Category Archives: Writers
Writing: Daily Word Count (Poll)
Stephen King in his famous writing book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, has this to say about his daily word count:
“I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words. That’s 180,000 words over a three-month span, a goodish length for a book — something in which the reader can get happily lost, if the tale is done well and stays fresh.”
Wow…that’s a lot of writing!
What about you?
An Ode To Spring: A Contest Winner
Over at 
I held a contest called, “An Ode to Spring,” where writers could write poetry about the coming of Spring (or hopefully, warmer weather!). Today, it is my delight to present you the 2nd Place winner, Tate Morgan, for his beautiful poem, Spring Love.
In spring lovebirds hover fancy
till morning lit by the dew
Takes back winter’s heartache
restoring the love in you
The desperate cries of anguish
from a heart that knows no joy
Feeds long upon its own regret
tossing the soul as if a toy
Give to me your heartaches
lie down in the meadow green
Let go the sorrow of past loves
have rain wash the soul clean
Always to blossom in springtime
love feeds us of our dreams
Washing away the winter sorrows
from each one or so it seems
Take all of what you’ve been given
set aside pieces in you there-of
No broken promise of joy’s embrace
can outshine a true heart in love
Enjoyed his poem? You’re in for a treat then! Visit his page for loads more. 🙂
Quotes on Mental Health and Creativity
We’ll discuss how mental health/illness can affect one’s creativity on March 15th.
Q&A with Author Alison Morton
I’m so excited to have a very special guest here with us today: Alison Morton who is the author to the alternative history series called Roma Nova. Be sure to check out her sites below!
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’ve been fascinated by the Romans since I was 11 and that’s a while ago! In between normal life events – earlier career in various sectors, marriage, raising our son, running my own business – I spent many of my vacations clambering over Roman Europe.
These days I live in France with my husband, write thrillers, cultivate a Roman herb garden and drink wine.
What aspects of your life led you to writing the kind of books you write?
I have a masters’ in history, six years’ military service and I love a good thriller. And I’ve always believed that a woman could run things as well as any man.
After the novel writing bug was triggered by a terrible film, all these came together and resulted in the Roma Nova thriller series.
What’s your favorite part about being a writer?
Two things: firstly, the research and the way you become diverted into looking up stuff totally unrelated to your work in progress and secondly, receiving an email or review from a reader who totally gets what you are trying to say in your books.
Tell us more about your books.
They’re adventure thrillers set in a modern Roman society run by strong women (Roma Nova). Of course, our heroines are fallible and of course they have strong love interests, but it’s the women who lead the action and call the shots. While the books are thrillers, there are no dripping body parts.
The first one, INCEPTIO, starts in New York when an ordinary girl, Karen Brown, is hunted by a government enforcer. But in steps an attractive Roma Novan spy who helps her escape. But Karen finds it isn’t just gratitude she feels towards him.
She discovers her Roma Nova heritage and her true name. Her new life in Roma Nova is shattered a few months later when the government enforcer crosses the Atlantic and comes after her. He has a very personal reason to pursue her …
What are you currently working on?
I’ve just sent the sixth book in the series to the copy editor and that will be out this April. Now I’m developing a novella, also set in Roma Nova.
How do you get into the minds of your characters?
I close my eyes and let them have conversations with each other. And sometimes I let them run around in my head acting out scenes. It’s important to establish each character’s separate personality from the start. Many people find it helpful to write out character profiles. Stories, whatever their setting and purpose, are all about people in the end.
What’s your favorite traveling destination? Any place you haven’t visited and would love to?
Rome is my absolute favourite – impressive in so many ways.
In 2015, we visited the US and Canada for seven weeks seeing the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Washington DC, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Beverly Hills, New York, Chicago, Niagara Falls, Quebec and a lot else! Last year I did ten trips to the UK to speak at events as well as two here in France. In March I’m off to the London Book Fair and then to Dublin, Ireland to speak in June. That’s plenty of travel at present!
What do you see in the future for women in general?
I think we’ll keep nudging towards a more egalitarian world, but there’s a long way to go. We must continue to stand up for a truly equal place in the world and chisel away at ingrained and subconscious acceptance of stereotypes that surround us.
Any additional comments or advice you’d like to add for our readers?
