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Amy Blackmarr, McClouth graduate student, sits on the stairs of her "House of Steps." Blackmarr's third and latest book is based on her life in the house.
KU student and author records daily life in her unusual country dwelling
"This house is a metaphor for my life over the last years," Amy Blackmarr, graduate student.
The neighbors refer to it as the tree house. But this three-level dwelling in rural McClouth is simply where life has taken published author and University of Korean student Amy Blackmarr.
Kansas student Amy Blackmarr.
Her drafty house of three years stands out from the surrounding wilderness north of Lawrence like a dominant focus in a cluttered painting.
telling paragraph.
Her latest book, House of Steps, is a collection of personal essays written while living here with two dogs named Max and Floyd.
The lumber of the house seems to curve upward, encircling the structure until it reaches the dome of the thin tower. The nearby trees sway in the wind while birds and wasps make their presence known on a daily basis. The only hint of city life is her Honda parked on the loose gravel out from $ ^{4} $
She said that the builder had patched his ramshackle house together with anything he could find, including odd pieces of wood, plastic and foam, in order to complete the house quickly.
pierced "There is something a little inhospitable about this place," she said.
But this is the life that Blackmarr has dreamed about living. She wanted to dwell in a place that she could love, where she could continue to develop and change as a writer and a person.
This house of steps has no doors between the rooms and no closets. The staircase that connects the first floor and the third floor bedroom is narrow, twisting and uneven.
in the prologue to House of Steps, Blackmarr writes that when she sits in her study writing down the changes in her life, she rediscovers the process of day-to-day living.
"I couldn't imagine trying to take care of this place and go to school, commute to Lawrence and write books. But I had rented it, and I was stuck with it," she said.
In the book, Blackmarr refers to her home as a dark house with no rounded edges and little else that seemed to offer comfort.
tographs. She didn't know how much upkeep it would take—mowing the large yard, plowing the gravel driveway in the winter and making various repairs—to live here.
little else that seemed too much. Blackmarr, 40, didn't enjoy this lack of comfort when she first moved here from Georgia in 1996 after seeing only three photographs.
it, and I was stuck in the essay. The essays in the book developed from her life in the country. They include stories about the wildlife of the area, the serenity of the outdoors, the trees, her dogs and some mischievous teen-agers who bashed her mailbox.
"And yet all of them contain memories of my past," she said.
my past, she
Blackmarr said that people could read each of the essays independently or the work as a whole.
"This house is a metaphor for my life over the last years, she said. "It's a process of coming to terms with change and discovering that your commitments to your promises to yourself don't always take you where you think want to so."
This process, Blackmarr said, taught her to appreciate everyday life.
Before Blackmarr decided to dedicate her life to writing, she had owned a successful paralegal business in Overland Park from 1979 to 1991. She said that the monotony of the business life led her to re-examine her life.
"I was sitting there in front of my computer screen working for those lawyers when I thought to myself that I did not want to be doing this when I am 50 years old, " she said.
At this same point in her life, Blackmarr said that she had been writing seriously for several years, including children's literature and adult stories in her spare time.
But it was been enough. So she sold her business and moved back to southern Georgia where she had grown up.
But it wasn't enough.
up.
Blackmarr settled in at her family's old, unheated fishing cabin where she tried writing as a career. She decided to live and write there until her supply of money ran out. Although publishers encouraged her writing, none offered to buy her work
"I then decided to go back to school and live on government loans. This allowed me to go to school and to keep writing," she said.
Nine months later, after writing her first unpublished novel, she ran out of money.
While attending Valdosta State University in southern Georgia, she wrote Going to Ground as her master's thesis. This later became her first published book of personal essays set on the grounds of the fishing cabin.
cabin.
Doug Atkins, professor of English, said the personal essay couldn't be easily defined.
"It's a non-fictional work, though it may use fictional elements," he said. " Its drama consists in part by the way in which private experience becomes public meaning."
Atkins said a remarkable rebirth in the essay style has interested many new readers and writers.
"Some are calling our age the age of the essay," he said.
essay, he said. Before Blackmarr learned that Going to Ground would be published by the Viking publishing company, she had decided to continue her education at the University of Kansas when she was selected as a Madison and Lila Self fellow.
1m's fellowship, which she chose above a University of Georgia fellowship, allowed her the chance to continue writing the personal essays while pursuing her doctoral degree. She received a four-year stipend that pays for living expenses, tuition and fees.
Soon after accepting the fellowship and signing the lease, a Viking agent called and informed Blackmarr that Going to Ground had been bought and would be published.
This was the happiest moment in the process of making the book for Blackmarr.
Now she is writing her third personal essay collection called Above the Fall Line
essay collection caused Above the Furline
"The excitement of being able to write for
"The excitement of being able to write to a living never really goes away," she said.
In her book House of Steps, KU student Amy Blackmarr recounts how teen-agers smashed her mailbox
House of Steps reveals life's charm
By Clare McLellan
Kansan book critic
Amy Blackmarr's latest book entices readers to find the good in challenging, new surroundings and enjoy the simple things in life: pets, a Honduran box, False Potato Beetles...a quiet dinner with good friends.
House of Steps, the follow-up to Blackmarr's Going to Ground, is a collection of personal essays woven together with the common thread of finding a home.
The many and varied stories revolve around Blackmarr's real house of steps, as she calls it, located just outside Lawrence. The house is an architectural oddity full of steps and curves, filled with mice and wasps. She resented it from the minute she saw it.
Each essay tells an anecdote about the life she lives in the house and of the memories this experience conjures up.
She left her grandfather's cabin in Georgia for this bizarre house off a dirt road in Kansas.
As she settled in and became reacquainted with life in the Midwest, she discovered the wonders of mowing her half-acre yard, exploring the surrounding forests with her dog and all the simple joys of living alone.
Through these remarkably colorful stories, certain truths emerge in subtle tones. From each story a lesson can be learned, or a discovery can be made. Blackmarr does this in such a way, though, that the reader doesn't feel bombarded with morals or overwhelmed with instruction.
Instead, the book suggests ways one can be happier by making others happy and finding solace in familiar smells, sights and sounds.
Another theme is the proverbial "if life gives you lemons..." mantra.
Blackmarr makes an adventure out of finding mouse "evidence" in her kitchen and shoveling her driveway in her ski-bunny snow suit. Mundane events take on new zest in this book, and it is inspiring.
Blackmarr is also quite willing to own up to her imperfections and poke fun at them. At the same time, she emphasizes that they are a natural part of life. Missing a plane, overcooking a roast, driving all the way to the vet and leaving the dogs at home all fall under the umbrella of live and learn. And routinely overcooking roasts also falls into the category of quirks we must learn to deal with in ourselves.
Inside House of Steps is the kind of book that doesn't have to be read straight through to find its magic. Picking a story at random and reading on a whim will pepper readers' days with fun, feel-good stories that impart a feeling of calm and comfort.
Blackmarr describes the lazy August evenings filled with the sound of cicada throngs. She evokes the crisp autumn days that will soon turn to snowy Kansas winters. The sensations become real. The joy of simple, country life has never held more charm.
Blackmarr will read her book at 7 p.m. September16 at Borders Books and Music, 700 New Hampshire St.
Book facts
Grade: A-
Publisher: Viking
Pages: 158
Price: $22.95
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