Kathleen Rooney

Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary work in hybrid genres, as well as a founding member of Poems While You Wait, a team of poets and their typewriters who compose commissioned poetry on demand. She teaches in the English Department at DePaul University, and her recent books include the national best-seller Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk (2017) and the novel Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey (2020). Where Are the Snows, her latest poetry collection, was chosen by Kazim Ali for the X.J. Kennedy Prize and published by Texas Review Press in Fall 2022.

Rooney's new novel is From Dust to Stardust.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

My title gives readers the arc of my 287-page novel in four words. The story follows Eileen Sullivan—soon to be stage-named Doreen O’Dare—from her humble beginnings as a dreamy kid in Tampa, Florida to her reign as one of Hollywood’s biggest box office draws in the 1920s. It asks the questions: what does it take to become a star? And Once you’ve become one, how long do you want to stay there and what might you do next, if you decide to leave?

What's in a name?

The novel is based on the real-life silent movie star and absolutely enchanting comedienne Colleen Moore, which is itself a stage name for “Kathleen Morrison.” I needed a name that would convey the Irish charm of the original, as well as the character’s ambition (to be more, to be daring), hence Doreen O’Dare.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel?

My teenage self would be like heck yeah. Ever since I was a kid—and into my teens and beyond—I’ve been a huge fan of the Fairy Castle that Colleen Moore built and then toured around the country during the Great Depression to raise funds for charities. I first saw it at the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago when I was eight years old and it’s never totally let go of my imagination, so I think all my past selves would find this novel the logical extension of this long-time love.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Because this book is about Hollywood and about actual fairy—which is to say, folk—tales, I knew that I wanted to play around with the idea of a happy ending. I knew where I wanted Doreen to end up, but I knew it would be really hard—full of highs and lows and triumphs and setbacks—for her to get there. I also knew that since my story is in effect a Jazz Age / Depression Era fairy tale, it had to begin in a once-upon-a-time manner, hence my opening sentence, “Once upon a time, an unprepossessing child with mismatched eyes—one brown, one blue—arrived to poor parents at precisely the right moment.”

In general, as an outliner, I always know where I want to begin and where I want to end—I can’t start the actual writing process unless I know both, or think I do. And from there, I can change as I need to as I make my way toward the final draft.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I always love my characters so much and have sympathy and affection for them even when they’re messing up. In this case, Doreen has, what I hope is my own sense of wonder at the world and a desire to convey that wonder to as many other people as humanly possible. We only get this one life, so let’s work hard and have fun.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Music and movies are huge inspirations. In the case of From Dust to Stardust, I watched as many silent movies as I could get my hands on, all while feeling a colossal sense of loss because the Library of Congress estimates that 75% of all silent films are lost forever. I hope my book gets people to take a look at the ones that are still around to be looked at.

Learn more about the book and author at Kathleen Rooney's website.

The Page 69 Test: From Dust to Stardust.

My Book, The Movie: From Dust to Stardust.

--Marshal Zeringue