By-line: "H. M. Cauley"
Interview with a Professional Writer

By Ronald E. Dulaney

"How do I interview a writer who interviews for a living?" That was the question that kept worming its way into my consciousness as I tried to frame my interview outline.

I had scheduled an interview with H. M. Cauley, a freelance writer whose articles appear weekly in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her features have appeared in local and national publications, including Atlanta Magazine, Atlanta Now, the Atlanta Business Chronicle, and Automotive News. She is a contributing editor of the Chicago-based Home Decor Buyer, a trade magazine for home fashion buyers, and has co-authored two travel books and one relocation guide on Atlanta

I have known H. M. Cauley for about eleven years and have always been comfortable talking to her. When I talked to Cauley for the first time, we spent over two hours on the phone. Now, however, that I have come out of the writer's closet and publicly declared my interest in writing, I suddenly had this great fear of being "exposed," of appearing the idiot, or an incompetent imposter.

I realized, however, that even if all these fears proved true, Cauley would probably just tell me it was not a new discovery to her and that I would survive, so I called and she agreed to be interviewed. We left open the time and place, and if it would be by phone, by e-mail, or in person.

We did not decide it would be with both of us in my office at home, with me eating dinner, trying to talk with my mouth full, which is how it actually happened! (Having a mouth full of food, however, was not all bad. It did not leave quite as much room in which to put my foot.)

Fortunately, by the time Cauley stopped by for a visit and we agreed to have the interview right then, I had formulated a strategy and an outline. I would do what I have often done when confronted with an important question. I'd ask Cauley.

My first question was, "How do you decide what to ask, and how do you decide what framework to use when you conduct an interview for an article?" Then, I fastened my seatbelt and held on to my chair, careening through the interview at breakneck speeds. I was barely able to keep up with my pencil as it burned across the pages of my notebook.

H. M. Cauley is an animated, charismatic woman. She talked and painted word pictures faster than I could write them down. I could hardly keep up. Cauley has lived in Atlanta since 1990, but grew up in Philadelphia, which probably explains the directness, fast pace and constant motion she maintains.

"When did you start to write?" I asked. Without hesitation, Cauley replied, "Oh, second grade. I won a gold star award for an article written for Mother's Day. I had to read it to the class. I was always the kid chosen to read in front of the class. The other kids hated me. When I was in the fourth grade, my brother taught me to type on a portable typewriter. When he was in college, he would sit me on his lap and show me where my fingers should go on the keys. By the seventh grade, stories were just coming out of my head." Cauley recalled just sitting, typing out of her head on the typewriter in the basement, and hearing her mother opening the door to the basement and yelling down "What are you typing down there?"

In the seventh grade, she recalled, she wrote a short story, "A Frozen 31st", which was a murder mystery. The murderer was a spurned boyfriend, an air conditioner repairman who altered the cooling system, freezing all of the ex-girlfriend's family. (Poe would have been proud.)

In high school, for vocabulary, she and her classmates were to write new words they discovered in a "blue book." Cauley filled three books. Even today, she keeps a dictionary handy, and looks up words. She wrote articles for her high school paper, and was the sports editor of her college paper, the Temple News, which published five days a week.

In college, after completing twelve years of Catholic schools, she thought she'd be a social worker until, after reading one of her papers, a sociology teacher gave her an A+, and said, "Get out of here and into a writing program." She did, receiving a Bachelor's degree in Journalism.

After college, Cauley worked for about two years in public relations. While doing that, she also worked part time for Macy's in Philadelphia. At the branch store where she worked, there was a contest to name the store newsletter. Cauley won. When one of the trainers quit, the personnel manager, who was responsible for writing the newsletter, hired Cauley as a trainer, although she had no training background. The stipulation, however, was that she take over the writing of the company newsletter. The manager explained that he could train someone how to handle the training responsibilities, but not how to write. Cauley did that for about ten years, getting married and having two children along the way.

