I’ve become a fast and hard fan of all things Kirsty Logan. It’s true, I haven’t met a Scot yet I haven’t liked, but there’s something very special about Kirsty. Alas, I only know her through Cyberville, but there’s no doubt she and her work are wonderful. I hope we can meet someday and she can read me one of her stories in that gorgeous Scottish accent.
This, for me, is one of the most moving Spotlight Series to date. Thank you, Kirsty.
– Ethel Rohan
Writing wise, where are you now? Where are you going?
I’m working on the second draft of my novel, Little Dead Boys. I just spent a week at a writing retreat, so I got a lot of work done on it. It’s with my editor now – I’m letting it sit for a few weeks while she reads it over. I am nervous about that.
I’ve just finished putting together a chapbook of poetry and flash fiction, You Look Good Enough To Eat Me, which will be coming out later this year. I am hopeful about that.
I co-edit a new flash fiction magazine, Fractured West, and our first issue was just launched so that’s keeping me busy too. I am spending a lot of time in the post office for that.
From October on I’ll be teaching a couple of evening classes at Glasgow University: one on writing from mythology and fairytales, and another on writing fantasy, science fiction and horror. I am reading a lot for that.
And I want to do a bit more traveling, and I should really read more online lit mags, and then there’s my determination to beat xTx and Roxane at online Scrabble. And hopefully I’ll sleep at some point too.
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Tagged as:
Kirsty Logan,
Spotlight Series
She’s xTx. Her writing is raw, brave, and charged. She writes works of such talent and verve no one really cares about her actual identity. We’re far more caught-up in the words, worlds, and truths she gives us. Yet I’m going to out her. I think everyone should know: In addition to her extraordinary and no-holds-barred writing, xTx is incredibly kind and heartful.
– Ethel Rohan
Writing wise, where are you now? Where are you going?
I’ve done a lot of writing this year that hasn’t shown up in public. When it finally does, I will be happy.
I am going and going. I feel that my writing now is better than my writing before. So, I hope that wherever it is I’m going, I’ll be better when I get there.
What informs your creative process? How do you keep inspired?
I get randomly inspired. Today I heard the phrase, “She’s a spaghetti girl!” It was uttered in a high-pitched voice with complete love and adoration and instantly I knew I needed to write about it. I need to find out who the spaghetti girl is.
My creative process is to get inspired by something and go with it, wherever it wants to take me.
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Tagged as:
Spotlight Series,
xTx
Blake Butler Lake Utler Ake Tler Ke Ler E Er R
– Ethel Rohan Thel Ohan Hel Han El An L N
Writing wise, where are you now? Where are you going?
I’m in this little box of Crisco where I end up every day when I eat too much which is every day. Food is bad for writing, I wish I could be a little body with no holes and just shoot the language through my stomachs and have a bunch of those. I’m not going anywhere I hope daily and overall I know I’m turning into a brass instrument.
What informs your creative process? How do you keep inspired?
Seeing dogs take shits on my front step with their owners pretending like they aren’t letting their dogs do that, and then hearing the dogs later through the walls: that all informs me pretty good. I get informed by watching other people come into the gym room where I do the run or bicycle and they come and get on their own machines and make grunt noise or sometimes talk on phone or to their half-dressed lover who came with them to work out too. I keep inspired by never being inspired by anything.
How do you feel about the label writer, really?
I think the label writer is doing a good job because I buy a lot of cereal and canned soup and I feel like pretty often I get what I asked for when I open the box, I am happy the people who write those labels are getting paid to tell me what I am going to put inside my body, that is the most important thing, I don’t know what books are.
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Tagged as:
Blake Butler,
Spotlight Series
She’s d Donna, d darling, d force, d wordwielder. Read what she did with the prompt “zebra.” Read her every word.
– Ethel Rohan
Writing wise, where are you now? Where are you going?
In an over-arching career sense, I have no idea where I’m headed. I finished a novel draft in May and have been experiencing that dry, down, despair you ask about later. In the last 2 weeks I’ve written a story (12 pages) and it feels sooooo good.
What informs your creative process? How do you keep inspired?
I’m not sure I can put a name to it. I often think (fear?) I haven’t got another story, or image, or line in me — especially after I’ve finished a longer story or a huge project like the novel. That’s when the self doubt elbows in. So far, even if it takes months (and it HAS lately), eventually a snip of conversation or an experience grabs me and pulls me back in the writing orbit.
How do you feel about the label writer, woman writer?
I am a writer; I like the label writer.
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Tagged as:
Donna. D. Vitucci,
Spotlight Series