If you’re a writer keep writing and be persistent. Make your work the best it can be – no compromise! If you’re a reader, the best thing you can do when you read a wonderful book is to leave a review.
Social media links
Connect with Alison on her Roma Nova site
Facebook author page
Twitter: @alison-morton
Alison’s Amazon page
A Christmas Story Contest Winner: M.E. Lyle’s Interview
Click on image to see the original contest’s page
Contest winner is M.E. Lyle for his humorous story, A Late Christmas Dinner. Enjoy his interview!
So, tell us a little bit about the piece you wrote, A Late Christmas Dinner, for this contest.
A Late Christmas Dinner was inspired a few years back and based, very loosely, on real events. Of course the story has been greatly exaggerated. What good are imaginations if we can’t use them?
What else do you generally write?
I generally write light humor, tinted with a bit of romance. I enjoy making readers smile. I also tend to use a lot of dialogue. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. I do very little poetry.
How long have you been writing? What inspired you to start?
I’ve been writing since 2007. My early writings are terrible, filled with punctuation errors, and verb confusion messes. I tend to use present tense when I should be using past tense. I need to go back someday and clean those messes up, but there are so many, and I am so lazy. I was inspired by Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. It’s always been a favorite.
Tell us a little bit about your hopes and dreams as a creative.
My hope is to live long enough to create something worthwhile. Most of what I write is pretty silly.
Where else can we find you and your work?
My work is posted only on WritersCafe.
Are you on WritersCafe? I have a contest called Best of 2016 that runs ’till January 13th. For this one, the members get to vote on the top finalists.
Why I Write: Contest Winner’s Winning Work
Why I Write
(*From late August through end of October, I ran a contest over at WritersCafe.Org called “Why I Write.” The premise of the contest was to write a 250-word essay (or a poem) on why you write.)
Our 1st place winner of the contest is Eagle Poet for poem, The Page. You can check out the writer’s profile/other writings here.
Click on the image to see the original poem.
The Page
by
Eagle Poet
My pencil, an arrow of expression.
It’s fine, gray, tip the connection
between thought and paper.
A tool breathing life into
immortalized ideas.
A sword slicing through
what can’t be seen, but
felt. It’s eraser, a magic wand
zapping away fragments
which don’t mesh.
A lever releasing proclamations
of misunderstood spirit and soul.
Misconceived lines a blueprint,
tape measure gauging the
distance between conception
and fulfillment.
Mirrors, simultaneously clear
and cluttered, the writer sees
the best and the worst reflecting
from a single lens,
panoramic.
Page creases are miles
of a struggle, telling a story,
each one a marking, of a
composite.
Stray marks indicate steps
walked, easily perceived
as an unfriendly highway.
My pencil is the ticket,
gets me from point A
to point Z. A pointer sets apart
the narrow pathway
and untraveled road.
A chisel that carves away
the past engraves a new
future.
Questions for Self-Published Authors
I have two questions for those who have had their works self-published.
- Which self-publishing company or service would you recommend, and why?
- Which ones should I stay away from?
Many thanks for your kind help!
Why I Write: Contest Winner Interview
Why I Write
(*From late August through end of October, I ran a contest over at WritersCafe.Org called “Why I Write.” The premise of the contest was to write a 250-word essay (or a poem) on why you write. For the next three Mondays, I will be presenting the winners’ interviews or posting their winning work. Enjoy!)
Our 3rd place winner of the contest is known as WriterGirl247247 for her essay, Saved by Words. You can check out her profile/other writings here.
- So, tell us a little bit about the piece you wrote, Saved by Words, for this contest.
My piece, Saved by Words, is the story of how I became a writer. I love nothing more than to create stories. But somewhere along the line my own story slipped through the cracks. So I decided to tell it, because I believe what I express in Saved by Words is felt by many writers.
- What else do you generally write?
I write mostly young adult adventure, suspense, spy thrillers, and science fiction. And when I can I like to throw in some humor and romance.
- How long have you been writing? What inspired you to start?
I’ve been writing since I was thirteen. Initially I channeled my creative side through drawing, but never saw myself becoming an artist. I always had stories inside my head since I was I kid and would use them when I drew. Then one day after school, a new idea hit me. Drawing wasn’t working, so I wrote. And I’ve been writing ever since.
- Tell us a little bit about your hopes and dreams as a creative.
