My Interview With The Wonderful Feast, Fiction, Memoir Writer, Judy Kalchik

Today’s Interview is with Judey Kalchik, most people known her on her Facebook page, The Medium Writers and Vocal Creators’ SupportGroup. She also created a Vocal Cooks Collaborations on Vocal. She also have a lot of fallowers on Vocal and Medium .

Mariann(New York): Hi Judey, I know you are a very busy woman but I would love to interview you . 🙂Please, let me know if you would give me the honor to interview you ?

Judey(Michigan): Hi Mariann! The honor would be mine! Of course, let me know what to do.

Mariann: Really ? You are the best 🥰🥰🥰🥰I will send you questions , tomorrow. You can answer them on your own free time. Thank you, so very much ❤️ .

Judey: I can't wait! Thank you for thinking of me.

Mariann: I always wanted to interview you, I just did not have the guts to ask until now. The first question, where are you from ?

Judey: Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I’ve lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan for the last twenty years.

Mariann: When did you realized you wanted to write?

Judey: Although I’ve always loved stories and books, it didn’t occur to me to write until I received a diary when I was a Brownie Scout during a holiday gift exchange.

I wrote in it for over ten years and still must have it tucked away in a box somewhere.

Mariann: What did you first write about?

Judey: I wrote about kid stuff, but included secret poetry, too. My first ‘public’ poem was taped to the walls of my elementary school for parent’s night when I was in third grade. It’s title: What do I have to be Happy For? I kind of remember some of it, and I remember the happiness of having someone recognize what I wrote as good enough to display.

Mariann: What’s your favorite Color?

Judey: My favorite color is blue- deep rich cobalt blue. I’ve written this Vocal story for the True Colors Challenge. When a teacher told me I wasn’t coloring with blue correctly.

https://vocal.media/poets/time-to-color-my-world

Mariann: If you can change the world, what would you change?

Judey: I have three things, I would like to change :

1) No woman could BECOME pregnant without her willing consent.

2) The United States elected officials would actually work for the people that elect them and not for their own careers.

3) Borders Books would reopen in the United States and put Amazon out of business.

Mariann: What does your writing space look like ?

Judey: My writing area in 2020, when I was at my busiest for work. My writing space varies: right now I am sitting on the sofa in my living room using a phone. Sometimes it starts when I’m driving and a thought occurs to me and I ask Siri (I use the Australian male voice option- I love talking to him!) to ‘take a note’ and then record the idea for future use as I drive.

Most often it’s in my office/dressing closet/craft room.I have a laptop and two freestanding monitors. I’ll try to send a photo. Now, I only use 1 laptop and 3 screens.

Mariann: That’s cute, Male Siri, Australian voice. I did not know that was an option. What’s your latest, Vocal Story?

Judey: My latest was one of two written for the Passing Ships Challenge. Both stories were of deeply felt moments, this latest one was one I felt reawaken all of the emotions of that time in my life.

I may end up writing more memoirs .

I think it’s important to name and share pregnancy loss . When ,I’m able to do so. It is something that isn’t often made public. It can isolate a woman and her partner if it is treated shamefully.

Mariann: What’s the first fiction story you wrote on Vocal?

Judey: My first Fiction story , was created, when the Vocal writers I communicated with were encouraging each other to try writing short stories.

I put it off until I saw ‘Tom Brad’ explain that a good short story is part of a bigger narrative, but presented in a way that it could stand on its own.

(I think Tom did and Paula Shablo does excel at this).

I was missing my father and the idea of Bringing Big Pete Home came to me.

Although it didn’t get Vocal recognition then, Tom’s encouragement after reading it was everything to me.

I entered it in the Vocal Fiction Challenge last year and it was one of the runners up.

https://vocal.media/families/bringing-big-pete-home

Mariann: Why did you started your Facebook group and share the link of your Facebook group ?

Judey: I started it because, in April 2021, the only groups on Facebook for Vocal writers were exclusively for Only writers.

Mine was different because it is a public group, open to everyone, and inviting both the writers and everyone that wanted to read and ‘support’ them.

In December of 2021 I changed the name and opened it to both Vocal and Medium writers.

Now? I think it’s different because, unlike other groups, it’s largely just me - although Jim Delaney-Howe was made an admin last year and helps keep the spam to a dull roar.

There are currently 3.6 thousand members, but I’d say about 500 active. I encourage people to keep developing as writers, and share resources in the guide section of the group.

Mariann: If you can interview a vocal creator, who would it be and why?

