Authors Interviewing Characters: Margaret Dulaney

Whippoorwill Willingly by Margaret Dulaney

A mysterious invitation prompts young Whippoorwill Willingly to travel to an enchanted lake in the far reaches of the Swiss Alps. Each day’s discoveries will alter the course of her life, offering forever friendships of all varieties: two-legged, four-legged and winged.

Filled to the margins with Mother-Earth-Love, Whippoorwill Willingly speaks to a hunger for the mystical world behind all of nature, with hints of nature spirits, angels and water sprites. It embraces the mystical view shared by the ancient wisdom traditions, with great emphasis on the healing powers of the natural world 

Interviewing Whippoorwill

Interviewer: Whippoorwill, how did you find your writer?

Whippoorwill: Margaret? 

Interviewer: Yes, how did you find Margaret Dulaney? Or did she find you?

Whip: No, I definitely found her, she wasn’t looking for someone like me.

Interviewer: What do you mean by that?

Whip: Well, she’d been writing nonfiction for the past 20 years, and was in the middle of her fourth book of nonfiction when I found her.

Interviewer: Then how did you convince her to listen to your story?

Whip: It wasn’t I who convinced her, it was the pandemic.

Interviewer: Tell me more.

Whip: She was writing something a bit difficult, about having hope in times of personal darkness, when Covid rolled across the globe with all its scary faces, and she looked up from her writing and thought, I can’t give this hard book to my readers! I need something that will lift! I need to send my audience to a healing spa, with magical waters, I need to take them on a journey away from this world, not deeper into it. That was when I came along and told her I had a story for her.

Interviewer: Did she listen right away? 

Whip: It was tough to get her to sit down, but when she did sit down and grew quiet, she could hear me clearly. I have a quirky voice, and I talk a lot.

Interviewer: But why did you choose her? Why this writer.

Whip: Honestly, I chose her because of her hopey-ness, she trades in hope.

Interviewer: And, what is your story? Why is it so hopey?

Whip: Well, I wouldn’t want to spoil things… Let me put it this way… How would you like to take a trip to a stunningly beautiful place, given your own darling little cabin on the shores of an enchanted lake high in the Swiss Alps where you will be given the chance to leave all of your worries on a magical island, swim in healing waters, delight in the wonders of mother nature?

Interviewer: I’m in. But, do you consider this book for kids or adults?

Whip: I don’t know about you, but I know plenty of adults who could use a break from the news-weary world, who could do with a trip to someplace healing. And, yes, kids sometimes need a break from the world as well. I can see a grandparent sharing it with their grandchild.

Interviewer: Finally. Did you enjoy working with Margaret? 

Whip: Oh yes, she’s like a mother to me now.

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Margaret Dulaney has been writing for the past thirty-five years, beginning with fiction as a playwright and moving into nonfiction with essays. In 2010 she founded the spoken word website listenwell.org, where she offers one ten-minute recorded essay a month on mystical and ethical themes. She has published three books: To Hear the Forest Sing, The Parables of Sunlight, and Spend Some Love. 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing