Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathy Greco.
Cathy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve always lived in worlds of imagination. I was an obsessive reader as a child, the kind who got in trouble with the teach because I was reading a book after finishing my work and didn’t hear when the teacher called my name to let me know the class was ready to move on. From there I moved on to acting. Stage shows, dinner theater, a couple of commercials and industrials, and film extra work… whatever I could do to to explore as many worlds as possible. Along the way I started a family and became a caretaker for my mother who had Alzheimers. It was a rough period of my life. I found myself drifting back to the worlds that lived in my imagination, and I realized I had worlds of my own I wanted to explore. I started writing about those worlds whenever I got the chance, partly as a way to remember who I was and partly as a way to deal with everything I was going through. I wrote about pain, humor, love, loss, and hope. Eventually it became my first book.
I’ve never stopped writing since then. Writing gives me the opportunity to examine and embrace the changes in life, whether they are good or bad. (Plus, I get to create and explore amazing new worlds.) I have four books out now, two humorous and two more serious, plus a fifth on the way. I’m not a household name – yet anyway – but I have found a surprising number of people who relate to my stories… even the odd ones, like Dead in Bed, lol.
My mother passed away and the children are mostly grown, so I have more time now. I’ve taken up acting again, but as much as I love it, I have to say I enjoy writing more. With performing, I inhabit one role at a time. With writing, I inhabit whole worlds.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not in any way, shape, or form.
While I am grateful I had the opportunity to care for my mother when she needed it, being a caretaker can mean losing a part of yourself. Doing so while raising three young children is even harder. You are focused on the needs of others, not on yourself, and there is a real danger of becoming less important to yourself. Luckily, I had a supportive husband and a best friend who both encouraged me and enabled me to recognize my needs were important to, but I’m not going to say I listened to them as often as I should have.
It took a long time to finish my first book, partly because of time constraints and partly because it took me a while to be honest with what I was feeling – and in writing, you need to be honest with yourself, even if your characters sometimes lie to each other. I went through several re-writes before I realized I was denying my characters the right to be angry and scared because I didn’t want to admit I was angry and scared.
Even once I was finished, it was a good bit of time before I was confident to call myself a writer. It took my support system, which had grown to include a wonderful local writers’ group, Pittsburgh South Writers’ Group, to convince me to share my stories. Honestly, sometimes it still surprises me that people want to read my books. It’s sort of surreal when people come up to me at events and ask me to sign a copy of one of my novels.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Technically, I was a stay-at-home mother for the largest portion of my adult years, but that term is misleading. Yes, I was a caregiver for my husband’s and my three children, and my mother, but I also worked various odd jobs to supplement our income. One of the oddest jobs I have done was a performer in a Renaissance-era performing group, The Wicked Wenches.
For over ten years, we performed a pg-13 bawdy ballads show at Renaissance festivals. We were quite popular, selling CD’s, touring to local theaters, and appearing on a billboard or two. I’m told there was even a picture of our group on one of the Penn-Dot tool sheds, although I was never able to verify that for myself.
The name I performed under, Cameo MacPherson, actually ended up becoming one of my pen names, as many people still recognize me as her and will yell, “Cammie!!!!” across a crowded room.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Falling asleep in my warm comfy bed after reading A LIttle Princess, (the attic scenes in particular,) and imagining myself in her place as the “magic” worked around her.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Cathygrecoautho.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cameomacpherson/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CatherineGreco
- Other: https://bsky.app/profile/cameomacpherson.bsky.social
