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An interview with Linda MacKillop, author of Hotel Oscar Mike Echo
As you well know, I love reading to my boys. We’ve migrated past the days of reading Little Blue Truck 49 times in a row1 and now enjoy reading middle grade novels together.
When my friend Linda MacKillop sent me a copy of her book in the mail, I didn’t think much of it. The boys and I read a lot of books together, after all. We’d read this one, it’d be another good one, we’d be on our way.
But this was not just another middle grade novel: this was a middle grade novel the boys couldn’t get enough of, a book they begged to stay up late so they could read “just one more chapter.”
I’m just delighted to share today’s space with Linda, so do yourself a favor: if there’s an 8 to 12 year old in your life, pick up a copy of Hotel Oscar Mike Echo and give yourself a pat on the back.
Because, job well done.
Cara Meredith: How are you coloring outside of the lines, all over again, when it comes to your writing and this book in particular?
Linda MacKillop: First, I’ve colored outside the lines by bouncing between two novels for adults and now a middle-grade novel. And in this middle-grade, I write about a hodgepodge of pressing issues that have meaningfully touched my life in some way.
As a person of faith, I colored outside the lines by writing a book that’s grittier than most middle-grade novels in the Christian market, not knowing how it would be received because of its storyline. As one endorser wrote in an online review, it’s “a different kind of Christian middle-school read: socially compassionate, and it explores mental health and poverty from the eyes of a little girl longing for a home.” Of course, I’d love this to be read far beyond the Christian market. It’s very appropriate for a general audience.
Cara Meredith: Putting ourselves out there when it comes to storytelling always feels a little scary. How was publishing scary and perhaps even vulnerable for you?
Linda MacKillop: I admit to some fear and trembling presenting this book to the world. I’m a white, suburban woman writing about homelessness in the inner city. I often asked if I should be the person writing this story or someone else. I’ve sat in classrooms with the formerly homeless or incarcerated, hearing their stories and teaching them to read, or I’ve sat in a maximum-security jail teaching parenting classes to inmates with my husband, listening to men who have lost their way but still adore their children on the outside. I firmly believe I have a perspective to share too. Many times, my mind traveled to those children of inmates, considering their trauma, shame, and pain. Because their experiences moved me deeply, I wanted to share them with readers, encourage kids who might be in a painful situation, and grow compassion in those readers with little understanding of the road others are treading. I wanted to give words where those kids and their parents otherwise might not be heard.
But we have been a turbulent country over the last few years, and anger, as we all know, bubbles to the surface so quickly and vehemently these days. I can imagine people from several different groups finding fault with what I wrote. Is it authentic enough? Did I use the correct language? Is it appropriate? Lots to tackle.
Cara Meredith: What is your heart, your intention, the real push behind writing this book?
Linda MacKillop: I wrote a book I would’ve wanted my own young sons to read when they were growing up. We read hard stories together, books about the Civil War, the death of a friend, foster care, orphans, the Dust Bowl and many other topics. We exposed them to the big bad world from the safety of our home where we could process stories with them and hope they would grow great compassionate hearts.
While Hotel Oscar Mike Echo is not a story about race, we meet the Goodwins who provide safety and stability to my main character. As a Black couple living in Richmond, VA (the former capitol of the Confederacy) we step into some of their pain and the city’s history.
One experience in my own life remains deeply embedded me and probably influenced this topic to some degree. It took place at Florida State University in 1978 when I was a college freshman with a Black roommate. We went to a restaurant to eat and had the waitress slap the menus on the table and then refuse to come and take our order. I was oblivious to the rude behavior, but after a confusing wait for service, my dignified, patient roommate asked me, “Do you really not know what’s going on here?” When I told her I didn’t, she answered, “It’s because you’re with me.” My world tilted at that moment. I was a Massachusetts girl, naïve about that kind of treatment. But to my roommate, she read the room immediately, being all too familiar with the mindset. Although we left immediately, I’ve never forgotten that horrible and cruel moment and how so many people of color live it over and over in their lives.
One of my closest friends lived and served in the inner-city of Richmond as a single woman, teaching children through the ministry where she worked. For a time, she drove around with a bullet lodged in her steering wheel after a gang shooting on her street. Her neighborhood serves as one of the many inspirations for this story.
I hope to shine a light on the forgotten and to highlight the dignity of each character in this book and the real-life people they resemble. Ultimately, I know my heart behind the writing of this novel and need to throw it to heaven and let the results be what they may. May readers offer me grace and understanding.
Cara Meredith: Okay. We talk so much about audience when it comes to book-writing, but what did you learn about yourself along the way?
Linda MacKillop: I learned again how much I care for hurting people and those who might feel invisible and hopeless. Our world is filled with noise these days, and I was reminded that I want to create work to bring some salve or strength or hope to anyone who reads my books or essays, always writing things that matter rather than empty noise.
And I learned that I can care too much about what others think of me. This was a story compiled from so many experiences in my life where I’ve tasted the pain in other’s lives and I care about doing their stories justice.
Cara Meredith: Anything else from your ordinary, everyday life you want to share with us?
Linda MacKillop: While I am passionate about words and stories, I am most passionate about my family: four grown sons married to wonderful women who have gifted us with four grandchildren. When I’m not writing, I’m planning my next trip to see one or all of these people, most of whom live in another state. I’m grateful that “the solitary have been placed in families,” to paraphrase a prayer by John Baille. I never take them for granted for a second. I grew up in a family that imploded, and I’m filled with gratitude that my husband and I can offer our adult sons and their families the gift of our stable marriage and memories that don’t come with a dose of pain and regret.
I’m only exaggerating a little tiny bit.