Getting to know my readers

To celebrate having 100 avatars adorn the right side of my blog, I decided to interview some of them. Today, we're beginning with the person who bumped my number to three digits, Scott F. Bailey.

Here's his blurb:

Scott Bailey is a writer, musician and art-school dropout. He studied literature and political science at university and his short stories and essays have been published here and there. He's older than he looks, which bothers him a lot. Scott also blogs here and he is awfully fond of jam.

Scott is represented by Weronika Janczuk of D4EO Literary

I "met" Scott at The Literary Lab, one of my favorite blogs. There have been quite a few instances when his observations and insights have made me think and re-think my understanding and beliefs. And the guy is witty. I have not met him in person, but I'll bet he's one who deadpans his punchlines in perfect timing and while everyone around him roars with laughter, he is calmly sipping his beverage of choice.

Here are some questions he answered.

1. Name the last three books you read.

"The Stranger" by Albert Camus
"Possession" by Antonia Byatt
"Malone Dies" by Samuel Beckett

2. Name one of your favorite authors. The first name that pops into your
mind. Explain. Or not.

Ernest Hemingway. I love his use of language, and the line, "It's a nice
bar; they've got a lot of bottles."
William Shakespeare. Nobody's better than Shakespeare. He gave us so much.

3. On a typical weekday, what are you doing at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m?

9 a.m. I'm usually working. 9 p.m. I'm usually reading.

4. Have you ever had breakfast for dinner? Dessert before main course?

I love breakfast food for dinner. Hash browns and eggs Benedict and sausage
et cetera! Dessert comes last.

5. Why not?

Dessert last because it's usually rich and I like to have coffee with it,
but I don't usually have coffee with the entrée.

6. How do you want your work to be characterized? First three words that pop
into your mind.

Brilliant. Moving. Funny.

7.What have you written today? (Email/memo/comments on fb/recommendation
letter/grocery list)

This email. Nothing else.

8. Name a favorite food/dish that is colorful (Tandoori chicken, orange bell
pepper, green eggs and ham.)

Malai kofta.

9. Name a vocation, time, and place you'd love to be. (A general in Kublai
Khan's army; a writer in 1920s Paris; camel trainer when the silk road was at its peak; a journalist when the Berlin Wall came down.)

I like it here, but I wouldn't mind being a violinist in a professional
string quartet in, say, New York just after Prohibition ended.

Thanks, Scott.

Go visit him at The Lit Lab or at Six Words For A Hat.

Catchy siblings

Instead of writing my own posts these past few days, I've been participating in a couple of interesting conversations at other blogs. The first is over at The Literary Lab, where Davin Malasarn declares his desire to write catchy, thanks to Black Eyed Peas.

Then, over at the Tollbooth, Stephanie Greene discusses the unusual topic of siblings--The Boxcar Children, the March sisters, the Penderwicks--and dead mothers.

And while I am posting links, here's one to one of the most informative and inspirational author posts at the Shrinking VIolets by Maggie Stiefvater. Even if you're not an introvert (or if you like shoe shopping, or if you don't name your cars), I think you're going to find what she says helpful.

Free Book Giveaway: A Reminder

Don't forget to enter the Red Glass giveaway today before midnight!

Author Interview: Teresa Funke

Here is an interview with Teresa Funke, who has not one, but two books selected as finalists in the Colorado Book Awards, one in the Young Adult category, the other in the Fiction category.

Teresa R. Funke is the author of four books for children and adults, Dancing in Combat Boots: and Other Stories of American Women in WWII, Remember Wake and the Home-Front Heroes series for middle-grade readers. Her articles, essays and short stories have appeared in national and regional publications. Teresa is also a popular speaker, presenter and writer’s coach and on-screen host of the video series The Write Series. To learn more about Teresa, visit www.teresafunke.com

1. Which makes you want to procrastinate more: starting a new scene or revising a draft? (Or, if you never procrastinate, please, please, please share your secret.)

That’s a tricky question. On the days I have to write new scenes, it takes me a while to clear my mind of all the chaos and focus on creating something new. On the days I’m approaching a rewrite, I always feel like that’s more manageable. After all, I’m just improving what I’ve already done, right? Then I get into it and I’m reminded how much work it is to rewrite. But I like that part. To be honest, though, I procrastinate much less now than I did before kids and before my work picked up so much. Back when I had all the time in the world to write, I found it much more tempting to spend that time reading or talking on the phone or running errands. It’s only when life got complicated and my writing time got scarce that I had to become more productive in the little bit of time I had. No more procrastinating!

2. In your writing, what is the relationship between putting down the initial ideas and revising?

It varies depending on the project. If I’m working on a stream-of-consciousness essay, I might write a segment of the essay and then revise it before I move on. But when I write short stories, I tend to write them all the way through and then revise. With books, I usually write a chapter all the way through and then go back and revise a tiny bit and then move on. Then I do several full revisions in the end. See, there’s no one right way a writer works. We follow our best instincts and we respect each project.

3. Which scenario comes closest to yours: (a) you wake up at dawn, sit at your keyboard with your coffee and work for a couple of hours before the rest of the family gets up; (a) you put away the dinner dishes, tuck the kids into bed, start a load of laundry and start writing; (c) you have 10 minutes between your office hour and your next class/you sit in the pickup lane of your child’s school/you lock yourself in the pantry and scribble down a few sentences?

