We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kathleen M. Rodgers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kathleen M. below.
Hi Kathleen M. , we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
From an early age, I developed a misperception that I was dumb and stupid. I was a reluctant reader, and I struggled with math and science. And yet I loved to visit the library and be surrounded by books. Even though I was a slow reader, I was drawn to stories in any form, from picture books to shows and movies on television. When I was young, I loved to rock in our family’s rocking chair and daydream for hours. When I daydreamed, I made up stories in my head and pretended I was brave and bold and courageous even though I told myself I was shy and a chicken at everything. My older sister and I would act out television shows and movies in our backyard. It was during these times, I loved to pretend I was someone else. I could be anything and anyone I wanted to be in my world of pretend.
Then one day I learned that I could write down my daydreams. I started writing poetry and short stories and the more I wrote, the more confident I became. When I was in junior high and high school, my English teachers started commenting on my writing assignments. They encouraged me to keep trying. The first time a teacher told me I had a talent for writing, I felt my whole world expand. Through writing and showing others my writing, I learned to take risks and I learned to boss back all the false boogymen living in my head. All those negative voices telling me I was a loser. The more I bossed them back, the more confident I became.
I learned to overcome all the perceived weaknesses by turning them into strengths. The first time I learned to laugh at myself because I suck at math (many writers do), I felt such a relief. I didn’t have to fake it anymore.
When I was fourteen, I developed bulimia, a debilitating eating disorder I struggled with for fifteen years. Even though I got professional help, it still took me years to overcome but overcome I did! In 1994, my article “Dying to Be Thin,” was published in FAMILY CIRCLE MAGAZINE. Millions of readers across the country read that article about my fifteen-year-struggle and how I overcame it. Writing about a perceived weakness (bulimia) was liberating and helped me realize that the more I talked and wrote about overcoming struggles, the more confident I became in my ability to communicate with others and spread hope.
I continued to write for several national publications for years, but my dream was to write a novel and get it published by a traditional press. It took me sixteen years and hundreds of rejections and revisions until my first novel released in 2008 by a small traditional press. I’m sixty-six now, and my fifth novel, The Llano County Mermaid Club, will be released by University of New Mexico Press, September 2025. Talk about a boost for your self-esteem.
Even now as I work on my sixth novel, I still have to boss back imposter syndrome that developed when I struggled in school as a young girl. Despite numerous writing awards and professional accomplishments, all those boogeymen still try to tell me I don’t know what I’m doing. There is a real fear that somehow someway, everyone will discover that I am a fraud. It happens to many creatives. But like so many things in my life, I’ve learned to face that fear head on and plow ahead.
Sometimes that fear of failure can actually give me the fuel I need to harness all those perceived weaknesses and turn them upside down. My early struggles empower me to keep moving forward and striving to be the person I’ve always dreamed of becoming.
None of my success as a professional writer has come easy. But I never gave up. Sometimes a rejection only causes me to try harder. I’ve always been driven to succeed even when I didn’t know that’s what I was doing.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a novelist, and I enjoy lifting others up. I was named the 2024 MWSA WRITER OF THE YEAR. My work has appeared in Family Circle Magazine, Military Times, and in several anthologies. My fifth novel, The Llano County Mermaid Club, is slated for release early Fall 2025 by University of New Mexico Press and is represented by Tracy Crow Literary Agency. I’ve been featured in USA Today, The Associated Press, and many other publications. A native of Clovis, New Mexico, I reside in North Texas and I’m working on my sixth novel. One day while I was working on my fourth novel which is set in New Mexico (The Land of Enchantment), I looked up and thought, “I am always the daughter trying to write my way home.” I’m available to speak at events and book clubs.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
1. NEVER GIVE UP. I never gave up on my dream to MAKE IT AS A WRITER. Call me stubborn or determined, but I knew that if I didn’t learn to believe in myself, no one else would either. So I kept believing in my dream to make it as a professional writer. Every time I got knocked down by a rejection, I gave myself permission to grieve then I pulled myself back up and tried again.
2. . HARD WORK. I learned early in my career that I had to put in the effort and keep plugging away. No matter how hard I tried, I often faced rejections, but I just refused to give up.
3. TAKE RISKS. We all hear that at times, but it’s true. Taking risks is one of the scariest parts of growing up and becoming an adult. Oh heck, it’s still hard to take risks. But if we don’t take risks, we become paralyzed with fear and the fear becomes the boogeymen that want to keep us from succeeding. Taking risks is what life is all about.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
Even now, as I work on my sixth novel, I’m facing the old boogeyman called IMPOSTER SYNDROME. So here’s what I decided one day when I was trying to find my next story. I decided to write a novel about a successful author who’s been battling imposter syndrome her whole life. For me, the writer, it’s FUN to face down these old “monsters” and put them in their place.
It’s empowering.
Contact Info:
- Website: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenmrodgers
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KathleenMRodgersAuthor/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleen-m-rodgers-05b36417/
Image Credits
Kathleen at various stages of life and writing, from young girlhood to present. Each photo captures the storyteller within, whether I’m posing for an elementary school photograph or as a young writer and mother-to-be on the back of a ferry traveling up The Inside Passage on our move to Alaska in 1985. I am holding a journal in this photo.
Other photos show me at speaking engagements or contemplating my next story or receiving writing awards.
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
