slippery, winter roads, rode a school bus, attended a circus, boarded a ferry, and watched a woman bake a rhubarb pie. I sat at a corn stand, walked a mail carrier's route, snowshoed at Ledge View at 20 below zero, sat behind the scenes of a high school play, attended an auction and scoured various communities for fun things to do. I wrote from the viewpoint of a snake, a dairy farmer in Japan, a child in a sandbox, and a group of dancing cats. I've interviewed Amish people, dancers, doctors, artists, social workers, a weather forecaster, and an Indian chief. I've watched people laugh during interviews, and I've watched them cry. I panicked, more than once, when I got home with a tape recorder that malfunctioned, and I had to write from memory. And no matter how many stories I had done, I'd face the next one with the fear that this is the story I won't be equipped to write. Somehow, though, I always got through," she said.
Saving all of her publications and credits to her craft, she has accumulated several binders full of articles and letters of appreciation from those she wrote about or family members thanking her for a nice job with a story.
A passion for writing
Clearly, writing is her passion. Motivation and inspiration are not hard for Matsumoto to find. "First, I feel every single person has a story to tell, so I think stories are hiding everywhere. What a writer needs first is curiosity. But as I wrote stories, I met many amazing people who fed me new ideas-or, I'd contact them for help. Sometimes I had an idea and set out to find someone who was willing to tell their story, things like Alzheimer's, bipolar disorder, alcoholism, and so on. I had to be bold to approach people I didn't know, like the mother I ran up to in a school parking lot, asking her to share with me what it's like to surrender her child on the first day of school," Matsumoto recalled. "It's amazing the passion people have for every subject under the sun. I found it fun to watch them talk about subjects dear to their hearts. It made me get enthusiastic too, about subjects I had never considered before," she added.
If you haven't read her excerpts in Kiel's Sesquicentennial book celebrating 150 years of Kiel history, you're missing out. Matsumoto spent several months researching facts and historical events to write what appear to be actual letters written between two sisters explaining and drawing an outline for that time. These "letters" bring a reader closer to the actual events and feeling of what it was like to live in Kiel that long ago. "When I was in high school, I hated history because our studies were limited to memorizing names and dates. Yet, if I could think of the people who lived back then as real people, with real emotions, personalities, and passions, who faced real challenges, I became fascinated. So when we were doing the history of Kiel, I wanted to take the readers back to that time period, let them feel the air on their skin, the grass beneath their feet, hear the sounds, smell the smells. At first, I thought I could do that by describing in detail a scene near Henry Belitz's log cabin, but I soon realized that because I couldn't actually go back and write from experience, I risked misleading the reader."
Researching her way to the past meant getting her hands on the right tools and people knowledgeable with the history. "Beside taking out every book I could find on Wisconsin history from many different libraries, I would also visit museums to see the tools and other items people used back then. While doing this research, I visited the Manitowoc Historical Society and met a woman who showed me a personal letter written by a person in that time period. I found it fascinating to think that the letter was actually penned by a living person in another era. The woman at the Historical Society suggested I write fictional letters, so it was actually her idea, not mine. By labeling the letters as fiction, I had greater freedom. I still tried to keep everything as historically accurate Matsumoto also had her facts checked and approved by respected Kiel historians. "Afterwards, I asked Ed Majkrzak to read each letter to check for historical mistakes since he is so knowledgeable about local history. He was very kind to help with the letters and other articles I wrote," Matsumoto said.
Matsumoto rarely considers herself a writing authority. In fact she's involved with writing groups that critique each other's work and work she has presented for suggestions or edits. She said she feels the more she understands about the industry, writing techniques and style, the better odds she will have of accomplishing her goals of publication. She refers to her plentiful shelves of books to read and MP3 disks to which to listen.
Matsumoto engages herself in local writing symposiums and conferences to take advantage of additional learning and growth as a writer. She encourages anyone interested in writing to try new things but also knows a thing or two about the journey. "It's OK to fail. You can learn from your mistakes. Everything you write is a learning experience. Take the time to do it well. You can pick up bad habits as well as good. The competition is horrendous, so get support from other writers, and don't give up."
No time for deadlines now. Matsumoto plans to use her time away from writing newspaper articles to find her own balance between her publishing endeavors and family affairs. Traveling with husband Danny probably gives her a lot to write home about anyhow. To date they have traveled extensively throughout six countries in Europe, nine countries in the Orient, and four countries in the South Pacific, plus Hawaii and most of the states in the U.S. Matsumoto visits Japan regularly with her husband. "I've also been spending much more time with my parents. I've taken my mother to Milwaukee to see some of the sights and out on photo sessions (she loves to take pictures), as well as make slides and music programs for her from her photos," Matsumoto added. "I've taken my dad for walks in his wheelchair, since he can't walk very fast and helped him record some of his LP records."
Finding interesting subjects to write about happened very early in her childhood. All she had to do was look at her own family tree. Matsumoto's father was a well-known jazz musician hailing from the Chicago area. In an essay titled "Ray Kramer Jazz Musician," she chronicles his life and memories of past events. An excerpt from her essay explains a returning musician to the Drake Hotel in Chicago in the 1990s, 50 years after he had played to enthusiastic fans there. In her essay she echoes the words of her father, when she writes, "It's like a ghost hotel or Twilight Zone. It used to be crowded. It used to have people in there every night. Now, there's nobody around. It's sad." Matsumoto's ambitions for this essay are to have it published in a local newspaper where he currently resides in Green Bay.
Matsumoto has her own website detailing her efforts and accomplishments as a writer. Visit her at www.marymatsumoto.com to learn more about this local writer and human interest enthusiast.
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