Author Rose Marie Kinder to visit Southeast to present second book

Author Rose Marie Kinder admits a love for writing, music, family and Southeast Missouri.

She has one more admission.

"I'm not a quick writer," Kinder said matter-of-factly as she talked by phone from Warrensburg, Missouri, about her newest book, which she will read and discuss as a guest writer next week at Southeast Missouri State University.

"The Universe Playing Strings" is her second novel, published in August 2016, but originating well before her first novel, "An Absolute Gentleman," which went to print in 2007.

In fact, Kinder traces the start of "Universe" back to the mid-1980s. The novel's setting is Tucson, Arizona, and it follows an eclectic group of local musicians -- different ages and abilities -- brought together by their love of music in an atypical manner.

She re-wrote it a couple of times before polishing it into its final form with four major characters, and the mentioning of about 150 songs through title or a lyric, revealing their bonds built away from the stage through personal struggles and resolutions.

"Every town, I think, has a group of local musicians that everybody knows they're good and who they are, but mostly they only know about them in the music venue," Kinder said. "But each one of them has a whole other light. And so the book is sort of how people come together in one fashion like that, and they help each other. I think it's a joyous book, at least in a time when things seemed to be more peaceful. It's about good people who love music and who do the best they can."

Kinder is a 1959 graduate of Bloomfield (Missouri) High School who attended Southeast for one year before completing her bachelor's and master's degrees years later in creative writing from the University of Arizona, where she also completed her doctorate.

She returned to Missouri in 1989 to teach at Central Missouri State in Warrensburg and retired in 2002.

While the book started when she lived in Arizona, it includes the presence of her home state, with one of the main characters, Cora Leban, an older guitar-playing Missourian with a good voice. The Leban character can attribute part of her seasoning to her creator, who plays bass, mandolin, ukulele and dulcimer but terms herself "fair to middling or a little better, but not professional." In fact, if allowed, Kinder plans to incorporate music into her presentation.

"I like to be playing the dulcimer as people come in, and I like to sing a song, at least one that I've written, to end the program," Kinder said.

While her first novel, a work that took about 10 years, was acclaimed, her second book seems to have the distinction of favorite child.

"My first book was about a serial killer, and I didn't want that to be my major work, because I want my major work to be a bit upbeat," Kinder said.

Kinder also has two award-winning collections of short fiction, with Southeast Missouri a popular setting. She has fond memories of growing up in Stoddard County and feels a connection with Cape Girardeau, where her father, a barge hand, launched journeys to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She often returned to the area to visit her mother, who passed away in 2011, and still has a sister living in Jackson and a brother in Dexter.

"I love Southeast Missouri," Kinder said. "I wrote about it in my short stories more than any other place, probably."

Her book presentation will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at 125 Crisp Hall on the Southeast campus.

jbreer@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3629

Pertinent address:

Crisp Hall, Cape Girardeau, Mo.