Combs & Underland Down The Rabbit Hole With...

Underland: MC?...

...SILENCE

Underland: ?

Underland: Alright MC probs frying ravioli or something...So I'll start...

Suze Kay: Haha good for her

Underland: Writing! How did that start?

Suze Kay: As far back as I can remember, and if you believe my mother, farther still - she has a great story about me scribbling on paper and making her "read" it back to me, then getting very upset when she could not read the squiggly lines. I think the power of the written word was clear to me from early on. My parents read to me constantly, and I wanted to tell stories like that, too. I have a lot of childhood journals with little stories and characters.

In second grade, I lost my beloved Great Grandmother Bee just before we had to "publish" our own books with illustrations and everything. I wrote about going to visit her every summer, and the act of writing about my love for those summers - which I feared would be different without her - was so cathartic. I think that was a big "click" for me. That was when I felt the power of my own words in myself. Another "click" was in fourth grade, when I made the mother of one of my classmates weepy with one of my poems during a recital. That's when I realized my words could affect other people, too. And ever since then, writing has been a big part of my identity and my hopes for myself.

Underland: That is such a sad but beautiful story. But you didn't decide to study writing or literature? Or you did?

Suze Kay: Wellll... I did. It was a big failure. I went to Yale because they have an excellent creative writing department. My first semester was very messy. I was accepted into a somewhat advanced poetry class as a freshman, but I wasn't quite ready for its rigor. The star professor was... less than impressed with my work, and refused to write me a recommendation letter for summer programs. She was pretty rude about it all, too, and that stung me soundly. It's hard. I actually just came across a poem of hers today. She was an incredible poet, like across the board, one of the most decorated women writers in the world. To have her say "I don't think you're a poet. You should stop." was more than I could take in that moment. So I did stop, for about three years. I couldn't write without hearing her voice.

At the same time, I was taking a seminar about American Furniture. Just as the world of writing seemed to close for me, the world of Art History opened wide, and I happily fell in.

Underland: Hmmm something tells me you're going to prove her very wrong!

Suze Kay: I feel I already have. The story ends happily enough for me if it ends here. I'm writing poetry again, for myself, and I'm quite proud of it. I would, of course, have liked to rub her face in it, but she passed recently.The poet, btw, is _______ .

Underland: Don't know whether to heart laugh or sad face to that one!

Suze Kay: Haha welcome to my internal turmoil!

Underland: Hmmm never heard of her

Suze Kay: Honestly, her poetry is QUITE good.

Underland: Yeah but if you're not a good person...who cares?

Suze Kay: It's funny. Her rebuff of me was so painful and shameful. I kept it to myself for a long time. Years later, another girl from the class and I became friends, and she told me that basically Louise had done the exact same thing to her. And other women she knew. That allowed me to get over it a bit, actually, realizing it was less about me and more about her. Great writers are not always great teachers.

Underland: Sounds like more of a bout of 'threatened by the young'uns' TBF. Great anythings aren't always great teachers. But You won first place in the Vocal awards for sci-fi -that's an amazing achievement! It must have felt phenomenal!

Suze Kay: Yes! I've never been so proud of myself.Sometimes it's hard to tell when a story is good, and other times it's a feeling so deep in my bones that I just know even as I'm writing it that it's special. That was one of those stories.

Underland: So for those who haven't read it yet, The Little Coffee Shoppe at the End of the World...what would your blurb be?

(Familiar rustling from above)

Suze Kay: Oo great question. Hm. "In future London, an old man reckons with the world as it changes around him."

Underland: OOOOO the intrigue!

Suze Kay: Gotta keep the hook spicy! But the story itself is actually a little cottage cozy, I think. A human story at the end of the page.

Underland: Yes it really is- I think that's part of its charm, the aspect that makes it stand out from other tales in the same genre.

Suze Kay: I love sci-fi, very deeply. I read a lot of it. I think people often miss its heart for all of its bells and whistles. Yes, great sci-fi has sweeping galaxies and crazy technology, etc., but the central question of almost every good sci-fi story is "what does it mean to be human?"

Underland: What other stories/poems would you direct newcomers to Suze K towards?

Suze Kay: Give me a second to dig through my profile lol If people are ok with a longer read, my story "Out of Water" has a lot of heart. It's a modern retelling of the little mermaid. And my poem "east coast" feels also most like ME.