Ideally I’d be a New York Times bestseller, and my books heading to the big screen. But most importantly, I want to create someone’s favorite character. To create someone’s favorite book. I want people to love my worlds as much as I do.
- Where else can we find you and your work?
I’m currently finishing the first book of a five book series, the idea that drove me to write. Most of my other work can be found under my Writers Cafe profile. I’m also working on the first of another series, Phantoms: The Lost One, which is also under my profile and contemplating publishing it.
Author Interview: James Dorr
*Today we have a special guest interview with short-story writer, poet, and author, James Dorr! Enjoy! Be sure to check out his links below too.
If you were to introduce yourself to a group of strangers, what would you say?
I’m James Dorr.
I’m a writer.
I write short fiction and poetry, mostly dark fantasy and horror, but also occasional science fiction and mystery.
Yes, I do see a difference between horror and dark fantasy, dark fantasy, to me, incorporating elements of the supernatural while horror is more a description of the readers’ reaction, evoking feelings of fright or unease. So there can be psychological horror as well as such things as dark mystery, dark science fiction, dark romance, even dark humor. Comedy is similar, in this case evoking laughter or at least a chuckle (whereas “horror” as a word is derived from “horripilation,” a physical bristling of body hair as when one has “goose bumps”), so there can be comedy-mystery, humorous science fiction, etc. But then I write cross-genre work as well.
Tell us what first drew you to writing.
I think, in general, I felt a need for self-expression. When I was younger I thought I might be a painter or graphic artist, or something in the visual arts, even perhaps something like a cartoonist (as an undergraduate, for instance, I became Art Editor on my college’s humor magazine, as well as illustrating for other publications). But I seemed to have more talent for describing things in words, rather than lines or colors, to tempt the reader to visualize things for him or herself, and for more than just the visual impression – to try to evoke other senses as well, to feel a thing’s texture, a speech’s music (I might mention I also lead and play tenor in Renaissance recorder consort), to see for a moment within a different character’s mind .
Or maybe it’s just an urge to show off.
You have a new book coming out in 2017. Tell us about it.
On a far-future, exhausted Earth a ghoul – an eater of corpses – explores the ruins of one of its greatest cities in hopes of discovering the one thing that made its inhabitants truly human. This is the premise, the quest that introduces us to the 16 stand-alone chapters of Tombs: A Chronicle of Latter-Day Times of Earth, about half in fact already published in various venues as complete short stories, loosely inspired by a pair of quotations from Edgar Allan Poe, of the most poetic subject being the death of a beautiful woman (which also informs, in its way, my previous book The Tears of Isis) and of the boundaries between life and death being “at best shadowy and vague.” If these statements be true, and in an already dying world, can love be a power to even transcend death?
What inspired you to write it?
For Tombs the stories, at least the first of them, preceded the book, yet they seemed to “want” to come together, rather like the stories in books like Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club or Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. That is, even if complete in themselves, they seemed to be part of something bigger, in this case a sort of future history of a people already aware of its approaching doom, if not in this lifetime, at best in no more than a few generations. That’s far enough, then, that one needn’t despair, to strive to live only in the moment, but nothing that one accomplishes is going to be long remembered either. Yet legends still are, somehow, created – perhaps through some larger need of humanity – and these are the legends presented here. Ones that, in having created this world, I felt myself compelled to discover.
What seems to be the recurring theme(s) in your stories?
That’s hard to say, because I’ve published several hundred stories, at least as many poems, and in several genres and combinations of genres. One thing I seem to come back to, though, is the idea of love as a redemptive quality, which I think informs a number of the Tombs stories too. Then in my 2013 collection The Tears of Isis, while assembled from stories for the most part already written, I tried to adhere to a theme of beauty and art being in some ways at odds with intimacy and life, opening with a poem about the Medusa seen as a sculptress who, whether through art or through her myth, turns men into statues. Does the artist’s model then, of necessity, become an object, but in that way gain a kind of immortality? And then there are vampires, in a different way preying on life but becoming immortal themselves, leading to a series of flash stories I’ve been working on (two of them published recently in Daily Science Fiction) depicting the “casket girls” of New Orleanian legend, who allegedly brought vampires with them from France in 1728. And then, thinking of that as an urban legend, I’m fascinated by people’s beliefs, of myths and even fairy tales, a number of which I’ve also worked into stories or poems.
