Q&A With H.M. Gooden 

Mickey Mikkelson has connected me with more wonderful people once again. Tonight’s guest is H.M. Gooden! H.M. Gooden is the author of Passages & Poetry In A Pandemic which is an anthology book of poems!

Q: Would you like to talk about both Poetry In A Pandemic & Passages? Where did you get the idea for both books and what makes them unique? 

A: Thank you for having me. I would love to talk more about my books. They both came about rather organically from writing I had been doing at the time. 

With the first release, Passages, I wanted to organize my pieces to reflect a theme I was struggling with at that time in my professional life, and juxtapose it with my own personal life experiences.

My recent release, Poetry in a Pandemic, was an idea I came up with after a discussion with someone who thought my daily practice would be an interesting “time capsule” to look back on after the pandemic was over.

I’m not sure exactly when I decided to organize them in that way, only that as I looked back I realized it was interesting to reexamine where I was at the time everything was changing so fast for us all.

Q: When did you get that initial call to be an author?

A: I’ve always dreamed of writing some day. When I was a child I wanted to be a librarian, because I thought you could read and write all day long. It was my favorite place to go, until one day I discovered you weren’t allowed to do that if you worked there. After that, I changed career focus and went into healthcare, but always wanted to write a book “someday” 

Then in 2015, with my third child in under 4 years up at 2 in the morning and knowing I had to go to work at 7, I knew I needed more in my life than work and home. Nanowrimo was around the corner and caught my attention, and I wrote my first book that month, and published it in 2017. The rest, as they say, is history!

Q: Are you currently writing your next book now? Is it a book of poetry or a whole new story?

A: A little of both! I started a new project in November for nanowrimo, as I like to write at least one new fiction project a year in addition to my nonfiction pieces. 

My latest looks like it’s heading toward being a paranormal cozy mystery or maybe romance—I haven’t finished yet, so I’m not sure! 

I also am revising my second Poetry in a Pandemic volume for release, hopefully in late 2024.