Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Ohhhhhh. That would have been terrible. 
  

    
And it is. In every detail and every gap of a well-written work,
there is space for the terrifyingly, joyously, nervously,
wondrously, everything-else personal. That’s part of what puts books
in our heart-minds’ DNA, and much of what makes them real.  
  

    
Oh dear I missed a question.  Sorry y'all.  

I never seriously considered separating Herc and Simon.  Well.  I
thought about it a bit because the plot demanded that I come up with
a reason not to separate them, but this is meant to be a book where
Simon gets a lot of what he needs to heal, and one of the things he
needed was a puppy. 

Given that it's a book with a school shooting in the backstory, I
wanted it to be as happy and healing as possible.  
  

    
>This switching of animals calls to mind other changes. PLAIN KATE,
SIMON SORT OF SAYS, STAND ON THE SKY, SCORPION RULES… Would you like
to talk about hopping around genres? 

I would.  Who else here is a genre hopper?  I know Seanan is.  How
do you decide what to work on when?  
  

    
It decides. I have no say.

(I have a closing question before the digital last-call. It’s one
you’ll like, Erin, and I think everyone else will, too. Hoping our
host will grant us time.) 

The “How do you decide what to work on when?” floor is open. 
  

    
This discussion was scheduled for two weeks ending today, but what
really ends is the commitment for the guest and discussion lead to
show up. Which is to day, the discussion can continue - but I'm
stepping in as host to thank <erinbow> and <seanan>, and all other
participatns,  for the great conversation! And if you want to keep
it going, please feel free.

Inkwell.vue conversations are world-readable, you can share this one
with either of the following links:
Short link: <https://tinyurl.com/erin-bow>

Full link:
<https://people.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/548/Erin-Bow-Journeys-Through-
Writin-page01.html>
  

    
I haven't been posting much but I'm reading everything.
  

    
One of the most illuminating Inkwells I've read.  Thanks.
  

    
WONDERFUL. Thank you!
  

    
I'm also reading everything and learning quite a bit.

I'm a left-of-center firearms "enthusiast".  I belong to the Liberal
Gun Club, am a gunsmith (with the required federal licenses), and have
rather strong opinions about who should be allowed to buy or possess a
firearm, including through joint ownership (joint propert states).

This discussion has me adding a number of books to my to-read list.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this discussion.
  

    
Hello all --- it's anti-climatic to drop in after the "end," but I
didn't really answer that question about genre-hopping.  Grief is
catching up with me and slowing me down.  

I have two -- maybe three -- different things in mind when I think
about genre-hopping. Thing one is how I write poetry and other
smaller, more self-contained pieces alongside my novels.  Thing two
is how each of my big projects seems to be different from the other.


Thing three is more about managing a slate of projects, which means
one week is drafting something new and the next might be researching
something for the future and the next might be editing the last book
or promoting something published.  Because of the way I write that
means jumping from genre to genre, but that's mostly a side effect
of Thing Two.  I will say I mostly don't like to switch more than
once a week.  It takes me a while to get into one of my worlds, and
another while to get out.  That's probably enough about thing three.
Things one and two are more interesting.  

Thing one: I do occasionally spend a stretch of time working just on
poetry, especially if I have a big project or a deadline or some
editing to do.   But I mostly work on poetry for an afternoon or a
day in the middle of a block of time that's mostly devoted to a
novel.  There's often poetry happening in the background.  I spend a
lot of time free writing -- for instance, I do morning pages -- and
gathering seeds for poems.  Sometimes one rises into the foreground
and demands attention, and I drop everything and work on it.  That
sudden, sharpening swing of attention does not seem to be something
I can do on cue.  It feels like something external to me, and i
cherish it and give it as much room as it wants.  

I often wonder about the practice of people who are only poets. 
What's that like?  

Thing two, hoping between genres book after book, is also
interesting to me.  My books, in the order I worked on them, are:

1. poetry (a biography in verse)
2. poetry (in response to the Bible and catholic texts)
3. memoir/creative non-fiction 
4. middle grade fantasy - Russian-flavored fairy tale
5. YA fantasy/horror - 
6. A YA science fiction / political thriller duology - far future,
post-climate change, transhuman intelligences 
7. middle grade realistic - the Mongolia book with the eagle
8. adult historical science fiction - a WWII book with dragons in it
(unpublished)
9. middle grade realistic - SIMON SORT OF SAYS
10. poetry (about science and scientists)
11. all-ages non-fiction / mixed media / graphic novel thing
(unpublished)
12. lower middle-grade short novel with talking animals (sold but
still forthcoming)

I genuinely don't know why I do this, except that it interests me
and it's fun.  I would probably have a more commercially successful
career if I didn't do it, but I don't plan to stop, so it must be
important to me.  If you want to see me light up ask me what I'd
like to try that I haven't done.  A TV bible!  A graphic novel
script!  A book of linked sonnets!  A popular science text about
black holes for kids!  

There is not enough time left in my life to do everything, so I
don't want to do the same thing over and over.  
  

    
8 and 11 are differently fabulous. 

The Question:

What’s one thing nobody ever asks you that you wish they would? 
  

    
[ postscript ]

> Skip the last chapter (books)  ... / cleaver

I just finished Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement (10c library
discard), and should have stopped at p 537 of 589
  

    
>What’s one thing nobody ever asks you that you wish they would? 


I've been thinking about a question my late sister Wendy shared --
the final exam essay question in some 20th Century Lit class she was
in, back in the day. Are the books we read in the course, the
question asked, on the whole pessimistic or optimistic?  

I'm not sure I like that as an exam question. But over the years
I've remembered it and thought about it.  Wendy's on-the-spot essay
thesis was that books are fundamentally optimistic, because they are
acts of creation, and creation is optimistic -- or at least not
nihilistic. 

There's a lot of discourse around writing as a noble act of
suffering and madness -- that whole "you just sit at the typewriter
and open a vein" business.  I've heard plenty of writers say they
hate writing but feel compelled to write anyway or something
similar.  

I used to feel naive about writing because that was never my
experience of it.  For me, writing is an act of creation, and while
it can be difficult -- or boring or frustrating or raw the way
therapy is raw -- it is fundamentally an act of joy. It is a hard
and practical bit of optimism.   It's a kind of tikkun olam, the
rabbinical phrase for "repair the world."     

Now I am suddenly thinking of my favorite bit from the movie
Everythign Everywhere All At Once, so maybe i will let Waymond have
the last word on why I write what I write -- in this case a funny
book about healing from trauma.  

About being kind and sweet, he said:  "I'm not being naive. It is
strategic and necessary. It's how I've learned to survive through
everything. ...  This is how I fight."
  

    
Thank you, Erin
  

    
Thank you, Erin. 

Renshin, it is good to see you here. 

Erin, given all that is happening, seen and unseen, in and around
you your life, you are due more respect and gratitude than words —
my words, at whatever rate; I cannot type for others — can offer
here. May your way be easy, and may your world be kind. 
  

    

did i miss the Erin inkwell? dang.

i've been off-Well a while.
  

    
It was very skillfully led by Seanan
  

    
Yes, it was. A very fine discussion.
  

    
Erin and the community made it easy, rich, and pleasurable. I sit in
gratitude. Bowing to Peter and Jon for inviting me into this space,
and to the storytellers, writing mentors, and news directors who
taught me to heed the questions that grow from answers.