How do you get into the minds of your characters?
That’s something that I think gets easier with practice. I’m thinking right now though of an expression, that you shouldn’t judge a person until you’ve walked a mile in his boots, and I think that’s a key. Imagining yourself as different people and learning to empathize, both in life and in art. So I try to imagine a major character’s previous life – one of the “casket girls, above, for instance, as a child growing up in Eighteenth Century France (and, yes, researching Eighteenth Century France too), then the hardships of a voyage at sea, the not knowing what to expect ahead, the hopes and fears — and then placing that character in the new situation the story presents them with. What would I do if I were that person, as modified by what I’ve “learned” of their past?
And then not to “tell” what the character thinks, or at least not too much, but to try to show her or him in action in such a way that the reader can sympathize with that person too. (In short, to see through my character’s eyes instead of my own, to hear with its ears, smell with its nose, taste with its tongue, feel through its emotions, think with its brain, and do my darnedest to make sure you, the reader, do so as well.)
In your opinion, what are some of the biggest obstacles facing writers today?
Nowadays a main one, I think, may be what happens after a book, or a story within a book, gets published. In the past the publisher took the responsibility of getting it into bookstores and into the hands of reviewers and doing at least a minimal amount of advertising. Now, however, writers are much more on their own. And of course there’s self-publishing too, but even with a traditional publisher it still comes down now to promoting oneself – how to prevent the book you slaved over from just being buried under the crowd of other books coming out at the same time?
This is one reason I thank you, Carrie, for being willing to interview me here, to introduce myself to your readers (as in turn, hopefully, some of my readers will see this here and stay around to see more of your work). In this way we all can help one another and, on the same token, I’d like to urge readers, if you come across a book you enjoy, please consider writing a review, even if only in a sentence or two just saying you liked it, and sharing it in places like Amazon and Goodreads where people will see it.
Any additional comments or advice you’d like to add for our readers?
Perseverance. Don’t quit your day job. Those are the clichés, but they’re still true, that most writers aren’t going to make much money until they’ve been at it for some time, if even then. But the real advice I would give is to enjoy what you’re doing, as well as to strive to do your best.
Follow your bliss, to repeat that cliché. Be proud of your work, but be practical too — if an editor advises you to make changes, take it seriously. But remember it’s still advice, especially as you gain more experience, and the one you must please, ultimately, should be yourself.
Biography:
Born in Florida, raised in the New Jersey, in college in Cambridge Massachusetts, and currently living in the Midwest, James Dorr is a short story writer and poet, specializing in dark fantasy and horror, with forays into mystery and science fiction. His The Tears of Isis was a 2014 Bram Stoker Award® finalist for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection, while other books include Strange Mistresses: Tales of Wonder and Romance, Darker Loves: Tales of Mystery and Regret, and his all poetry Vamps (A Retrospective), as well as, forthcoming, Tombs: A Chronicle of Latter-Day Times of Earth, a novel-in-stories from Elder Signs Press in spring-summer 2017. He has also been a technical writer, an editor on a regional magazine, a full time non-fiction freelancer, and a semi-professional musician.
Social Media:
“The city had once lived, blazing with light. The books all described this. The Ghoul-Poet sat in the midst of a heap of them, pages torn, rotting, spread out all about him. This was a library, the pride of New City, or rather a square that had faced the library, that had received this avalanche of thought — words embossed on parchment — that cascaded down when the library burst, its walls weakened by age. It was a treasure trove, this mountain of dreams and abstracts, histories and myths. Some true, some perhaps not.”
These, then, were the legends of the Tombs, the vast Necropolis and its environs . . .
. . . of corpse-trains that plied bridges crossing the great river, bearing the City’s dead, braving attacks from flesh-eating ghouls
. . . of ratcatchers, gravediggers, grave guards, and artists
. . . of Mangol the Ghoul, of musician-lovers Flute and Harp who once played back a storm, of the Beautiful Corpse
. . . of seas filled with monsters, a mass-death of animals, secret tapestries teaching children about a past great war, the dangers of swamps
. . . a city consumed by a huge conflagration, a woman frozen for thousands of years
. . . a mission by airship to rescue a man’s soul
. . . a flower that ate memories. . .
