Longtime Bellingham resident Rick Hermann reads from and talks about his first collection of short stories, "The Bright World of Dandelion Court," at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18, at Village Books, in Fairhaven.
Hermann was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1998 and has been involved in choreographer Pam Kuntz's dance courses for people living with Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and other movement and neurological disorders, held at the Bellingham YWCA.
Question: In the introduction to your book, you provide background for most of the stories and of your early writing. What was your motivation to publish this collection?
Answer: First, I believed they are good stories, and second, I am aware that I'm not getting any younger. I've had Parkinson's disease for a third of my life, and certain pieces of my identity have been chipped away at over the past 20 years. Things I could once do are now out of reach. But I can still write. I was also encouraged to publish by a friend from a writing group I attended briefly.
Q: You also mention your editorial career in your introduction. What have been some of the careers and jobs you've had?
A: In the 1970s and early 1980s I wrote restaurant and arts reviews for the Seattle Weekly, edited for various Seattle book publishers, as well as for Harper & Row, before it became HarperCollins. For about a year we lived in a cabin near Index. I loved getting editing and indexing work from Manhattan at the local post office inside the general store in Index. I also wrote film criticism for Movietone News, a film journal published in Seattle.
I ran my own (maybe the first) vegetarian catering service in Seattle, Harvest Moon Catering. One of my early gigs was catering the first annual Starbucks staff picnic at Discovery Park. The whole company was there; fewer than 100 people.
Until I had a family, I never made much money. When our son was born, something kicked my ass into gear. We came to Bellingham in 1987, and after a rough year I got a job at SPIE. I ended up as an acquisitions editor. Lots of travel and interactions with authors in science and engineering - really smart people. I was employed there until I stopped working in "the world" in 2002.
Q: Your short stories seem to reveal much about you. Is it scary to have your writings in print?
A: As far as revealing is concerned, I am very conscious of making myself "known" through the stories. But it's also true that they are stories, and even when something appears to be or feels autobiographical, that is an assumption that the reader makes, and it may or may not be accurate.
One story I was really nervous about including, "Waiting for Zero," involves sexual violence. It made my wife uncomfortable (it made me uncomfortable!). My editor, Liz Weber, made me aware of how the darkness of the story and the narrator had to be given another dimension. I went through several rewrites and finally arrived at a version I feel OK about.
Q: Will you talk about your writing process or read from one of your stories at your event at Village Books?
A: There are a few excerpts from "Dandelion Court" that I'd like to read, and I may trot out part of a work in progress. I'm playing it by ear.
Q: You attend numerous arts events with your wife, Lee Willis, and you've also participated in Pam Kuntz's "Context of Life" dance project and her classes for people living with Parkinson's disease and other disorders. How has having Parkinson's changed your outlook on self-expression, particularly in the arts?
A: That's a great question, and yes, it's pretty complicated. Living with Parkinson's disease has prompted me to just put myself out there, in fiction, poetry, music, dance, letters to the editor, or whatever. What's to lose?
On the other hand, the tricky cognitive and behavioral effects of Parkinson's and its symptom-suppressing medications have led me at times to wonder if I am a bit unhinged. There's a lot of mental illness in my recent stories, which makes me feel exposed to a certain extent.
Q: What brings you joy?
A: Joy comes unexpectedly. More often I feel gratitude for our good life. Things have always worked out. I'm lucky in that sense.
My most joyous times have been focused on seeing our son's successes and accomplishments. I'm very proud of him.
The Kulshan Chorus Celtic Christmas concert in December was an extended peak moment of joy. I used to play Celtic music on the guitar and mandolin before Parkinson's. So I felt joy, but also had to concede that I can no longer participate in making the music I love. That's hard to take.