Underland: ooo missed this one! I love a good reworking- Angela Carter is one of my faves

Suze Kay: Ah she's amazing! I'm working on a longer project with other retold tales

Underland: Love that! So which other writer's do you admire?

Suze Kay: Stephen King is my absolute favorite fiction writer. I think he gets dialogue, plot, and characterization like almost no other living writer. My favorite poet changes every day, but I keep coming back to Richard Siken, Elizabeth Bishop, and Naomi Shihab-Nye

MC: Sorry I'm late. phone call

Suze Kay: Hi Mother!

MC: Hello, Suze!

Underland: ***swear she just hangs out until Stphen King crops up***

MC: Stephen King is my absolute favorite fiction writer. Fave book by King? I've read them all, almost

Underland: 😨😨😨

Suze Kay: Duma Key

MC: Oh, Duma Key was awesome

Suze Kay: I love all of them, but I've reread Duma Key until it fell apart in my hands

MC: What did you like about them

Suze Kay: One of King's repeat themes is fear of power, and Duma Key especially (but also Bag of Bones, and Rose Madder) takes it into the creative field

Suze Kay: As a writer (or a painter, or a singer), sometimes it feels like once something is created, it's no longer under your control. That's part of the beauty of art - that it reaches everyone where they are - but it's also scary. I feel very exposed on a page. It's just me on there, and because I write from life, I'm afraid of the meanings people will take from the words. They might not be what I intended.I think a lot of King's stories circle around that fear. But also, I like his short stories even better tbh

MC: Which story would you suggest a non King reader to try for the first time?

Suze Kay: Great question. I'm finding it hard to choose...For fans of horror/supernatural, The Man in the Black Suit. For people who like a little more realism, A Death.

Underland: 😱😱😱😱

Suze Kay: A Death is simply phenomenal. Gritty Western atmosphere, questions of guilt and innocence, the lingering doubts that come with making any strong choice.

MC: Fave made for TV King movie

Suze Kay: Gerald's Game lol Oo no I change my mind. 1922. They got that one absolutely right. I just love the story of Gerald's game more haha.

MC: Both are excellent choices lol You're a pastry chef, what's your favorite dessert to make.

Suze Kay: Right now, I love making pavlova! It's low-effort high-reward. Great combination of textures and flavors to play with. And, looks very freaking impressive

MC: Sounds yummy!!

Underland: How did you become a pastry chef? It's a little step away from art history!

Suze Kay: It was a consequence of Covid! If people are interested in the full, long story, it's in my story "A Cookie to Change your .... etc. etc." which won the nourished challenge. Short story is I was reverse-engineering my favorite chocolate chip cookie and realized it fed my soul more than any other work I'd done.

Underland: OMG OMG OMG Vocal just f**ing published Dragon!

********* Live Action Reaction********

Underland: Sorry

Suze Kay: !!! brb lol Wow excellent! I like the set-up.

MC: Do what??????!!!!!!!

Infinite Silence…Rustling of sorts...

Underland: Sorry school owner just called…Back! Alright what is a reverse-engineered chocolate chip cookie? Gotta know!

Suze Kay: So that's when you eat something that's so good and you have no recipe, but your boyfriend says "How hard can it be?" and then you spend the next few months baking batch after batch of chocolate chip cookies to try and figure out what makes that one cookie so darn good And along the way, I picked up a love for the theory and mechanics of baking.

So when the world opened back up, I decided to go to culinary school instead of back to work, and now I'm working as a pastry chef!

Underland: That is so cool! I love cooking and have often thought about opening a little something but don't have the courage!

Suze Kay: It takes so much courage. My dream is to run a bakery-cafe one day, right now I'm just waiting for life to twist around and make that possible

MC: If your pastries taste as good as they look, you'll be a huge success yum

Underland: So how do you do it now?

Suze Kay: Right now, I'm the head pastry chef at a restaurant in my neighborhood. It's a wonderful gig with great people, and I have a lot of creative freedom.

Suze Kay: The demands are a little crazy, but I feel very nourished by the work. Something I learned about myself is that I need to work with my hands to be happy. The repetitive, beautiful, creative work I do in the kitchen is closely linked to the health and success of my writing.

Underland: I completely get that! You also quite recently got married right?

Suze Kay: Yes End of September 2023

Underland: All the gossips please! How did you meet? What was it like? Food?