These are just some of the wonders, the horrors, to be found in the pages of Tombs: A Chronicle of Latter-Day Times of Earth, scheduled to be out from Elder Signs Press in Spring-Summer, 2017.
Writing: Does It Really Matter HOW You Write? (Quote)
If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.
– Somerset Maugham
Do you agree with the quote above? What do you think this writer really meant when he said this?
Two Writing Contests (Deadline is less than three days away!)
Why I Write
Submit a 250-word essay or a poem on why do you write.
Top three finishers will have a choice of seeing their essay/poem featured on A Writer and Her Adolescent Muse blog , or be interviewed for the same blog (Purpose? More exposure!)
Interested? Click here.
Super Short Halloween
In honor of the upcoming frightful holiday, write a super short horror story (100 words max).
Story should be no more than PG-13. Think like Hitchcock…be creative and don’t rely on gore to scare the pants off your readers.
Interested in this one? Click here.
Enjoy! w
Writing: Created a Trailer? (Poll)
If you have a trailer, feel free to share on the Facebook page for this blog (or in the comment section below) so we may watch it!
Creating the Setting For Your Story (Question)
From one writer to another, do you usually base your story’s setting on real places?
Or, do you prefer to create them from your imagination?
Why Do You Write? (The Madness Behind Being a Writer)
Why do writers write?
The answer seems obvious, and the reasons are similar among most writers.
It’s because we must.
It’s who we are.
We have no choice but to write…
or go stark, raving mad.
There has to be more to it than that.
In my mind, at least.
We must dig deeper.
There is a reason other than the ones we give to people (even to ourselves).
What is it?
Be honest.
Why write at all? What’s the true driving force behind this passion? This innate desire to put words down? To create?
There has to be more than just “I need to write.”
Is it because we are already mad?
Insane?
Mentally ill?
Perhaps we need to be crazy enough to dig deep into our minds, the deepest, darkest parts of our psyche in order to pull out our masterpieces.
To share openly with the world.
To be willing to be criticized and ridiculed.
But why do all this?
For what?
Eternal glory?
Fame?
Acceptance?
Writers are an eccentric lot.
Complex.
Which means…
the reasons behind the why of what we do are infinite.
To try to even understand us is…
madness.
So, don’t bother.
Just accept us for who we are.
Just accept yourself for who you are.
And write.
The Magic of Writing (A Tale of Rediscovery)
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”-Stephen King
Why did you fall in love with books? How about with writing?
For me, it was the ability of books to transport me to other worlds; to meet new and interesting characters, to explore exciting and wondrous places and creatures. They took me away from reality and I discovered the magical realm of imagination.
In time, I learned to transform those fantastical worlds in to words.
Magic was real to me. I believed in impossibilities.
Myths and legends.
In dreams.
I’ve been called naive for most of my life. Probably because I choose not to see the world in its present state (dark, ugly and full of chaos and violence); but with possibilities and potentials.
Hope and beauty.
I choose to look at the world with a child-like view.
Hence, I still believe in Santa Claus and elves, and knights in shining armors.
Does this make me silly?
Maybe.
It’s how I survive in these ever darkening times.
However, for the past several years reality has been slowly poisoning my mind.
I wanted to write darker stuff. The media is full of these kinds of images and messages.
My inner being grew more hollowed.
Depression and negative thoughts settled in.
These writings that I could never seem to finish made me feel so…so empty.
I began to doubt myself as a writer, and even considered giving it up completely.
Then yesterday I sat down to watch an old favorite movie; one I hadn’t seen in several years. Actually, I watched the first two back-to-back:
I felt like a kid all over again. My mind full of magical things.
Ideas.
The same ideas I had many years ago but have shelved them.
No more.
It’s time I honor the writer I truly am.
“I want to be magic. I want to touch the heart of the world and make it smile. I want to be a friend of elves and live in a tree. Or under a hill. I want to marry a moonbeam and hear the stars sing. I don’t want to pretend at magic anymore. I want to be magic.”-Charles de Lint
2016 National Novel Writing Month (Poll)
Drunk On Writing?
The infamous quote by the great Ray Bradbury:
“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
What the heck does this even mean?
What about you? What do you think he meant when he said this?
