Tim Bete: You're a staff columnist at the Asheville Citizen-Times and also have your column available to more than 100 other Gannett newspapers. It seems like a plum of a job.
Susan Reinhardt: It's wonderful to hear from people in other parts of the country. Unless they're sending mean e-mails. Humor writers do get a few of those, believe it or not. I've learned to respond with a bit of Southern sugar and they back down. I'm lucky to have the exposure because I really believe it helped in getting a book published.
TB: How did you get your job at the Citizen-Times?
SR: I begged. Seriously. There weren't any openings and I was working at a spa teaching aerobics and suffering shin splints. I told the editor I'd love to trade my Reeboks and barbells for a job at the paper -- any job. It took three months, but someone finally left and I was hired doing chicken dinner news, little rinky-dink stories until nine years later they gave me a column. Everyone wants to work here because Asheville's in the mountains and is beautiful.
TB: When did you first start writing?
SR: I started writing in middle school when I went through an awkward phase. I was buck-toothed and flat-chested and quite geeky. The teasing hurt, so I would go into our attic and write. I was going to be a nurse, at first, and went to two years of nursing school. There's a really funny story in my new book about working at a hospital. I changed majors because some of us just aren't cut out for nursing. Though I have secret dreams to become one when I'm about 55.
TB: Your sense of humor is wonderful. Where did you get it from?
SR: My parents are hilarious. My father has a wonderful sense of humor and my mother can tell the best stories. She is great about including every delicious detail. I loved when she told me about the man at her church who loved attending so much, he came in one day with a catheter bag strapped to his leg. He wasn't about to miss it for nothing!
I wrote Not Tonight, Honey... because I really in truly have the craziest most wonderful family and experiences. My grandmother did, indeed, catch her bra and purse on fire and I really did have to "marry" my best friend after the minister fell ill and rolled around the yard.
TB: Your writing has a rare, gritty honest feel. Do you ever get feedback that it's TOO honest?
SR: Once when I changed my hairdo, I got a death threat. Mostly, people are kind and tell me they enjoy the down-to-earth honest humor. Unless I write something political which I've learned NOT to do, the response has been wonderful.
TB: Is it true that your mom refuses to let anyone in her church know about your book?
SR: My mother is a wonderful lady with lots of grace and modesty. She has a great sense of humor and believes you can be a good Christian and laugh at life, too. However, there are a few people in her church who don't share that view entirely. So she says she can't let them read my book, which is rather PG-13 rated.
TB: What other writers have influenced you?
SR: I've got most of Ermas books and David Sedaris's works. It's hard to top Erma. She was simply the most wonderful humorist ever. As far as the others, I love Sedaris (though he's R-rated) and I loved Lewis Grizzard. Jimmy Breslin was great and I enjoy Laurie Notaro's essays. They all influenced me and have given me inspiration to go for it.
TB: Did you know you hold the distiction of being the only author I know who can ride a unicycle?
SR: I have been riding my unicycle since I was 11 or 12 and rode it in college to get dates. I ride it now to shock the neighbors and for charity functions and book promotions. It's one of those quirky Southern "talents." I can twirl a baton at the same time, though quite poorly.
TB: I read that you were nominated for a Pulitzer.
SR: Being nominated for a Pulitzer is just a fancy way of saying your editors deemed you fit. I didn't win, but I did win a few big Gannett awards that paid pretty well. I think I paid off my Visa with one. Awards are good for one thing -- they keep you employed.
© 2005, University of Dayton
