Friday interview with Joanne Faries

Today, Joanne Faries has popped over to be bombarded with questions. I met Joanne during the A-Z Challenge where she blogged about a wide variety of things, including Guns N Roses, jellyfish and opium!

Welcome to my blog, Joanne... I hope you're ready... 

 

What’s the best thing about being a writer? 

Saying, "I'm a writer" without stammering over the words, and having a book (My Zoo World) to prove it.

And the worst?   
Rejection is still difficult at times, especially when I think a piece was perfect for a publication. I sent them my little gem, and they tossed it in the trash. But I do re-polish and send out again.

What’s your writing routine like? Do you have one?  
I have no routine. Just when I think I'll have a writing day, plans change. I do try to jot down thoughts at any time to spur me on when I do plop in front of the computer.  

What are you working on at the moment?  
I have several poems in various stages of disarray. I'm also working on a new collection of humorous essays - tentative title is Athletic Antics. 

Why do you write?   
I like to make people laugh, and enjoy the word play.  

What inspires you?   
Nature for poetry. Peoples' stories and real life situations for fiction. I expand and exaggerate from teensy actions. My co-workers are a constant source of crazy.

Do you have a day job?  
I'm a documentation specialist for an aerospace testing lab, and work 3-4 days a week. We test processes, and as my boss says, "Get to break things, rust things, and test boundaries." 

Why did you start blogging?  
In theory, to promote my "platform" and all of that "What you should do to be successful stuff."  I'm lousy at promotion, butI found I enjoyed the blog for myself, I try to keep it steered toward writing, and often it's a warm-up exercise. 

Has it helped or hindered your writing?   
I'm fortunate that I don't have to make a living at writing. That pressure stressed and sucked the life out of creative aspects.  The blog is an outlet. I also write a movie review column for the sheer joy of writing - it combines my love of movies and of putting pen to paper. My husband's aunt distributes The Little Paper of San Saba and I contribute whenever and whatever I want. It's a town without a cinema, so readers are at my mercy. I review blockbusters, artsy flicks, and I feature What's in Your Queue? Those are my Netflix choices - fave recommendation right now is Portlandia. 

Thanks so much for being here today, Joanne.
Thanks for having me. I enjoyed meeting you through the A-to-Z Challenge.

Joanne blogs at Word Splash

You can find her book - My Zoo World - on Amazon here!


My Zoo World is a humorous memoir of animal encounters with a twist. Among published animal tales, very few are skewed with a touch of fear and laughter on every page. Unlike books written by pet-loving authors, these chapters introduce the reader to a manic menagerie of animals: a snapping Shetland pony, a bowling ball playing pit bull, and a terrified turtle that tolerates distress. Meet Benji, the cat, Muff, the dog, and more. Friends are convinced they can overcome Joanne’s concerns with their precious pets. Join them and root for the animals as you read My Zoo World.

7x7 Link Award

One of my brand new blogger friends, Michael Abayomi, has tagged me in the 7x7 Link Award. I love reading his blog, so if you haven't met Michael, please stop by and say hello.

Now, I've seen other people taking part in this tag, and I've been itching to re-visit some of my older posts too, so I was really happy to be tagged.

The idea of the award is to link to existing blog posts that fall into seven categories...
 
Most Beautiful Piece
Goodbye 2011. I've linked to this post before, but I think it fits this category, so please forgive me.

Most Helpful Piece
Too hard. I couldn't find anything that fits here, so I'm going to pretend this one doesn't exist!

Most Popular Piece 
I'll tumble 4 ya blogfest. Of course, it probably helped that it featured Morten Harket!

Most Controversial Piece
Save Our Libraries Day. I know this doesn't look overtly controversial because there are no comments on the post, but as I used to work in a library I know lots of librarians, and they told me face-to-face how controversial they found it! I hope this doesn't open old wounds...

Most Surprisingly Successful Piece
Spellings and Misspellings. At a time when I was only getting two or three visitors to my blog, this post has had 98 views. I have no idea why - it must have been caught in a popular search term, but I never worked out what term people were using.

Most Underrated Piece
Curious incidents with mirrors. Five page views, no comments... that's pretty underrated, isn't it? Although to be fair, it was before I discovered the fun of joining blogfests and following great people.

Most Pride-Worthy Piece
I'm not sure how to interpret this category, so I'm going for Welcome, where I proudly announce that I have 13 followers.


And now I'm going to choose seven people to tag...

Suze at Analog Breakfast
DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0
Rena at Doctor Faerie Godmother
Allison at Geek Banter
Rebecca Bradley at Life in Clarity
Teresa F Morgan at The Wittering Woman
Marta Szemik at Marta Szemik

Feel free not to take part if you've done it already or simply don't want to!

