Margaret Mendel is an expat from the West Coast. She has MFA from Sarah Lawrence and has many published short stories. Fish Kicker, Mendel’s first published novel, came out in March 2014, and she anticipates the publication of her next novel, Pushing Water, in the summer of 2015. She is a killer baker and frequently makes a show-stopping summer fruit pie with a luscious crumb topping. An avid photographer, she not only drags her laptop, but also a Nikon D700 camera wherever she goes.
- What is your writing routine?
Two-and-a-half years ago we moved from a rambling seven-room apartment in the Bronx to a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. I used to have an entire room for writing. I’d close the door any hour of the day or night and be able to get lost in my writing. Now my writing space has been reduced to a desk along a seven-foot wall off the kitchen with my back to the living room, making me feel sometimes as though I’m writing naked. But I write every day, morning, noon or night, and it looks like I’m adjusting to my new space because the ideas keep coming.
- Tell us about your current project.
I just finished writing a novel, Pushing Water, based in Vietnam in the late 1930s, early 1940s. It was a major endeavor, and I was exhausted when I finally finished. Since then, I started a short story collection and a novel, Wild Mushrooms, about gathering mushrooms in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. Initially, I saw the piece about mushroom hunting as a short story, though by the time I got finished with outlining the plot and developing characters, I had over 80 pages. So, if it wants to be a novel, then it will be a novel.
- Which writers, living or otherwise, would you host at a dinner party and why?
I’d invite Agatha Christie. I’d want her all to myself, and I’d invite her for a petite dinner, just the two of us, on an early summer evening. We’d sit on my terrace. We’d drink a chilled dry white wine, and I’d serve her small sandwiches with potted meats, Brie and butter on slices of baguette, and of course, cucumber sandwiches. Then for dessert I’d serve her a slice of fresh homemade apple-cranberry pie with a glass, or two, of sherry. We’d sit in the long summer twilight, watching people walking along the street below us, and talk about plot and character, and I’d ask her what she thought her detectives were thinking while they observed and gathered the clues that never failed to get the bad guys.
- What do you enjoy about your MWA membership?
There is always something to learn at MWA, either at the meetings, on a field trip or from friends that I’ve made over the years. I have grown as a writer because of the people I’ve met through this organization, and learned what it means to be a professional writer. MWA became a cornerstone of my writing life from the first meeting I attended.