"I wrote first for a suburban Philly paper, the Collegeville Independent, a weekly in the town where we lived," Cauley told me. She was paid $25 for each article. The editor of the Mercury, a daily in Pottstown, a larger suburb, read her articles, and asked her to write for the Mercury, promising $35 per article. For the Mercury, Cauley first wrote feature articles and covered school board and zoning meetings, which she recalls as being "boring as sin." Her last article at the Mercury ran on the front page!

In 1990, Cauley moved to Atlanta. Soon afterwards, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution launched the "Homefinder" section, and Cauley was hired to write articles about housing and real estate. She says that it took about two years for her to begin to have confidence in her writing. When the "CityLife" section was begun, Cauley sent a memo with thirty-five story ideas to the CityLife editor. The editor's reply was "I want all of them, and in two weeks." She now also writes the weekly "CityScape" column for CityLife's Buckhead edition and the weekly restaurant columns for both the North Fulton and Gwinnett sections of the paper. In addition, Cauley writes the quarterly dining guide for the Atlanta Business Chronicle, as well as the Chronicle's condominium publication, "Contemporary Living."

When discussing how she goes about setting the tone or beginning her articles, Cauley said that reading a lot of O'Henry, Conan Doyle, and Poe contributed to her writing style, and that she is looking for the "weird twist" or juxtaposition to catch the readers' interest.

I asked the key to being a successful freelance writer. Part, she said, is just people knowing your work, and that you will "come in on time" with your articles. Getting your work known, for example meant co-authoring the guidebooks. Although the pay wasn't the best, having co-authored the guides can "open other doors." With the Sunday circulation of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at about one million, H. M. Cauley's by-line is already well known. Another important aspect of being a freelance writer, according to Cauley, is to keep "being there" when an editor calls, asking for help with a story or an article. If you stop being available, "they stop calling."

I knew that Cauley has been working on a novel for a while, and so I asked about the novel. At the time of my interview with her, she said that she has been working on it for about a year and a half and had about 200 pages written, but that working on the novel didn't pay the bills, she noted. With her daughter at Georgia State and her son in high school, the novel has to be done in her spare time, of which there is not a lot.

I asked if it is true, as some of our readings in class have claimed, that the characters sometimes take off to places on their own. She looked thoughtful and didn't say anything for a second. Then, becoming very animated, she related how one night, while working on her novel, she had to "yell, Stop! Stop!" to reign in the story and the characters and ask, "Where did that come from?"

"What impact has technology had on your writing?" Cauley's reply was that it has made writing "totally, totally, easier." It has "opened up the markets to anywhere." Using the Internet has resulted in working on projects with people living in San Francisco, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon, for example, as well as numerous other locations. All of the collaborative work done on the travel guides with her co-author was done via the Internet. A lot of research for the travel guide was also done on the Internet.

E-mail technology speeds up the submissions of articles. As an example, it is possible to send "fifty pages in the blink of an eye" using e-mail, and receive feedback almost instantly. At times printed hard copy and registered mail must still be used, but the Inter-net has made possible working with people and publishers who otherwise would have remained out of reach.

The use of the Internet, phone, and e-mail saves time, making it possible to reduce the number of face to face interviews, which take longer to conduct than a phone interview. In addition, interviews themselves can be done on the net, with proofing and revisions easily passed back and forth. Cauley also types her notes directly to the computer when doing phone interviews, which saves time in not having to retype notes, or replay tapes of an interview. Cauley installed a modem in her office at home six years ago, and has since cut the mileage in half that she puts on her car each year. Which means half the time in Atlanta traffic.

Invoices for work done can also be submitted instantaneously, which speeds up payments. The down side of technology is that it is possible to become "jaded" and rely too much on the technology, and to become more isolated from personal contacts.

My final question to Cauley was, "What is the most important advice you can think of to give a writer when interviewing?" Her response was, "Make no assumptions. None. Not anything. As a writer, I cannot assume that the woman living in this house is your wife. I cannot assume that she has the same last name. I cannot assume anything."

With that, I finished chewing the food in my mouth, and realized that now not only do I know more about my friend, but about my friend, the writer. And I don't feel exposed, like an imposter, an idiot, or incompetent. Yet.

Posted with the permission of H.M. Cauley & Ronald E. Delaney. © 2002, 2008 Ronald E. Delaney.