Persuasion by Jane Austen

I recently asked my Facebook friends which book I should read - I'd just bought Persuasion and Northanger Abbey - and Persuasion was regarded as the book I should opt for first.

So I did.

But I didn't like it.

And then I thought that maybe there was something wrong with me, because I didn't like it.

As you're no doubt aware, I love Pride and Prejudice. But apart from Sense and Sensibility, I'd never read any other Austen novel. I aways thought this was remiss, especially as they are spoken about with such warmth, so I snapped them up when I saw them in a sale. But whereas the characters of Elizabeth, Mr Darcy, Mr and Mrs Bennett - even Mr Collins - jump off the page, I did not feel the same about Anne Elliot or Captain Wentworth. In fact, regarding the latter, I had absolutely no clue about him at all from the first half of the novel; I certainly didn't know - and didn't care - why Anne Elliot found him so attractive.

Mr Darcy is appealing from the very first aloof glance - even if you don't like him, his character is established well, you get a sense of who he is and why Lizzie might like him. Lizzie, too, talks, is listened to, has contact with Darcy so the reader can see the state of their relationship from the start.

None of these things is apparent between the two main characters in Persuasion, indeed it took a while to work out what the story was! Anne Elliot herself seems so content to sit back and listen to the other characters talking around her that it seems almost wrong to call her a main character at all!

Many people like this novel a lot, so my question (without any flippancy or sarcasm) is: why? What am I missing? Should I read it again, and will I be swayed towards a different opinion if I do? Have you read this novel? Did you love it or hate it?

Please help!

Friday Guest: Sarah Allen

Before I introduce today's guest blogger, I am being interviewed over on Joanne Faries blog Word Splash - and then next Friday, she's popping here to be interviewed by me. I'd love you to come and see me on Joanne's blog, after you've read Sarah's post, of course!



And now, please welcome Sarah Allen to my blog. If you haven't visited Sarah's blog, From Sarah, With Joy, she's been experimenting recently with video poems and vlogging, so I invited her here to explain why.

YouTube for Writers

by Sarah Allen

So we all know that YouTube is this huge, monstrously popular thing. It has how many hits every day? How many hours of video uploaded every second?

Writing is not a visual medium, like art or video. But I think if we are completely serious about building a satisfying, successful, creative career, YouTube is a resource we cannot afford to miss out on.

There are two reasons why:

1. Creative output. YouTube is, simply put, another place to be creative. Absolutely ANYTHING you’re interested, you can use in conjunction with YouTube. Children’s books, poetry, gaming, cooking, gymnastics. All of it can be made into a video, and a pretty cool video too with only limited editing skills.

So be creative. I think people get intimidated and scared at the thought of making videos, but it doesn’t have to be scary at all. If you need help editing, find someone to teach you. If you don’t like being in front of the camera, put someone else in front of it. Just take a camera around with you to your kids dance competitions or your day at the zoo and find a creative way to make a video out of it.

2. Marketing. So basically the only more popular sites than YouTube are Facebook and Google. Again, not a resource to take lightly. Writers like John Green have a gigantisourus YouTube following, which feeds directly into book sales. We don’t have to do anything that serious, so don’t stress. But if we’re trying to catch fish, YouTube is a really, really big pond. Anything can help.

There are so many things you can do to reel in viewers and subscribers. Vlogging, gaming, cooking show, videopoetry, illustrate a childrens book and put it in video format. Be creative, be you. Then when you have a book come out, make a video letting your viewers know about it.

As with any marketing or creative project, keep this in mind: just do what you can, learn, work, don’t stress so much the fun goes away. Work at it a little at a time, and big things might happen. Especially with the decline in blogging, video is the new commons area. Find a way to make that work for you.

And besides, making videos really is fun

Sarah Allen

Bio:

Sarah Allen is a fangirl from Utah working on drafting her second novel, editing and submitting the first. She loves jazz, white chocolate and Colin Firth. Find more at her blog (http://fromsarahwithjoy.blogspot.com/) and YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/sarahthewriter1).

IWSG, an offer and an award!

Accepting an award is the best way to counteract insecurity, so I'm going to give you two very distinct parts to today's post.

If you're not familiar with the Internet Writer's Support Group, on the first Wednesday of every month, we share our insecurities! Just click on the logo and it'll take you to Alex's sign up page.

I am insecure this month because everyone is writing and editing, and taking part in CampNaNo or BuMoWriMo, and I haven't written anything new for a long time. At first, I was resting my novel over April because I was somewhat otherwise engaged, but it's now June... and I've only written three brand new paragraphs. As for my novel, it's still asleep, snoring its head off on the shelf. Perhaps that's the reason I can't concentrate?

Please don't feel you have to respond to my inability to write... I've already mentioned the problem a couple of times, and had lots of great advice; I've also given advice to people in the same situation. So I know what to do, I'm just struggling to get my mojo and my muse to cooperate...