Getting Out of My Own Way: Building a Writing Life By Samantha Bryant (Guest Blogger)
I’ve had it pretty easy in my writing life. Grammar and syntax come naturally to me. I had great English teachers who praised my creativity and encouraged me. My mother was a reader who indoctrinated me early in the joys of fiction, with the help of a great library. No one suggested that writing wasn’t a good career choice, or that I needed to be more practical. I’ve had support out the wazoo.
So far as a crucible to forge a writer in, my childhood was a good one.
Many writers have had more to overcome—unsupportive or outright abusive families, second languages, mental health issues, political persecution. All that is to say that I know I have very #firstworldproblems when it comes to my writing life.
See, I was always going to be a writer. Ask people who knew me in first grade. It’s always been on my agenda. An assumption, like being a mom and a teacher. A given.
As I grew up, I used to talk about writing a lot. I’d get all dreamy and imagine my future career as a world-famous novelist. But it was always a hazy dream, filmed through Vaseline so you couldn’t see the harder realities of it: the actual work. It was “someday.”
But I wasn’t doing anything to make it happen.
Sure, I wrote. Once in a while. When I felt inspired. When I was in the mood, or when one of my ideas was just so tenacious there was no escaping it. But I didn’t take myself seriously as a writer, and neither did anyone else. Why would they? It was like I thought some big publisher was going to somehow just find me and pay me to write without my ever having proven I could even do it. A fantasy discovery scenario. Not a career plan.
Then, I was turning 42, which Douglas Adams taught us is the answer to life, the universe and everything. It was my crisis moment. I told myself it was time to give writing a serious attempt. There was a lot less “someday” left than there once was.
The obstacles in my writing life were all internal. Setting priorities, finding focus, making time. I was my own worst enemy, putting my own dream last on the list of things I would spend my days and hours and years on.
That’s when I committed to a daily writing habit. It was a game-changer for me.
It was harder than that might seem. At age 42, I was in the middle of a teaching career and a marriage. I was parenting two daughters and a dog, maintaining a house and household, fighting the battle of the bulge, and trying to have some kind of social life. There were a lot of pulls on my time. And I’d made a habit of many years of giving my time away.
But, I started to insist on writing time. Slowly, over the course of a few months, I renegotiated my contract with life, and made sure there was room in it for writing. I gave up things that I could: television, social opportunities that I didn’t want badly. My initial goal was 250 words per day. Just one page. And I struggled to put down that many words. It took me two or three hours some nights. It was hard and frustrating.
But I am stubborn. And it got easier. Soon, I could write 250 words in half an hour. I learned that the words didn’t have to all be keepers. That sometimes, I had to write garbage to get it out and get to the good stuff underneath. I learned that if I could just get something on the page, I’d be able to make it better in the next pass, but that I had to give myself something to work with.
Now, I can’t imagine a day without writing. I write somewhere between 800 and 4,000 words a day, depending on other life demands. A day when I only write 250 words is a day that was full of lots of other life—parties, sickness, travel, or something—and a decision I made about my use of time.
My family notices when I haven’t written. They see me getting grumpy and say, “Hey Mom, did you write yet today?” the way other families might suggest you get a sandwich, take a nap, or take your meds. It’s that important to my equilibrium.
And because I’m writing every day, I’m getting better at it. I have flow. I’m finishing things, revising and polishing and publishing things. People are reading them. Some people even like them. This summer, I sent my third novel off to my publisher. I get to say things like “my publisher.”
So all this is to say, if you want to be a writer, you’ll have to write. Look at your life. Figure out what’s in your way (even if it’s only you that’s in your own way). And find your way around those obstacles. You can’t ever get there if you don’t start the journey. And it’s quite a trip!
Samantha Bryant is a middle school Spanish teacher by day and a mom and novelist by night. That makes her a superhero all the time. You can find her Menopausal Superhero series from Curiosity Quills on Amazon, or request it at your favorite independent (or big box) bookstore. You can find her online on her blog, on Twitter, on Facebook, on Goodreads, on the Curiosity Quills page, or on Google+, and now on Tumblr.
Interview: D. Denise Dianaty
*Today we have a special guest with us- D. Denise Dianaty!
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you write.
Well, when I think of ME, I think, “I am an artist.” It isn’t just something I do… it’s who I am, bone deep. I’ve always enjoyed singing. I have a nice little church voice. My mother thought it was more and saw in me a chance to realize her dream of a Country Gospel star. So, I began college at a Christian college studying music, specializing in Voice. I was miserable. The only class I passed was Drawing and Painting.