Suze Kay: Oh man I could dish about my husband forever. He's my complete opposite, and we did not get along at first. We met eight years ago through friends and did NOT hit it off. In fact, I remember thinking after the vacation weekend where we met "Great! There's a man I never have to talk with again."But we met again six months later at the same friend's birthday party and did actually have a wonderful conversation, and dated casually through my first summer out of college.

Underland: Sounds like the start of any 'good' Hallmark!

Suze Kay: We've been a couple since the Fall of 2017, and he really feels like the perfect complement to my life. We make each other better.

Suze Kay: The wedding was crazy stressful, especially planning for it. But the day itself was perfect. It felt like everything that could go wrong did. I had some drama with my bridal party, the invitations were delayed by a massive paper shortage, I was disorganized in the run-up, his dad got Covid the week before, and a hurricane crashed the party. We both felt at certain points that we were getting married for other people, not ourselves - having been together for so long, nothing fundamentally changed about our relationship, and we had long since chosen one another as a life partner.The moment I walked down the aisle I knew we made the right choice to keep going with the party. Never again will we have that collection of beloved people in the same room, or the same windy tent.

Underland: Aw that is lovely

Suze Kay: The father of the friend who introduced us was our officiant. Our readings were poems. Our families were blissed out. It was just perfect. We got married in my parent's hometown, where most of my family lives and where we spent all of our quarantine together. We wanted everything to feel very local and give our guests a taste of what we love about Westport. The only thing my husband really did was select and book the band... and they for real saved the day. They were AMAZING and kept the party going, through gale-force winds and torrential downpour.So he gets to pat himself on the back for that forever now haha.

Underland: LOL - So what does Westport offer? Food wise?

Suze Kay: Lots of seafood and local farm-fare - cheese, beef, and veggies. It's the western-most port in Massachusetts, with a lot of agriculture in its backbone. Our rehearsal dinner catering was our favorite local restaurant, the Westporter, which does seasonal food with whatever is freshest and best. And our wedding dinner was catered by a family friend's company, who owns most of the other restaurants in the area. They also do a lot of locally-sourced food and menus, and they got everything organized perfectly.

Underland: Sounds wonderful! Did you have a honeymoon?

Suze Kay: Not really. We took the weeks before and after the wedding off and stayed in Westport, which was really lovely. Did some sightseeing. But as expected, we both got quite sick after the wedding, and we didn't want to plan for being out and about in the aftermath. Plus we both used up all our vacation time for the year lol. We're hoping to go to Japan next year to ski. We did get to go into Newport, RI for a day trip. My husband is car-obsessed, and they have a museum of vintage cars there. We spent a lovely day walking around while yarn shopping, thrifting, and carspotting. Very us.

Underland: Aw thats sound great though- Just doing what you love, together! So we roped you in ro Modding on PVim...Why'dya say yes?!

Suze Kay: You caught me at my absolutely most charitable moment, just after making some resolutions to be a better community member of Vocal haha

Underland: We got good timing!

Suze Kay: I haven't regretted it for a second, though. I love the mod team and the beautiful, uplifting nature of the PViM community. Last year, I was a little scared off by all the drama that kept cropping up, and saw some very reasonable quibbles and concerns about the platform consistently being voiced. But I think the only way things improve is if we groom the path we walk, and hope others follow, too. Nothing improves if we don't put in work, and being a moderator for a positive group like PViM has given me an opportunity to pitch in.

Underland: Yeah agree - our little group is so supportive and love being part of it! So what are your thoughts on Vocal overall?

Suze Kay: Lol poking the hornet's nest, are we, Cel?

Underland: No not at all!...Promise!

Suze Kay: I only feel qualified to speak on my own personal experience on the platform, which has been overwhelmingly positive. I spent many years not letting anyone read my work, and publishing on Vocal has allowed me to let go of much of the fear that held me back. I also just LOVE the challenges. Having a creative direction and a deadline pushes me to produce work that might not come out of me naturally. I am increasingly frustrated by AI and spammers, though.

MC: Fave color?

Suze Kay: Fave color is navy blue!

MC: Fave animal?

Suze Kay: Cat. Specifically, my own cat Aura.

Underland: Aw cutie!

Suze Kay: She's about 14 years old, rescued from a cat colony on Staten Island. She has an ear and a half. We've been buddies for five years and I hope for many more with her, but her favorite human is now my husband, which is a tough pill to swallow for me lol.

MC: She's gorgeous

Underland: Cats!

MC: Fave meal?

