Today I’m delighted to feature Kirsten Mickelwait, who is a professional copywriter and editor by day and a writer of fiction/creative nonfiction by night. Her latest novel The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty is set against a Jazz Age backdrop of 1920s Paris and Antibes and features the bohemian elite of the new century-including Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso, and Dorothy Parker. Definitely one for my reading list!
Kirsten Mickelwait has been passionate about reading and writing for as long as she can remember, but her love of literature was really ignited as an English major at UC Berkeley, where she discovered James Joyce and the expatriate writers of 1920s Paris. Her historical novel, The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty, is being released in May 2025 and features many of these characters, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein, and Dorothy Parker. Her memoir, The Ghost Marriage, was published in 2021. Kirsten is an alumna of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, the Napa Valley Writers Conference, and several other writers’ workshops. She has another book in the pipeline—a speculative novel—and is currently at work on a collection of linked short stories about post-menopausal women.
Over to Kirsten :
Which five pieces of music/songs would you include in the soundtrack to your life and why?
California by Joni Mitchell. Greek islands, crazy chefs, a bench in Paris, a party down a red dirt road… I was in high school and college when Mitchell was on the ascendancy, and she was such an icon for all of us hippie girls. This song contained so many images of what I hoped my adult life would look like.
Days Like This by Van Morrison. Aside from Morrison’s classic rolling beat, I love the sentiment: to sit up and notice the smallest daily blessings. It reminds me of a time when my children were little. I sat with my parents on the steps of our back porch watching the kids romp through the sprinklers, and my mom whispered to me, “Don’t ever forget this moment.” Yes, my mama told me.
The Pearl Fishers by Georges Bizet. This male operatic duet has always given me chills. But it took on special significance one night years ago when I was hosting my choral group at an after-party with a karaoke machine. Suddenly a tenor and a bass singer got up and sang this duet completely spontaneously. The whole room was gobsmacked. It’s still one of the happiest memories of my life.
Heavenly Day by Patty Griffin. This is another song about the tiny moments. Every time I hear it I wish I knew someone like Patrick Swayze who could waltz me around the room, maybe with a little dip at the end. Where are the men, I ask you, who love to dance?
Happy by Pharell Williams. Speaking of dancing, I cannot listen to this song without jumping up and doing a probably ridiculous version of Pharell’s video a few years back. I’ve always loved to dance and to me the marriage of music and movement is something sacred.
What five things (apart from family and friends) would you find it hard to live without.
My passport. Since retiring from full-time work three years ago, I’ve taken two international trips per year. I’m cramming in as much traveling as is humanly possible for as long as I can.
My laptop. Without writing, I don’t know who I’d be.
My daily nap. I first got into the habit when I was living in Rome and, during the summer, I quickly learned the logic behind the afternoon siesta. I had to give up the habit once I returned to full-time work, but now? It’s a daily ritual. It resets the meter for the whole second half of my day.
Sauvignon blanc. With dinner every night. I also love red wine but can no longer drink it because of the tannins. And I dislike any kind of “oaky, buttery” Chardonnay. Give me grassy and citrus-y any day!
Google. How did people write books before the internet?
Give five pieces of advice to your younger self?
Relax. You’ll be fine.
Try being kind instead of always being right.
Have confidence in yourself as a writer; yes, you will write a book one day!
There are things called fellowships that pay for people to go to graduate school. Get an MFA.
“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” A.A. Milne
Tell us five things that most people don’t know about you
For the first 20 years of my life, I planned to become a professional dancer. A knee injury in my sophomore year forced me to pivot my major to English, a degree I thought at the time was worthless (though surely worth more than a dance major) but eventually turned into a writing career.
I once slept in Gore Vidal’s bed. Needless to say, he wasn’t in it at the time. In fact, I never met the man, but attended a party at his apartment in Rome when he was out of town.
I have trypophobia: an intense aversion to clustered holes, bumps, or other repetitive patterns. Show me a dried lotus pod or honeycomb and my skin will literally crawl.
I’m a real neatnik, but am also pretty cavalier about household germs. I firmly believe in the 30-second rule. And my kids are both still alive and well.
I’m technically an introvert (according to the Meyers-Briggs test). Yes, I love people and am very social, but after two hours you’ll look around and I’ll be gone. My friends call me the “drive-by guest.”
Tell us five things you’d still like to do or achieve.
I’d like to think I have another couple of books in me.
I want to sail along the Turkish coast and take a hot-air balloon over Cappadocia.
I’d like to learn Spanish and become more fluent in Italian and French.
Once I’ve stopped traveling, I hope to return to studying the piano.
My retirement dream: to live in an artists’ community with other creatives, drink absinthe (okay, sauvignon blanc), and pursue the life of the mind. La Boheme with better accommodations.
Many thanks for joining me today Kirsten, it was lovely to discover more about you. Wishing you all the best with sales of your latest book it sounds intriguing.
Kirsten’s Books
(NB This post features Affiliate links from which I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases)
The Ashtrays are Full and the Glasses are Empty
Raised in New York’s Gilded Age, pampered heiress Sara Wiborg dreams of a more creative life than the rigid future prescribed for her. It’s only when she meets Gerald Murphy that she finds a man who shares her creative, aesthetic ideal and, after a friendship of eleven years, they marry despite the strong disapproval of her family.
Against the sizzling Jazz Age backdrop of 1920s Paris and Antibes, Sara’s innate style and gift for friendship attract the bohemian elite of the new century-including Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso, and Dorothy Parker. But by the 1930s, her fortune is lost and tragedy strikes-not once, but twice. Sara’s strength and resilience allow her to find a new equilibrium over time, long after the parties have ended. A heartbreaking story of love and loss, The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty follows Sara through her very modern life to reveal how tragedy can be healed by faith, unconditional love, and a creative mind.
The Ghost Marriage
Steve and Kirsten Beckwith shared 26 years together. There was the bliss of courtship, the contentment of marriage, and the love of parenthood—then anger, spite, unforgivable damage. When Steve dies suddenly of colon cancer, he leaves Kirsten saddled with his debts of $1.5 million. As she fights toward recovery, she begins to receive communications from Steve in the afterlife that lead her on an unexpected path to forgiveness. The Ghost Marriage is her story of discovery—that life isn’t limited to the tangible reality we experience on this Earth, and that our worst adversaries can become our greatest teachers.