The elective… LOL
As a visual artist, writing always seemed sort of second nature to me. It was a kind of companion to my art. Many of my drawings and paintings inspired or were inspired by poetry. I’d sit down, for example, writing out notes about a painting I was planning, and poetry would be result.
How long have you been writing?
Once upon a time, I kept scads of journals and sketch diaries under my mattress. When we moved, my mother found them and was deeply offended by them. She destroyed them with fire in the BBQ grill. I didn’t share my writing for over thirty years. I convinced myself it was all just very bad, rather pathetic poetry. As my mother called, “wallowing in self-pitying drama.” But, I didn’t stop writing. I just hid that part of me away for a very long time. I didn’t share my art much either. It did see more light of day than my poetry. Art classes in school kept that part of my creative expression alive.
Why do you prefer to write short stories/plays/scripts over other forms? What are you currently working on?
Every year in junior and senior high school (middle school and high school for you millennial readers), it was an agreement, I’d take chorus or voice for mother, and she’d let me take Art for my second elective. Oooo! TWO electives in school? Generous, eh? I had drama club in high school too! And Home Ec as well as Vocational Office Education. School used to actually teach you stuff to get a job with and included entire classes of art and music. WOW! Radical thinking, right? LOL Anyway, a couple of years ago, a writer friend of mine who’d occasionally tried to convince me that I was a poet, introduced me to the idea of writers’ forums to test the waters to see if there was anything to the idea.
I went to look for them online and found http://WritersCafe.org .
After around a year there, I’d gained enough confidence to start composing a partly autobiographical book of my poetry to self-publish. I also tested my mettle writing fiction. I published the book of poetry on Amazon. Then, the first short novella I wrote was very well received on the Cafe. It seemed everyone who read it was telling me I should publish it. So, I did.
Sigh.
I’m glad I published both books. And, even though I’ve had little sales, I’m working on a couple more.
It’s like…it’s like I had been gagged for nearly forty years. When the gag was finally ripped off…well, it’s like that verse in “Fight Song”:
And all those things I didn’t say
Wrecking balls inside my brain
I will scream them loud tonight
Can you hear my voice this time!
No one is ever going to silence me again while I breathe.
Do you have any advice for writers trying to get published for the first time?
My best advice for writers is to remember that “Writers write always. Great writers read… then write.” And don’t ever let anyone silence your voice.
Who is your favorite author? Why?
My favorite writer is and always will be my brilliant friend who helped me take back my voice. She is the sister of my heart. I do have other favorites, primarily Georgette Heyer, Lois MacMaster-Bujold, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Emily Brontë, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allen Poe, Charlotte Browning, Omar Khayyam, Arthur Guiterman, and more.
You moderate/run various groups like We PAW Bloggers and Pandora’s Box of Horrors; what inspired you to start them?
WE PAW Bloggers was begun by Pryde Foltz. She made me admin and turned her primary focus to WE PAW on YouTube. WE PAW Bloggers is a group focused on driving readers to our larger bodies of work. That, and the protections of date stamping and/or copyrighting that are automatic parts of blog sites and writers’ forum sites, is the reason the group requires sharing external links our writers’ accounts.
Pandora’s Box of Horrors began on the Women Writers, Women Bloggers (WWWB) group. There was this post, around Halloween. Someone started a list of horror words. I think it was me who had the idea to turn those horror words into the basis of a horror short story contest. I created the Pandora community page for that contest. This year, I ran the Challenge 2016 and found that a community page wasn’t meeting the group need for a place to interact as I’d hoped. So I created the Pandora’s Box of Horrors group page. After this year’s challenge is wrapped up, I’m going to shut down the community page run with the group page.
You’re also passionate about various issues. Tell us about them.
Most of the issues I’m most passionate about are social issues and this current election cycle. I got started engaging on social media after reading an article about self-promotion as an author. See, I have a problem with naked self-promotion. I just can’t get past feeling like a braggart.
The article – I can’t recall the name or source now – suggested authors “create a relevant presence” by engaging intelligently in social media. “Activism in writing” was advised in another, very similar article – again, I can’t recall the source now.
Most of my blogging lately has been issue related, rather than pure writing for the sake of the creative art of writing.
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