Suze Kay: At the restaurant where I work - I start with their whipped ricotta toast, move into their spicy rigatoni, and finish up with my fruity pebble panna cotta

Suze Kay: But for my day-in-day-out go to, a spicy caesar salad wrap from my favorite salad shop

MC: Oh, yum!! Favorite date night with the husband?

Suze Kay: We have one in the books - on our six month anniversary in March, we're going to check out the Swizz Beats/Alicia Keys collection exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum then eat at a new restaurant that's been on our want-to-try list forever, Rule of Thirds in Williamsburg.He likes to make me "walk him through it" whenever we go to a museum, I love looking at art, and we both love trying new food. We're in a bit of a pickle at the moment - we're both traveling and working intensely, and March 23 is literally the only time that we can make a date night happen lol.

If I'm lucky, I'll see him one night this week - out of nearly a month where we will only be able to talk over facetime

MC: Oh, no. I'm sorry! I hope things get better in that department soon

Suze Kay: It'll be ok. Something I treasure about our relationship is we both give each other space and support to pursue our professional goals

Underland: Sounds like a perfect relationship to me

MC: That's a perfect relationship.

Suze Kay: There's no friction for us during touch months like this one, and it makes the moments we get to devote to one another all the more special.

Underland: Favorite movie?

Suze Kay: Favorite movie is Midsommar. I find it so complex and interesting. My final project for culinary school was a cake based on that movie!

Underland: What did that look like?

Suze Kay: Let me dig up a pic for you.

MC: That is lovely

Suze Kay: Everything you see is edible and made by me. Here's a vid...

Underland: WOW! That is stunning! Who could handle cutting and eating it though! So pretty!

Suze Kay: Lol yes it was just displayed in the end. But I did a lot of research and prep for the design. I'm endlessly proud of it - the base tier features cookie tiles based on some of the interior decoration of the cult leader's house, the middle tier is based on the cult's costuming, and the top tier features Dani's flower crown and the ceremonial hut.

MC: You've every right to be.

Underland: So future plans, aside from bakery do you have?

Suze Kay: I want to write a book! I'm working hard on it, so it's been keeping me away from Vocal a bit, but that's a big goal of mine.Also, a child, one day. Not yet, but it's a hope.

Underland: What's the book about?

Suze Kay: Great question. I'll let ya know. HAHA just kidding…I have like five in the works, all in different genres.

Underland: Of course you do I just about managed half of one!

Suze Kay: My most difficult one will be a fantasy trilogy I have fully outlined, half-heartedly written. Needs a lot of work.The one I'm more likely to finish first is a sexy psychological thriller about a woman who wants it all. And there's the short story collection of retold tales that's in the works as well. A lot of pots on the stove, and I peck at whichever one is speaking to me more in the moment.

Underland: I love the sound of all of them!

Suze Kay: Thanks! I'm hopeful that I'll sometime be able to write a lovely little blurb on Vocal like "HEY! I DID THE THING!"

Underland: I have absolutely no doubt you will! You are so, so talented!

Suze Kay: Aw thank you I'm finally feeling like that's a little bit true these days.

Underland: And I love the quiet confidence you have so much. Definitely you will! And lady poet can um...Well you know!

Suze Kay: Roll over in her grave when I exceed her expectations, no doubt hehe

Underland: Exactly that!

Suze Kay: I think I would just like to leave an encouragement to anyone who clicks on my profile and feels disheartened by the badges I've collected. It's not because I'm better than anyone else, it's because I've been lucky. There was a lot of hard work that went into every piece that won something, but an equal amount of work that went into every piece that skated by unnoticed. I am my own best and worst critic. I know when something is good and when something isn't, and I know that has everything to do with what I like to read more than anyone else. People only finish reading something they like, and everyone likes something different. We are all writing on the same platform and plugging into different streams. Just because you haven't been lucky yet doesn't mean that you're not a good writer, or that it's not worth working further. Write what you'd like to read. Critique yourself as you critique others, with gentle encouragement and commitment to development.

Underland: Thank you so much for catching up with us and also thank you so much for everything you do for ViM. I am so happy that you're in the team, you really help make it the supportive place MC and I envisioned a few months ago!

MC: I'm so glad you agreed to be on the team

Suze Kay: Thank you so much for asking me to be part of it. I'm so impressed by the direction you’ve been able to take this group as our fearless leaders.

Underland: Am freaking out most of the time Feel the fear and do it the hell anyway! Thank you so much Suze!

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