Today we’d like to introduce you to Vanessa McGrady.
Hi Vanessa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
It was 2005 and the last play I’d written and produced flopped. My heart limped along, bruised from a dramatic breakup. My work as a freelance journalist had stalled out. I needed sunnier skies than what Seattle offered, literally and figuratively, so I packed up stuff and my beagle, Lucy, and headed for LA. I landed in a Silverlake house share. A week in–this is in the days of the Thomas Guide and Mapquest printouts, mind you, and maybe a Garmin if you were fancy–I pulled over and cried after not being able to navigate my way to the West Hollywood Target and feeling hopelessly lost and that maybe I’d made the biggest mistake of my life.
On the bright side, my best friend had followed a gaffer to LA and helped me figure things out. My roommates were fun and generous and we watched a different horror movie every Sunday night for a year (Icihi the Killer broke me and that was it for me), but I’m still friends with them. I met more people, used my savings to buy a condo in Glendale, and realized–uh oh! I needed real job. I took work in communications at Southern California Edison, planning to stay six months but rode out seven years, where I learned a ton about the good and bad aspects of corporate America.
There, I met a man named Steve, married him, and exactly nine months later (with only four days’ notice), we became parents to our daughter, Grace, through adoption. Steve’s alcoholism destroyed our marriage by the time Grace turned 2, and I quit my job and went back to freelancing in order to better manage my life and my parenting. Around then, Grace’s birth parents lost their SRO hotel spot and spent time on the streets, and, because they’d given me the greatest gift I could ever hope for, I invited them to stay. Their time in and out of our home was the subject of my book, ROCK NEEDS RIVER: A MEMOIR ABOUT A VERY OPEN ADOPTION (Little A). It came out Jan. 1, 2019. Three days later, Steve died from the disease he could never acknowledge. It’s a tragedy that continually ripples through our lives.
Being an extremely single mom meant my time and energy and love were my most precious assets. I didn’t always spend them wisely. It was joyful and painful, challenging and rewarding. I thought that spending time with a child in a small apartment during the pandemic would be impossible, but it turned out that we created a really sweet life with each other and the small pod of friends we saw.
In October of 202o, I thought it might be nice to go on a walk with someone, so I went online and connected with a handsome, funny and talented silver fox named Richard Tatum who indicated that food was his love language. It is also mine. A year later, we bought a big ugly house together, and the year after that, we got married. Our house is becoming less ugly. Grace is 14 now and I am awe-filled by my beautiful, smart and good-hearted girl.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
What are the biggest obstacles and challenges I’ve faced to get here? Do you have another Internet I can use because all this will take up a lot of room.
Let me start by saying that I have extraordinary privilege in that I’ve been able to find work that allowed me to be home to raise my child and tailor my hours around her needs. Of course, most women have been suffocated by patriarchal and corporate systems, and I look to my sisters of other ethnicities, colors, immigration status and abilities and know that the deck is stacked even more against them, so it feels wrong to complain too much.
Professionally, my book has been in and out of development since 2019 and it’s been a roller coaster. I have a wonderful director attached, a sister adoptive mom, Jennifer Getzinger, who amazes me with her tenacity and loyalty through all this. The book was most recently optioned by a high-profile production company, but when it came time to renew, they had laid off most of their workers and had a hard time keeping the doors open and dropped us. I wish I had just been working on other stories instead of pouring all my hope into ROCK NEEDS RIVER.
Right now, my menopause-addled brain and body are my blessing and curse. I care less about politeness and debating MAGA people, and more about genuinely being able to make a positive difference in the world.
Personally, I’ve made poor decisions and wasted years in my relationships, always opting for the sexy-but-unavailable person until I met Richard.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
In the last five years, I’ve been acting on all those vague ideas of things I promised I’d do “someday.” Well, that’s now. I make collages, I flip furniture, and I sustainably design interiors (mostly my own, but hoping to branch out). I’m learning guitar and went back to tap class. I got obsessed with ceramics and because there are only so many mugs and berry bowls you can bring to your friends, I started selling them and making custom pieces for clients.
I’m writing a novel partly ripped from my own life–a girl living with her single disabled dad in rural Washington State in the ’80s finds herself having to move to New York for her own safety and live with her estranged artist and conwoman mother. It’s told from both the mother’s and daughter’s points of view.
And, because it feels like my industry is being quickly obliterated, I started a substack, The Whole Thing, focused on money and the economy so I can feature entire interviews with experts and topics I’m curious about without having to place a story with someone else.
I’m also looking forward to a new professional chapter: I just finished my real estate certification course and I’m studying to take the state exam. AI can’t replace the feeling of walking through a potential new home.
What are your plans for the future?
In the future, I’d like to have sanity, humanity and intelligence restored to our government so that we can live in peace, health and opportunity. I’m planning to fight for that in whatever way I can.
Pricing:
- Ceramics: $5-$150
- Art: $40-$2500
Contact Info:
- Website: vanessamcgrady.com and realeditorial.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/art_and_intrigue
- Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/vanessamcgrady
- Other: https://vanessamcgrady.substack.com