Unlike my friend, Laura Resau, I’m NOT a morning person. If I had my way, I’d stay up till 3:00 a.each night and wake up at 10:00. But with kids, I'm kinda forced to follow a more traditional schedule. I get my kids off to school, do some quick exercise and then work till dinner. Several days a week, I go back down after they're in bed. I'm not writing the whole time. I have various jobs I do. In fact, those have taken over and I have very little time to write. So I've taken to writing my books at our condo. I"ll lock myself in for three-four days at a time to work on my children's books. It's just not possible to get that kind of concentration at home anymore!

4. Do you have a community you turn to for support, encouragement, critiques, and celebration in your writing life?

I’ve always believed in writers supporting each other. I belong to several writing-related organizations and I network with lots of writers, but my writers’ group, The Slow Sand Writers Society, has been my life-line for 15 years. None of my work goes out without them reviewing it first.

5. Did you ask young readers to read you book before you published it? What was the most interesting response you’ve received?

I actually relied a lot on my kids. I “made” them each read the book as I was writing it and when I was finished. They were actually a big help. I also had my goddaughter read it. And I’ve very much enjoyed hearing from the kids who’ve read Doing My Part and will hopefully soon read The No-No Boys, which is due out this fall.

6. If you weren’t a children’s book writer, what would you do?

My dream job would be to be a philanthropist. No, that’s true. I’d LOVE to just sit around all day identifying good causes to support with my piles of money. Course, that would require HAVING piles of money first, and we all know writers don’t have that.

7. What will you do for your two fellow authors if you win: (a) bring them homemade apple pies, (b) offer to watch their child/children for a weekend, (c) provide them with unlimited signed copies of your book?

How funny. I’ve been so focused on what I’m going to say to them if THEY win, I hadn’t thought about what I’d do for them if I win. I think the best thing I could do for them is talk up their awesome books to anyone who will listen. But I do that already. It’s great fun to be nominated with two good friends!

Author interview: Laura Resau

Here it is, as promised, an interview with Laura Resau. Laura is the award-winning author of the young adult novels What the Moon Saw and Red Glass (Delacorte Press). She lived in the Mixtec region of Oaxaca, Mexico, for two years as an English teacher and anthropologist. She now lives with her husband, baby, and dog in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she writes and teaches English as a Second Language. Laura is donating a portion of her royalties to indigenous rights organizations in Latin America.


I know your secret to writing so convincingly: you are really a teenager/middle-schooler pretending to be an adult. You’re not? Then how do you do it?

Actually, I often DO feel like a teenager pretending to be an adult! I think that a lot of the questions I grappled with as a teenager are still questions I grapple with—finding my identity and being myself, following my passion in life, connecting with other people, and just, you know, in general, UNDERSTANDING LIFE AND THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING! (which is actually a diary quote from when I was fifteen.) I like how (despite the hard parts) the world seemed like a brand new super-exciting place when I was a teenager—I felt just on the verge of exploring the great, wide, world… and I still try to feel that way every day. It makes me love life more.

Which makes you want to procrastinate more: starting a new scene or revising a draft? (Or, if you never procrastinate, please, please, please share your secret.)

Hmm. I think what makes me procrastinate most is when I have to do a revision for my editor. If I'm revising a draft for myself, it's kinda fun, because I already have something on the page, and it's just a matter of adding, cutting, tweaking, etc… not too scary. But when I'm revising for my editor, I have a fixed deadline. I cringe a little at the thought of diving in and tinkering with something that was pretty polished already, and wondering whether I'll mess it up terribly. Now that's scary for me-- it requires lots of self-pep-talking!

In your writing, what is the relationship between putting down the initial ideas and revising?

I write in stream-of-consciousness for the first draft—free-floating dialogue and rambling poetry-descriptions and pieces of character studies. Then, for the revision, I ask myself how it all fits together, and add necessary scenes (or make notes about where I need more scenes. Then I take a chunk at a time (maybe five pages) and do the adding, cutting, and re-ordering. I revise the whole manuscript many, many times over.

Which scenario comes closest to yours: (a) you wake up at dawn, sit at your keyboard with your coffee and work for a couple of hours before the rest of the family gets up; (a) you put away the dinner dishes, tuck the kids into bed, start a load of laundry and start writing; (c) you have 10 minutes between your office hour and your next class/you sit in the pickup lane of your child’s school/you lock yourself in the pantry and scribble down a few sentences?

Ha! (a) I'm a morning person. Before my son came along, I would start writing with tea just after getting up. Now, it's a mad rush to get him clothed and fed and off to his daycare. Then I come back and enter the creative space of my writing trailer and try to recapture that fresh early-morning feeling.

Do you have a community you turn to for support, encouragement, critiques, and celebration in your writing life?

Old Town Writing Group has been essential to the creation of my books and essays and stories. The members are smart, fun, funny woman who are all brilliant writers. I've belonged to the group for six years, and I feel grateful to them beyond words.

Did you ask young readers to read you book before you published it? What was the most interesting response you’ve received?

No, I didn't!

If you weren’t a children’s book writer, what would you do?

Hmm. Maybe a spy?

What will you do for your two fellow authors if you win: (a) bring them homemade apple pies, (b) offer to watch their child/children for a weekend, (c) provide them with unlimited signed copies of your book?

I would happily do the pie thing— we've got lots of apples on the tree in our yard. In fact, even if I don't win, that's a good way to pawn off some apples (as long as Todd and Teresa are okay with frozen crusts—there isn't enough room on my dinky kitchen counter to roll out the dough…)

Thanks for the fun interview questions, Yat-Yee!