Judey: I’d like to interview Justin@Vocal. As the leader of the platform I’m always interested in reading his post. I’m curious to know, if he also write as a creator? What does he enjoy when reading? What does he look for? Etc. I just saw your comment on Vocal. It gave me the idea to interview Justin.

Mariann: What are your writing goals ?

Judey: My goals are to keep writing as long as the words are simmering, flowing, and impatient to be discovered.Write the truth. Many of my essays, stories, articles, and poems are personal, raw, and for many people may match things they keep private. I respect that in them, but for me, at this time of my life, remaining quiet about them is ending.

Facing the truth, squarely, unflinchingly, and writing it then sending it off is freeing to me and allows my mind and body to know I’ve moved through the experience.

I hope that it can be the voice for others that need to retain their silence, and that they know they are not alone in the experience.

I want to keep growing- both as a writer, an advocate, a person. That may mean finding additional platforms besides Vocal and Medium, it might include a book ( or 2) it might mean video (which I dabbled in this year for my Milestones Ministry Facebook page when I made Milestones Moments), I want to stretch and grow.

I want to give back. I am rubbish as a mentor, but I am a decent encourager. In my Facebook group, and in all of the too- many groups to which I belong, I want to be an encouraging supporter of other writers.

Mariann: What are your accomplishments you are most proud of and why?

Judey: The accomplishments I’m most proud of- first are my daughters. They are simply magnificent women. They are making their own ways, using their own convictions and voices to be positive changes in their families and in the world. I can’t take the credit, but I am wondrously proud of them.

Second, that I am still here, writing, finding my voice, telling my truth, growing, living. As a child and a young wife: I was a silent non- person ( I wrote The Day I Discovered My Superpower about that realization) I’ve gone through divorce that shook me down into a sodden depression, and over 35 working years worked for three companies that folded - horribly, messily, and destructively. I am still here.

Third, I hope that the accomplishment of which I am most proud is still in my future, waiting to happen.

Mariann: You write for both medium and Vocal, what’s the big difference between the two writing platform?

Judey: When I added Medium to my writing portfolio the differences were much more distinct in regards to the usability of the platforms.

Medium called to me with the ability to instantly publish instead of waiting hours, days and sometimes weeks to have my writing approved and the way Vocal used to published stories.

Medium, I didn’t have to email someone to edit my published work, as it used to be the case on Vocal.Since, then Vocal has made huge strides in user experience!

Quick edit, quicker curation and reader comments are a welcome Vocal new feature changes. Part of the reason I still write for Vocal.

Vocal has well-defined and semi-regular Challenges, which Medium hasn’t done for many months and does it sporadically.

Vocal also has a clearly defined resource section, while Medium’s resources are a bit trickier to access.

Medium has a better SEO visibility online and non-member reads exceed those of many Vocal stories.

There are also extensions (mini programs) that give a writer insight into how a reader finds their work, how Medium classifies it, reads per story each day, and other info I appreciate.

The biggest difference is the algorithms and earnings.

Simply put: Vocal pays a writer something for every read, even non-members of the platform. Vocal+ writers earn slightly more than ‘free’ members.

Medium only pays for Medium member reads. Although that seems less effective for a writer, the membership is larger that Vocal and the SEO discoverability boost makes it more lucrative for me.

It doesn’t happen often, but my largest earning article on Medium has generated over $1800, and still earns a little each month.

My largest earning Vocal article has made $1.93.

One other difference, Medium is just $5.00 a month, and I pay for it easily in earnings in the platform.

Members can pay for it a year at a time and pay just $50 for a year. If they join using my link, I get a token from Medium as a thank you. Here’s my link: https://judeyblu.medium.com/membership

Vocal is $10 a month, so I pay out of pocket for that. (I just switched to paying for a year, so got 2 months ‘free.)

Mariann: My last question, if you were a book what title would you give yourself?

Judey: If I was to be a book it would have to be like a choose your own adventure book. Every time the reader opens it, the choices may take them in a different direction. Always something new to discovery.

Since many books can have the same title, I’ll choose a classic: The Neverending Story.

Mariann: Judey it was a pleasure to get to know you, more. You have been interviewed before. I tried to have different questions from your beautiful previous interview with the lovely Dawn.

Thanks for reading Vocal Interview Blog Fans. I hope you enjoyed my interview with Judey, she is the most supportive vocal creator you will ever meet. I hope you keep supporting her wonderful stories on Vocal and on Medium.