Kimberlee Auerbach is a former Fox News producer who now writes and performs full time. Her comedic monologues have been performed throughout New York, including a sold-out run at the Ninth Annual New York International Fringe Festival, several Moth GrandSLAM Championships, the Original Improv, the Kraine Theater, and the Bitter End.
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Describe your latest project.
The Devil, the Lovers, and Me: My Life in Tarot is a memoir that operates on two levels. Wow, how pretentious is that? Sorry. My book is far from pretentious. I've been told that once you start it, you won't be able to put it down. It's basically a laugh-out-loud, maybe cry at the end, weekend or long plane ride read. Okay, back to the two levels. On one level, my book spans the course of one tarot reading on one night at an old Jewish lady's apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Each chapter is another card in the spread and each card sparks another memory from my past. Thus, the second level of the book ? I flashback to stories from my life that reflect the lesson at hand. All the stories loosely string together to reflect an overall story about growing up with a sexually abused mother and sick brother and how that dynamic acts out in my love life as an adult. It's about giving away my power and taking it back. It's about learning to trust myself and appreciate my own unique journey. It's realizing that life is not about holding onto the past or looking to the future, it's about being present and breathing deeply in every moment.
What fictional character would you like to date, and why?
Howard Roark [from The Fountainhead]. His independence and fearlessness are beyond sexy to me.
Writers are better liars than other people: true or false? Why, or not?
False. I think writers are actually some of the most honest people on the planet. They get to the heart and truth of everything. The details might be made up, but a good sentence can awaken a world within someone.
Offer a favorite sentence or passage from another writer.
"I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night."
?Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
How do you relax?
I masturbate a lot.
What is your idea of absolute happiness?
I've never jumped out of a plane, but I imagine absolute happiness feels similar to letting go, floating in the open sky, everything suspended, quiet and soft.
Why do you write?
I write to eliminate shame. I write to connect with my higher self. I write to touch the lives and hearts of people I don't know. I write to have a voice, a voice my mother never had. I write for both of us.
In the For-All-Eternity category, what will be your final thought?
It wouldn't be a thought; it'd be a laugh.
Recommend five or more books on a single subject of personal interest or expertise.
I'm obsessed with love. Romantic love. Platonic love. Self love. All of it. It's hard to write about love without being totally cheesy, so when someone does it well, I am taken. I fall absolutely head-over-heels in love.
Five books I'm head-over-heels in love with:
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Karen von Blixen-Finecke)
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone (Author), Michael Smollin (Illustrator)