Strange Places

blog hop

Posted by Daniela Elza on Jun 15 2014

I’ve been “tagged” by author and friend Jacquie Pearce to join in a game of blog hop. The rules of the game: answer four questions about your writing and writing process, and tag three more people. Jacquie writes novels, short stories and poetry — mostly for children and young adults. To see her post on the blog hop, click here.

Here are the four questions:

1. What am I working on?
I am working on a new manuscript as well as the usual submissions and editing jobs I have to do. The manuscript was written within the last couple of years, but mostly in the last year. I am still making sense of it because I have never written so much in so short a time. It is work which tries to understand grief and loss of what has found its way into our being and we have come to perceive as inextricable from ourselves. In other words a separation. Right now I am sitting with it to see if there are certain permutations it wants to undergo. It has been rejected once, so it is already having its own adventures.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I like to experiment with language and play on the page. I like to invite the lyric moment and I like to have a narrative arc. I like it all. So perhaps I like to integrate more than identify myself with a stream, strand, or tributary in the river of what we call poetry today. I have had my work also called lyric philosophy and that makes me glad, since I inhabit a space between poetry and philosophy and think they should be holding hands.

3. Why do I write what I do?
Mostly because I cannot not write it. It is a necessity. I make sense of the world through my writing. It gives me a pause and allows me to even better understand what I feel, think, and do. I also find it delightful to dwell in this place that stops time, and the rush of the world, ever so briefly.

4. How does my writing process work? 
Usually I will have a good book with me, just in case the writing is not coming. But once it does I will put the book down and follow the muse. I use my writing practice for re-writing or for creating something new. Depending what shows up that day. And then, as the doctor’s prescription goes, repeat that everyday or as often as possible.

Lately, it has been hard to keep up my writing practice. The business side of writing (collaborations, rehearsals, editing, readings, applications, submissions, volunteering) have been claiming centre stage. All things I like to do. And of course there is the computer, email, FB, blog, etc. are always such perfect distractions. So this is the negotiation that is going on right now: how to get back to where I can do what is bigger and less certain instead of what is more mundane and sure and requires not much time to do. I need to bring back the hour and a half to two hours uninterrupted time where good things happen.
***

For the next stop on the blog hop, I’ve tagged Lindsay Glauser Kwan, Juliane Okot Bitek and Lesley-Anne Evans, and they’ll be blogging on June 30th.

Here are their bios:

Lindsay Glauser Kwan is a creative writer of many genres. She has been published online and in print, including for Vancouver Is Awesome, emerge, The Liar, and The Blind Hem. She writes about fashion, arts, culture and lifestyle topics for various professional blogs and companies. A graduate of The Writer’s Studio at SFU, she is currently working on a manuscript.

Juliane Okot Bitek: Once, as a girl, I stepped on a long rusted nail and pulled it out of my foot. Well, the whole nail didn’t enter my foot but it was a pretty long and very rusted nail. I hobbled home with the nail and showed it off to my mother who promptly asked everyone to hold me down hard. The she got a new razor blade and sliced out the surrounding flesh. No anaesthetic or anything. My mother maintains she saved my life. I’m squeamish at the sight of wounds but I write poetry and creative non fiction. Sometimes I dabble in actual fiction.

Lesley-Anne Evans was born in Belfast, N. Ireland, now lives in Kelowna, B.C. with her spouse, three children and dog. Lesley-Anne has placed in contests and is published in The Antigonish Review, CV-2, Lake Journal, and Quills. Buddy Breathing blog follows her navigations of writing, relationships, and faith ~ http://buddybreathing.wordpress.com/ Her author websites are http://laevans.ca/ and http://popuppoetry.ca/.

Note: If the next blog hop posts aren’t up by June 30th, please check again in a few days.

Thanks for playing!