The Shores Of Our Souls
the debut novel by
Kathryn Brown Ramsperger
Kathryn Brown Ramsperger is the author of the award-winning The Shores of Our Souls, published by traditional publisher TouchPoint Press. Shores, her debut novel, received two America’s Book Awards (one for debut, the other for cover). It was also recognized by Foreword Indies for multicultural fiction, and was a five-star book for its depiction of social issues by Reader’s Favorites. It was also a librarian’s pick by the DC Public Libraries in 2019. Kathryn has been named a Pulpwood Queens’ Featured Author for 2022.
Kathryn’s second novel, A Thousand Flying Things, which was a Faulkner Wisdom Literary finalist, is represented by Diane Nine of Nine Speakers, in Washington, DC. Diane also represented the late journalist Helen Thomas, the actor Cindy Williams, and many other renowned public figures and authors.
Writing from a global perspective, Kathryn Ramsperger’s themes are universal yet intensely personal and authentic, touching on multicultural relationships, social justice, immigration, and the humanitarian world.
Her literary voice is rooted in the Southern tradition of storytelling and is informed by her South Carolina lineage. A graduate of Hollins University (Roanoke, Va.), Kathryn studied under several esteemed writers including—Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Eudora Welty; her mentor Richard Henry Wilde Dillard and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Henry Taylor. She holds a graduate degree from George Washington University. She began her career writing for The Roanoke Times and The Gazette newspapers and later managed publications for the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva, Switzerland. She has contributed articles to National Geographic and Kiplinger magazines.
A lifelong writer, having won her first (university) award at 16 for a short story, “The Gossamer Thread,” Kathryn’s continued to publish stories and poetry almost every year since. She also reviews multicultural and international books for The New York Journal of Books. She’s an intuitive and creative book coach with a trademarked process, Step Into Your Story! (TM). You can find out more about her coaching at https://groundonecoaching.com
Kathryn is a mezzo-soprano, has dined with artists ranging from author Marita Golden to musician and writer Kinky Friedman, and has traveled to every continent except Antarctica and Australia. She’s worked in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband and feline fur baby Rhapsody the Rhapsicle. Her son is an economics specialist who teaches Mandarin, and her daughter is an advertising and sociology graduate of Temple University, pursuing a masters in marketing analytics.
Kathryn donates half of her proceeds from the paperback version of The Shores of Our Souls to refugees and immigrants in the Middle East and Africa. She also belongs to the following professional affiliations:
The Authors’ Guild, Independent Book Publishers Association, Better Business Bureau, International Association of Business Communicators (board member), Author Accelerator, Authors and Publishers Association, Southern Writers Gallery of Stars, The Schimel Lode (board member), Washington (DC) Independent Writers, The Writer’s Center (faculty), and The International Pulpwood Queens (featured author 2022).
Click on the questions below to get the answers to the questions I’m asked the most about my writing and my writing life:
1. How do you spell your last name?
I am not a hamburger. There is no “b” or “u” in my name. It’s spelled phoenetically: Rams (like the horned animals frolicking in the mountains)/per (think French for “father” not burr like you say in winter) /ger (now, you’ve got it!)
2. Why is it spelled that way?
It was a decision made in Bavaria, Germany, long before my time. I added my husband’s surname to my own, Brown, because it’s distinctive, even if it can’t be spelled correctly. You are not the first to misspell it.
3. Can you get me published?
No, I cannot. Only you and lots of knocking on (not down) agents’ and publishers’ doors will get you published. Only writing many stories will get you published. Only hard work, practice, and grit–and a little bit of luck—will get you published.
4. Why does your book have a male point of view?
Because I felt it would be unfair and unbalanced to leave the male point of view out of a love story. Love and hate, just like peace and war, always have two points of view, two sides of history. However, this novel is determinedly my female protagonist Dianna’s story, not Qasim’s.
5. How much of this novel is true?
The feelings are true. I don’t know how to write any other way. The plot is fabricated. Plot is like a fine tapestry.
I did have a relationship with a gentleman born in the Middle East. He’s an amazing person. That much is true.
6. What do you do all day?
I write. Truly, I spend the bulk of every single day writing something or thinking about what to write. However, I love to travel, during which I take notes and photographs, but seldom write. I also read a lot. I snuggle with my furball feline and watch Netflix with my husband. I walk in Nature a lot. Other than that, I’m just an ordinary person, getting up each day, washing my dishes, cleaning my counters, hanging up my laundry. My schedule has changed over a lifetime, as needed, to accommodate other demands, like work or parenting or daughtering dying family members. Yet most days are writing-focused.
7. Where do you get your ideas?
From my life. I take real life scenes and muddle over them for a long time. Then one day I’ll see a scene in front of me playing out like a movie on a screen. I take it from there unless my characters object. Travel inspires me. People and the connections between them inspire me. And remember, my dreams and my imagination are also a large part of my life.
8. Where do you want to visit that you haven't?
Oh, so many! I hope my next trip is to Croatia. I’d like to spend every summer living someplace different.
9. How did you get to travel so much?
I worked for the Red Cross and Red Crescent. The places I traveled weren’t always vacation destinations, but they enriched me more than walks down the Champs d’Elysees (although that was wonderful, too). I also spent my money on travel and books more than anything else, other than of course, my family.
10. What don't people understand about The Shores of Our Souls that you wanted them to?
My novel is a love story, not a romance in the strict sense of the genre. It delves deep into why and how we love. It differs from many other love stories in that it’s told from two points of view. It was a risk on my part, but I did it to give my readers a better understanding of Arab culture, religion, experience, and values. That’s what drives any relationship – perspective and values.
It also doesn’t fall into a traditional romance trope of “Happily Ever After.” Instead, it shows what two people, damaged and alone, can do to heal and catalyze each other if they share love, even if it’s short-lived. Call it what you will, love conquers all, especially division. Every conflict we face teaches us about each other and the world we live in, but only if we feel enough compassion for others to walk in their shoes. Rarely, love leads to a lifetime partnership. Often, it teaches us who we are.
11. What are you working on now?
I am working on a strange historically-based novel and a memoir, which is (at last!) taking shape. More on both of those to come soon.
For more information, here’s my most recent interview by my esteemed writing colleague and literary Pulpwood Queen sister, Claire Fullerton!
