WRITING Q&A

Good friend and writing buddy Liz Flaherty did a virtual arm twist to get me to join her blog tour. If you haven’t met her, here’s a little about her and her writing:

Life is new and wonderful for writer Liz Flaherty these days. She retired from the post office in 2011, promptly gained 15 pounds—she swears it was overnight—and promised her grandchildren, The Magnificent Seven, that she would make each of them a bed-size quilt. She also planned to write all day, every day. What was she thinking?

She’s learned to write when she feels like it, sew when she feels like it, and maybe even to eat a little less. She’s learned to share the house and sometimes even the kitchen with Duane, her husband of, oh, lots of years. And she’s having a Very, Very Good Time.

Her eighth book, THE GIRLS OF TONSIL LAKE, has been released to exciting reviews by The Wild Rose Press. She is thrilled to the point everyone she knows rolls their eyes as soon as she opens her mouth. JAR OF DREAMS came out in January, followed shortly by her first inspirational romance—A SOFT PLACE TO FALL released by Harbourlight books—and she hasn’t annoyed hardly anyone about that yet.

Visit Liz at http://lizflaherty.com  or email her at lizkflaherty@gmail.com—she’d love to hear from you and the coffeepot’s always on!

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So that’s how I got hooked up with this blog tour. Each writer is asked to answer four questions, so here goes.

Journal, etc. for AM writing

1)            What am I working on?

I write a weekly blog, so ideas come along any day, any time. That’s an ongoing project. In the realm of fiction, currently I’m working on a novel for the Christian market. And I’m entering a writing contest!

2)            How does my work differ from others of its genre?

This is a hard one to answer. Not sure my work does differ. But follow me ramble as I ramble on. My blog ranges over a wide area—not only writing; I explore sewing, quilting, music (I’m an organist), knitting, cooking—plus anything else that happens to grab my attention, like bird watching and growing flowers. Under the Writing tab: Prior to the current novel project I finished nine novels and have a WIP two-thirds finished. There are three or four future novels in note-form, waiting for their turn in the computer. These 10 + 3 or 4 are women’s fiction—closer to the former mid-list stories (remember those?). As a college prof of mine once called them, “just a rattlin’ good story.” I hope my stories are unique, but also universal. (If you figure that out, you might drop me a line and explain it. I think I know, but . . . .)

3)            Why do I write what I do?

I don’t know how to do anything else; that is, I’ve always written about my life: in essays, journals, and stories. Fiction is a safe way to work through bad memories; in essays I test ideas and engage with folks who like to read about what I experience and what I think.

4)            How does my writing process work?

Bear with me here: I’ve never analyzed how my writing process works. Taking the question literally, I have to admit, sometimes my writing process doesn’t work at all. Some days/weeks/months I write nothing of any length. Because? I’ve discovered there are times when applying strict discipline accomplishes no forward movement. But that's just me. Other folks report good results with applying derriere to chair, whether the ideas show up or not.

What I do is this: I journal early every morning, right after I come back from my morning walk. My journal is a repository for whatever floats through my consciousness. As I write, I go deeper into whatever is in my mind. Sometimes I brainstorm about blog ideas; other times, it’s working out a character for a novel; more rarely, I have to dump whatever is holding me back—anger, sorrow, fear—the residue from a recent event. Or, I write about something that is just a condition of life. Or human nature.

That’s pretty much me as a writer. Hope you’ll come back and visit—Thursday’s Child pops up every Thursday—here’s the link: http://www.jrjerints-palmer.blogspot.com.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit. And thanks to Liz Flaherty for twisting my arm. Don’t forget to visit Liz’s blog, and check out her books on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

‘Till next time…..