The Incomparable Judey Kalchik

For my second interview for the “Not My Shoes” game in the Vocal Writer’s Sharing Community I was paired with Judey Kalchik. Judey and I interviewed each other and the results of our interviews will be shared in the group. I absolutely love this game because it gives the entire community the opportunity to get to know fellow creators on a more personal level.

I was excited to learn that I would be paired with Judey Kalchik for the “Not My Shoes” game. I had read many of her stories and also interacted with her personally, and I had formed the opinion that she was an intelligent, caring woman who had experienced many painful events in her life and had the strength to keep going. I also knew that she had created the Vocal Creator’s Support Group. My biggest challenge in doing the interview was that Judey had recently been interviewed by Colt Henderson for his “Not My Shoes” piece, “Interview With a Starlet” and I knew I would want to avoid repeating the same information he had shared in his story.

My first step in writing most nonfiction pieces is to do some research. I opened up Judey’s Vocal profile to try to learn a little more about her before trying to come up with questions. I quickly realized that I had seen just the tip of the iceberg by reading only what I had found in Facebook posts. Judey had 87 pieces in her profile (at the time of writing) and even though I recognized some of her stories, many were new to me.

As I read through Judey’s profile I was reminded of a really good book. It’s like the kind of book where you keep telling yourself you are just going to read one more chapter and then go to sleep–but then many chapters later you realize you only have a couple of hours left before you have to get up for the day. I kept reminding myself that I needed to write interview questions, but then I’d see another story I wanted to read and then another. Needless to say I read a lot of the pieces in Judey’s profile.

Judey writes many different types of pieces for many different Vocal communities. One of the things I feel like she does really well is to tell a story about one of her experiences, concluding the piece with a jaw-dropping revelation about what she learned from the experience. The way she tells the story is so entertaining that you don’t even realize the piece is anything other than a story about the experience, but then she hits you with an observation about life that is so profound it leaves you in awe. Two of my favorite stories by Judey are excellent examples of this: “The Day I Almost Burned Down the Mall” and “The Space That Remains.”

After all the research and reading I came up with some questions to ask Judey that I hope will allow everyone to get to know her a little better. I’ll let you read what Judey had to say during the interview, but before we get to that, there is one thing about Judey that I was completely unaware of and didn’t even know to ask about in the interview: she is ordained and performs weddings, funerals, and baptisms.

Dawn Salois: Where were you born, what other places have you lived, and do any of the places you’ve lived feel more like “home” than the others?

Judey Kalchik: I was born in a small town in Pennsylvania. I lived in PA for 42 years, and moved to Michigan for work when I was 42. I’ve been here ever since.

Dawn Salois: You have mentioned in your stories that you are the eldest of five children, you have two daughters, a grandson, and a husband. Are you willing to tell us a little about any of them? If I’ve left anyone out that you would like to talk about please let me know.

Judey Kalchik: I was married once for 24 years, which is when the 2 daughters came about. I have 6 grandsons, ranging from 21 to 4 years old. I remarried, and Ken and I have been together for 12 years.

My daughters read little to nothing that I write, and I’m almost over being upset by that. My husband wants me to write a book someday, and he reads all of my stuff eventually.

Dawn Salois: In your poem “Summer Steal Away” you talk about taking a holiday weekend in the summer. Do you have many opportunities to travel, and are there any favorite places you have traveled to? Are there any places you haven’t been to that you would like to see?

Judey Kalchik: I used to travel a lot for work, in the 24 years I worked for Borders Books. I don’t travel as much now, but hope to again some day. My favorite places are the desert in Nevada and the Horseshoe falls in Niagara. I hope to go back to the falls. The feeling I had bobbing at the base of the falls, I felt so small but so connected.

Dawn Salois: In your article ”The Space That Remains” you mention watching stories from the Marvel Universe with your husband. Are there any characters from the Marvel Universe that you particularly identify with or admire, and why?

Judey Kalchik: Iron Man is my guy. His whole story, smart man, trouble with his father, inventing, falling in love. He is the most relatable and human of them all. Plus, RDJ is a babe, so there is that.

Dawn Salois: It’s evident from your organization of “The Vocal Cooks Collaborate” and from your professional experience as a line-cook that you have both an interest in cooking and baking as well as the skills to do it well. Is there a meal or dish that you particularly enjoy preparing, and why do you like to make it?

Judey Kalchik: I am, mostly, Irish Italian, with memories of my grandmothers cooking for family dinners. All were great cooks.

I like to make my from-scratch spaghetti sauce. When I do I am back in my grandmother’s kitchen, anticipating ladling the rich sauce over pasta, meatballs and chicken in separate bowls, and a bit of lettuce salad on the side. My grandfather would cover his plate with sprinkles of ground pepper and my grandmother would wrinkle her nose as he did it.

To me, making that sauce and serving it for dinner is me telling people I love them.

Dawn Salois: In your “Fifth Grade Friendship Poll” article you mentioned that you have created several Facebook pages, have two blogs, a Twitter account, and write for two online platforms. You also work, have a family, and maintain a free library (these are just the things I’m aware of). Do you have a special system for keeping track of everything, or do you just naturally move from one thing to the next to get things done?

Judey Kalchik: I am a juggler, I suppose. It is my habit to throw myself into things. Writing is one of those habits, and I have found myself pulling a bit away from Vocal and writing more for Medium.

I do make lists (love my lists!) and write the big things I want to accomplish each day for work, make grocery lists, packing lists, I even have a list of lists. I am the kind of person that writes something down so I can get a rush by putting a line through it to show myself it was completed.

Dawn Salois: A lot of the pieces in your Vocal profile demonstrate knowledge you have gained from your experiences. Have you ever considered putting your work into a book?

Judey Kalchik: Yes. Yes indeed. I have contemplated a book for years now, but I am about as close to it as I ever was. I’ve decided, though, that it won’t be fiction. The first fiction I’ve written was for Vocal, and although I enjoy it, I don’t have a fiction story burning to come out.

So–non-fiction it will be. I am open to suggestions from people that read my stories regarding the direction to take.

At my age I am afraid that I will be writing more of a memoir, and I don’t know if that’s what I want to do?

So: yes.

Dawn Salois: In your interview with Colt Henderson you said that your favorite piece that you have written for Vocal is “Life: By the Book.” Are there any other pieces you have written that you consider favorites?

Judey Kalchik:

"The day I found my superpower" was hard for me to write, and it was published on the day that Tom died. The pain of that article and the pain of losing him are intertwined, and that story has a special place in my heart: I was raw and real, and I also wish he could have read it and given his opinion.

Two stories I wrote for Vocal writers:

And

"The Reciprocity Principle" and "Please read, enjoy Heart tip. Thanks." Were written out of the frustration I feel as the admin of a facebook group for Vocal creators (The Vocal Creators Support Group). There is so much good that we can do for ourselves and for others, when people are thoughtless or self-serving it gets under my skin.

This concludes my interview with Judey Kalchik. I hope I have helped everyone get to know Judey a little bit better. If you are not already a fan of Judey’s writing I definitely recommend doing some reading from her profile. You can thank me later.