Writer Katie R. Aune visits with me today as one stop on her tour with WOW! Women on Writing for her travel memoir, Finding Katya: How I Quit Everything to Backpack the Former Soviet States.
Full blog tour stop details are below the interview!
Bio:
Katie R. Aune is a recovering tax attorney who has worked in nonprofit and higher ed fundraising for more than a decade while also dabbling in travel blogging and writing. Despite not traveling overseas for the first time until she was 25, she has been to nearly 70 countries and all seven continents. Born and raised in Minnesota, Katie is currently based in Washington, D.C. and has a habit of rooting for sports teams that find ways to lose in devastating fashion. You can find her on social media as @katieaune and read more about her travels at katieaune.com.
Welcome, Katie. Please tell us about your current release.
On my 35th birthday, I was at a crossroads. Still reeling from a difficult breakup and longing to find more meaning in my life, I hopped on a one-way flight to start a year-long journey of discovery. Once a Russian and East European Studies major in college, I plotted a course that would take me through all 15 states of the former Soviet Union. In a book that is part memoir, part travelogue, I take readers along as I discover places that are far off the typical tourist track, from riding the Trans-Siberian Railway across Russia and taking a cargo ferry from Ukraine to Georgia, to volunteering in Tajikistan and camping in the desert of Turkmenistan. Faced with the vulnerability of traveling solo through unfamiliar lands, I shake off my insecurities, embrace the unknown and realize that each journey is worthwhile, even if it doesn’t go as planned.
What inspired you to write this book?
I kept a travel blog throughout my journey and got a great response to my posts, with people often telling me they appreciated that I didn’t sugarcoat my travels and was realistic about the ups and downs of long-term travel. I wrote my book because I wanted to introduce readers to traveling in lesser-known parts of the world and inspire people to embark on an adventure of their own.
Excerpt from Chapter 5 of Finding Katya – arriving in Belarus:
I stepped into the bathroom stall at the National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Minsk and gasped in shock. I was standing in front of the nicest, cleanest squat toilet I’d ever seen. I’d encountered plenty of these when I visited Egypt a few years earlier. I was mildly surprised when I saw one at the train station in Veliky Novgorod, Russia, but I came to expect them as I traveled throughout Siberia. I never imagined that I would encounter a squat toilet in the shiny new opera house in the capital of Belarus. I could only imagine the challenge facing the women waiting in line behind me: crouching in four-inch heels while holding their sequined gowns or taffeta skirts out of the way. Of course, as I was wearing my fanciest travel outfit of black pants and ballet flats, I had no issues.
Originally opened in 1939, the opera house had been extensively renovated in recent years. The white marble corridors featured gold accents and glittering chandeliers. Inside the theater, gold trim adorned the walls and red velvet seats. It felt far more luxurious than the historic Mariinsky Theater I’d visited in St. Petersburg, but the ticket price did not reflect that. I purchased my ticket for the Russian opera, Snegurochka, online for 28,000 rubles, the equivalent of just $3. I bought a program for a few cents and was pleased to find English translations explaining each act. That was far more than I got when I went to the opera in Rome years earlier.
Of the countries I’d visited so far, I probably knew the least about Belarus. I added it to my itinerary solely because of its status as a former Soviet state. Russia had been my original target when I decided I wanted to take a career break to travel. Still reeling from my breakup with Patrick and feeling increasingly out of place in my life in Chicago, I thought I would quit my job in the spring and spend the summer traveling through Russia. I would relocate to Minnesota with a new job in the fall. But after being offered a promotion at work—one too good to pass up—I decided to delay the trip by a year. I figured it would be better for my resume and my bank account, but it also gave me time to dream bigger.
I started reading about the Silk Road and became intrigued by the ‘Stans of Central Asia. The Baltic states had been on my radar since I wrote a journal article about them in law school. Georgia and Armenia sounded fascinating as well. At some point, I decided to look up a list of every country that had been part of the Soviet Union. I thrive on having goals to pursue, so when I saw that there were 15 former Soviet states, I thought it would be a worthwhile goal to visit all of them.
With Belarus, I was excited and intrigued to visit a place that most Americans didn’t even have on their radar, but I worried about it more than any country I had visited to date. I was concerned about the language barrier, which was silly because I made it through Russia for three months just fine. I fretted about getting around, which was even sillier because the metro in Minsk was about one-tenth the size of Moscow’s. But mostly, I was anxious because I imagined Belarus would be sort of like Russia, but worse—poorer, less modern, less stable, and less free. Russia had been a struggle for me, and I feared Belarus could be even more of a challenge.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
What exciting project are you working on next?
