Q&A with Kimberly Nixon

  

 

 

Kimberly Nixon is the author of the new novel Cutie Pies by the Slice. Her other books include Rock Bottom, Tennessee. She lives in Austin, Texas. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Cutie Pies by the Slice, and how did you create your character Lila?

 

A: My mother moved from Tennessee to Ohio in 1945 to work as a Rosie the Riveter at Westinghouse, where she “wound motors” to be used in military aircraft.

 

She didn’t have family close by, but she lived within a close network of other single women, perhaps in a boardinghouse. Those women became her chosen family and remained part of our family throughout my childhood.

 

One of those women, Lila, was like a surrogate grandmother to me. She loved to bake pies, and whenever she came to our house, my mother would light up. Her presence made our home feel more festive. When Lila died, my mother told me that she had once laundered money for the mob during Prohibition.

 

In Cutie Pies by the Slice, I wanted to write about chosen family and capture the cozy feeling I experienced with my surrogate grandmother. I re-used my mother’s storytelling of her experience moving to a new town to illustrate the struggles of a young woman starting out on her own, especially during the depressed economic times.

 

Q: How did you research the novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: First of all, I was floored to think that my 4’10” surrogate grandmother had been involved with the mob during Prohibition. I discovered that she had married the doorman of the local speakeasy, which explained some things.

 

In my hometown, it was well known who the mob families were, and many legendary stories from Prohibition were passed around, including tales of tunnels beneath the city.

 

About 10 years ago, I read a series of articles in my hometown newspaper, The Lima News, by Adrienne McGee called “Reminisce.” One three-part column told the story of the rivalry and eventual shootout between two opposing mobs—one from Chicago and the other from northern Ohio.

 

Witnesses disappeared, no one was charged, and even John Dillinger played a small part in the story. He had shot someone at a nearby bank and was arrested and being held in the Allen County Jail, where the mobsters were also held for questioning.

 

To apply this history to Cutie Pies by the Slice, I wove together themes of biological family, chosen family, and family with a capital “F” as a way to explore our obligations, our support systems, and even the transactional situations that can arise within a family.

 

Q: The novel is set in a small town in the Midwest--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: I try to make the setting another character in my novels. When I wrote Rock Bottom, Tennessee and Rock Bottom Rising, the two novels based on my grandmother’s 1925 felony conviction in Tennessee, I visited the Appalachian area where my mother grew up.

 

The difficult terrain and the economic conditions of the area reinforced the tumultuous situations my characters encountered.

 

In Cutie Pies by the Slice, my hometown of Lima, Ohio, is where the novel takes place. The resiliency, work ethic, and sense of community that I experienced in my childhood helped me create characters with depth.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: Oh, goodness. I changed the ending three times to make sure the novel fit the genre I wanted. Similarly, I changed the cover three times.

 

The first draft was crime-heavy, with Lila becoming a central part of the mob, but for me, it lacked the coziness I wanted as a theme. The first cover even had a bullet hole in the pie shop window.

 

Then I wrote a very strong love interest for Lila, but it changed the story and took away from her ability to make it on her own. That cover had a couple front and center.

 

I ended up with a hint of a love interest, with Lila making it on her own—not as a victim of the mob, but as a resilient woman who insists on getting what she wants. The final cover reflects that version of the story, showing the window of the Cutie Pies shop with empty stools and cases of pies in view.

 

I usually outline my novels, so I know where they are going from the beginning, but with Cutie Pies by the Slice, I meandered a bit.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m not ruling out a sequel to Cutie Pies, but I’ve started writing vignettes for a memoir about getting to know my father by retracing his World War II steps. He died when I was 25, without ever talking about his war years.

 

I have spent 25 years researching and piecing together his military history, since his records were destroyed in a fire at the St. Louis archives. I also traveled with my sister to walk where my father fought.

 

My memoir will weave together childhood stories, details of the battles my father fought in, and the experience of standing on the holy ground where he fought as a way to better understand and honor him.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: If you haven’t gathered, I love the family story. We find so much about ourselves by exploring not only the facts, but the stories that make us.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb