After leaving the corporate world, Kate was determined to master writing and riding, pastimes that often led to confusion in the telling. Her studies of creative writing proved to be more successful than her horseback adventures which included a broken leg! However, her love of horses remains.
Kate also took the opportunity to be more fully involved with her son’s life – too involved, he would say. She enjoyed watching scores of soccer games and cheering his team on to a divisional state championship. All grown up now, her son lives in Eastern Europe and teaches English as a second language.
In addition to Terminal Ambition, Kate writes on women’s issues for a number of online sites. Her essays have appeared in Role/Reboot, Jezebel, Fem2pt0, Women’s Media Center and Ms. JD. You can follow her on Twitter @womnsrightswrtr.
Kate lives in a utopian community in the Midwest with her husband, dogs and innumerable squirrels.
1. What inspired you to write your first book?
I worked as a partner at a major international law firm and represented clients in many different industries. Also, I served as the general counsel of a Fortune 500 company. I’ve encountered women who suffered sexual harassment and discrimination regardless of how prestigious or humble their occupations. I have seen women shrug off these problems and women become suicidal because of them. I wrote Terminal Ambition to educate all women about their rights.
2. What books have influenced your life the most?
Marilyn French’s The Women’s Room has been an inspiration to me since I read it in the 1970s. Gloria Steinem described this novel as being as important to the discussion of women’s rights as Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man was to the discussion of racial equality.
On a personal level, I was moved by Jill Bolte Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight. I was inspired by her courage and her insights into the daily “gardening” our consciousness requires to blossom.
3. What are your current projects?
I’m working on the sequel to Terminal Ambition. Its title is Erotic Capital, A Maggie Mahoney Novel. Readers of Terminal Ambition have asked about Maggie’s love life, and they’ll get answers in the sequel. However, its primary thrust will be Maggie’s work on a case involving a female media star who is under constant pressure to be beautiful. In our society, unfortunately, “beauty” includes being thin. The first chapter of Erotic Capital is included at the conclusion of Terminal Ambition.
4. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
I deleted several subplots to make Terminal Ambition a faster read. In retrospect, I wish I had kept the scenes in which a female character uses a false claim of sexual harassment to advance her career. Unfortunately, this happens. Including it would have resulted in a more even-handed portrayal of the problem.
5. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author?
Booksellers want to be able to pigeonhole novels for marketing. I struggled for years with the question, “What shelf will the bookstore put Terminal Ambition on?” Subplots were whittled away to make it more marketable. The biggest casualty was the romance of the protagonist Maggie Mahoney. That now appears in the sequel Erotic Capital.
6. What has been the best compliment?
I was thrilled by the review titled “A Moral Tale Masquerading as Legal Suspense. Terminal Ambition hits all the marks for a legal thriller: masked motivations, hidden histories, personal perils and high stakes. McGuinness's page-turner provides plenty of plot twists and excitement. But as she takes the reader on this roller coaster ride, she also shines a light on the psychology of Wall Street lawyers revealing their arrogance, greed and egocentrism. Each character is flawed; the protagonist must overcome her personal weakness to achieve justice. Well disguised as entertainment, Terminal Ambition also educates about workplace bias and harassment. Most importantly, the author goes beyond these topics to pose questions all strivers should ask themselves: What do we sacrifice to satisfy our ambition? When does ambition become poisonous?”
7. Do you have any advice to give to aspiring writers?
The key to good writing is re-writing. Listen carefully to suggestions. Don’t let your ego blind you to criticisms that would improve your work.
8. What is your favorite quality about yourself?
My tenacity. I grew up in a blue-collar family in a New England mill town. Although I’ve walked down some dead-ends, my determination has kept me moving forward. I’ve embraced the aphorism, “You don’t fail until you give up trying.”
9. What is your least favorite quality about yourself?
My least favorite quality about myself is also my most favorite quality: tenacity. That drive doesn’t make for a peaceful inner landscape.
10. Is there anything else you would like to share?
I am passionate about women’s rights. Unlike most novelists who begin with a plot or characters they want to explore, I started with the goal of educating women about their workplace rights in an entertaining context. I chose a fast-paced legal thriller with a female protagonist to reach a broad audience.
I blog about a variety of women’s issues ranging from their portrayal in the media to violence against women to reproductive rights. My essays at collected at my website www.womensrightswriter.com.