I wish had something fun to report, but for now I’m focused on promoting my travel memoir and working in my full-time job in higher ed fundraising. My dream would be to take another career break to travel around Africa and write a follow-up book about that experience.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
It’s hard to say! I probably considered myself more of a writer when I was blogging regularly and writing for travel websites on a freelance basis. Even though I recently published my travel memoir, I don’t naturally call myself a writer since it’s not my day job.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I don’t write full-time. My day job is working in higher ed fundraising, which doesn’t leave a lot of time on the side to write. I have a hard time being productive in short time periods, so to write my book I blocked out time on the weekends and scheduled mini writer’s retreats for myself where I could focus on writing for days at a time without any distractions. I was also part of a women’s writing group for a while that met monthly to workshop whatever pieces we were working on. That was instrumental in finishing my book.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I’m kind of old school and prefer to write my initial drafts by hand. And once I get into editing, I need to print out my drafts and mark them up by hand. I still use a lot of editing marks that I learned back in law school and when I was a young lawyer (my first career!).
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
So many things! At various points I think I dreamed of being a paleontologist, an architect and a TV journalist. By the time I finished high school, I was set on being an international lawyer, which led me straight to law school after college.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
While my book is focused on the former Soviet Union, my current travel obsession is the continent of Africa and African safaris.
Links:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon | Instagram | Barnes and Noble | Bookshop.org | Goodreads
Blog Tour Calendar
December 4th @ The Muffin
Join us at WOW as we celebrate the launch of Katie R. Aune’s memoir Finding Katya. Read an interview with the author and enter for a chance to win a copy of the book. https://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com
December 6th @ Pages and Paws
Stop by Kristine’s blog for a guest post by Katie R. Aune about how to quit your job to travel. https://pagesandpaws.com/
December 7th @ Chapter Break
Visit Julie’s blog for a guest post by Katie R. Aune about what she wish she had known about writing a book. You can also read an interview with the author as well. https://chapterbreak.net/
December 10th @ Shoe’s Seeds and Stories
Visit Linda’s blog for her review of Finding Katya. https://lschuelerca.wordpress.com/
December 12th @ The Faerie Review
Visit Lily’s blog for her spotlight of Finding Katya. https://www.thefaeriereview.com
December 13th @ Bookplaces
Visit Kay’s blog for her review of Finding Katya. https://bookplaces.blog/
December 14th @ Nikki’s Book Reviews
Join Nikki for her review of Finding Katya, a memoir by Katie R. Aune. https://nikkitsbookreviews.wordpress.com/
December 15th @ Michelle Cornish’s blog
Visit Michelle’s blog for a guest post by Katie R. Aune about what not to do when self-publishing your first book. https://www.michellecornish.com/blog
December 18th @ One Writer’s Journey
Stop by Sue’s blog and read her review of Finding Katya by Katie R. Aune. https://suebe.wordpress.com/
December 21st @ Knotty Needle
Visit Judy’s blog for her review of Finding Katya, a memoir by Katie R. Aune. http://knottyneedle.blogspot.com/
December 23rd @ A Storybook World
Visit Deirdra’s blog for her spotlight of Finding Katya by Katie R. Aune. http://www.astorybookworld.com/
December 24th HERE!
December 27th @ World of My Imagination
Join Nicole for her review of Finding Katya by Katie R. Aune. https://worldofmyimagination.com
December 28th @ Boys’ Mom Reads
Visit Karen’s blog for her review of Finding Katya by Katie R. Aune. https://karensiddall.wordpress.com/
December 29th @ One Writer’s Journey
Stop by Sue’s blog again for a guest post by Katie R. Aune about traveling off the beaten path. https://suebe.wordpress.com/
December 31st @ Affinito Lit
Visit Stephanie’s Instagram page for her review of Finding Katya. https://www.instagram.com/AffinitoLit
January 2nd @ A Wonderful World of Books
Visit Joy’s blog for her spotlight of Finding Katya by Katie R. Aune. https://awonderfulworldofwordsa.blogspot.com/
January 4th @ Choices
Visit Madeline’s blog for a guest post by Katie R. Aune about female solo travel tips. http://madelinesharples.com
January 4th @ Rockin Book Reviews
Visit Lu Ann’s blog for a review of Finding Katya by Katie R. Aune. https://www.rockinbookreviews.com/
January 6th @ Boots, Shoes, and Fashion
Visit Linda’s blog for her interview with author Katie R. Aune about her memoir Finding Katya. https://bootsshoesandfashion.com/
January 7th @ Jill Sheets’ blog
Visit Jill’s blog for her interview with author Katie R. Aune about her memoir Finding Katya. https://jillsheets.blogspot.com/
Great interview