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So, enough of that... now for the offer...
Michelle Gregory over at Beautiful Chaos is giving away print and e-book versions of her novel Eldala as part of her IWSG post this month - to people who are fully signed up on the Support Group linky list.

Kieran’s blood boils every time he hears about the abuse handed down by Teleria’s nobility. But years of hiding in his father’s smithy have taught him to avoid trouble. Content with being a blacksmith, the only disruptions in his well-ordered life are his disturbing dreams. It isn’t until his twentieth birthday, when he receives a mysterious letter and sword from King Arathor – the man who claims to be his real father – that he wonders if his dreams have become reality. If he believes Arathor, he will have a chance to end a twenty-year curse over Teleria, and free the people from King Rahnak’s oppression. But it could also mean giving up his quest to find the mysterious woman with whom he shares an intimate heart connection.

Please go and visit her, if you haven't already!

But, before you do...

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Here's the lovely award I was given last week by the lovely Teresa Morgan who blogs at The Wittering Woman.

To accept this award, I must tell you five things about myself, and pass the award along to five people. I've decided not to pass this award on, because I passed an award recently, and I find it so hard to choose who should get them. I think you're all fabulous... so in the best tradion of copping out, please feel awarded if you so wish!

Because the sunshine makes me happy, here are five other things that made me happy in the last few days.

1. Today was a really fantastic hair day. The type of day when you do a double-take in the mirror because your hair looks so good!
2. I sat in the sun, in a pub beer garden, on Monday afternoon, listening to Hubby's gig and drinking Pimms.
3. When the sun went in and it got cold, I snuggled #2 son into my jacket to keep him warm.
4. I had the best workout at the gym the other day - it fell on just the right side of total exhaustion, and I didn't ache the next day!
5. I sat at watched the Jubilee floatilla on TV with my dad on Sunday. Just me, him and some sarcastic comments about the commentary - perfect!

Thanks for this award Teresa - it really made my day!

the first person and other stories by Ali Smith

Goodreads link

I love, love, love short stories. I love writing them; I love reading them. Over the years, I've had a few published, although they are probably all long forgotten now :-(

It's not quite so easy to find good collections to read, though. As a result I grab them wherever I can and hope for the best. When I picked up this Ali Smith collection, I hadn't read her novels but I knew her name.

These stories are an experiment in viewpoint - many of them are written in the second person, which is why I picked it for today's recommendation. (If you don't know, I'm highlighting books which have influenced me in some way - these posts are not intended to be book reviews.)

The second person viewpoint interested me because I'd already had my story That Sadie Thing published - a story written partly in second person. It's a viewpoint that challenges the writer - fingers crossed that I got it right, then! As with anything, when done well you hardly notice that the story is being written in an unconventional way; when done badly, it's the only thing you notice!

Have you read Ali Smith's short stories or novels? Have you written a story is second person? Do you enjoy reading stories written in second?

Friday interview with Misha Gericke

Today, I'm pleased to welcome Misha Gericke to my blog! Misha is currently writing her first novel, a fantasy called Doorways. 

Misha, welcome to my blog... dropping you in at the deep end, why do you write?

Ooooh that is the deep end. This might be a bit of a cliched answer, but I go nuts when I don't write. I guess that makes sense, given that I have about thirty characters minimum in my head, clamoring for attention. Writing quiets them down a little. 

With all those characters wandering around in your head, are you the ultimate pantser, or do you work to a plan?

Definitely a pantser, although a plan sort of formed itself for the whole series as I wrote Doorways. 

On your blog, you have a countdown to when Doorways will be finished - how's that going?

Hahahaha oh... it's all in the balance at this stage. I'm REALLY close, but it all depends on how fast my CPs can get through my work. 

What are you doing while you wait? Do you have something else to work on, the next in the series maybe?

Yes I'm messing around with the sequel at this stage while I wait. It keeps me in my characters' minds without stealing too much of my concentration from Doorways. 

Have you been through the process of submitting and/or publishing before, or is this your first time?

This will be my first time. In one sense I'm really looking forward to it, since it will be the next big challenge. On the other, I am terrified. 

Have you found blogging, and reading other people's publication stories, useful? When I was started submitting, I had no idea what to expect.

Oh definitely. I had no clue at all, which is why I'm so glad that I decided to start blogging, because it really opened my eyes. I also learnt some really useful tips from other writers that I never would have thought of on my own.

And, finally, talking about tips, do you have any of your own writing or blogging tips to pass on?

Writing tip from me: try not to compare yourself to others. Everyone has their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. 

Blogging tip: Reciprocate, because there's no use to asking people to follow them if you won't do the same.


Thanks Misha! It's been great talking to you, and good luck with Doorways.
 
If you don't already follow Misha, she blogs at My First Book, where you can follow the countdown for Doorways too!