The member of the month is:
Valkyrie
1.Where did you grow up?
In valleys. Sonoma Valley and Alexander Valley in California, and later the Willamette Valley in Oregon. I guess that makes me a Valley Girl. Like, totally.
2.What is the first thing you remember that perked your interest in writing?
It’s been so long, I honestly don’t remember. I bet it was a game that my parents taught me when I learned to read and write. By the time I was in elementary school, it was already ingrained as a habit.
3.Did you go to college/university?
Yep.
4.If so, what was your major?
I snitched myself a BA in English Literature when no one was looking. If I’d chosen another major, it might have required me to STUDY! *gasp* Eh, I studied enough for my Business Minor, which actually got me jobs.
5.Outside of college, how have you educated yourself beyond secondary school?
I’ve never been one for the classroom approach. Something about the blackboards...maybe it’s the chalk-smell. Personally, I blame being left-handed.
I’ve enjoyed learning and teaching nature studies, outdoor camping and survival skills to young teens in my church youth group. I also earned a black belt in jujitsu. But anything furthering my writing skills? No.
That’s why I joined SW recently. I’m finally returning to my first love, the written word. There are classes here too, and knowing my love of competition, I’ll end up taking all of them, just because they’re there. Chalk-smell free.
6.How's the weather?
It’s an amazing, sunny 38F (+3C) here at the moment. Winter is my least favorite season, so I’m enjoying the rays that pattern my couch with pinstripe shadows through the blinds right now.
7.What's your favorite color?
Green! But not any fake neon lime shade, or queer tooth-staining FD&C Green No.3. I like a nice deep forest green. It soothes me with memories of wandering the forests at dusk, and I can recall the smell of humus and the brittle feel of the oak leaves crackling underfoot. Forests rock. They’re so mysterious, and full of story potential!
8.Food?
In summer, mint chip ice cream, tabouleh or a sandwich with garden-fresh cucumbers and tomatoes still warm from the sun! Winter: vegetable stir-fry and rice with sweet and sour sauce.
9.Pastime?
Heh, aside from writing my novel? Well, that would be geocaching. Yep, I take my handheld GPS off into the forests and strip mall lots, searching for hidden Tupperware and film canisters! It’s a high tech treasure hunt, and it fulfills my hunger for accomplishment as well as getting me out hiking around in the woods.
10.Music?
I hardly listen to music anymore! I’m so lame...I listen to the soundtrack from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie as insipiration when I write my novel, and that’s about it.
11. Writer?
Like I could narrow that down! Off the top of my head, J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin (I gotta wonder about his mom, copying like that...), Terry Pratchett, gezza, Lois McMaster Bujold (but only for her Curse of Chalion), tallblondie, Jim Butcher (Codex Alera), Robert Jordan (although, seriously, TMI already! His world is awesome though), Gary Alexander, and J.K. Rowling (purely because she doesn’t give away the plot before the end in any form of cheesy manner).
12. TV show?
Ooh. Tossup. Chuck fulfills my comedy/spy/Adam Baldwin requirements, and Heroes fulfills my intricate plot/superhero/mystery requirements. Although, LOST has just started a new season, and it also has a mysterious, intricate plot. And sci-fi. I also enjoy Survivor, for the social-interactions-under-pressure aspect. And the mazes. Those are cool.
13 .Movie?
The Princess Bride. Hands down. I’ve seen it over a hundred times, and in college I had the entire thing memorized. Billy Crystal rocks my socks. “Have fun stormin’ the castle!”
14. Book?
Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Such a fascinating world! I nearly cried when she didn’t write another book with Cazaril in it.
15.Poem?
I don’t consider myself qualified, anymore, to have a favorite poem. I wrote tons of poems in academy, and began transitioning to short stories and novels in college. Since then, they haven’t moved me nearly as much, nor for as long. I kind of miss being moved by poetry, but a lot of the emotion it evoked in me was sadness or longing, which I can do without.
Info about your Writing :
1.When did you first begin to write?
I’d guess age 4. My mom keeps a poem I wrote in pencil that year. It rhymed and everything. I’ve been writing for three decades this year...hmm. I feel I should invest in bifocals on principle.
2.What kind of stories do you prefer to write?
I write fantasy primarily, but it’s usually the adventure sort, not the magic-spells-and-creatures sort. I also enjoy spoofing other genres, and I can occasionally work up a good comedy muse as well. And I very nearly always have a happy ending. I hate sad endings, or endings where evil wins over good. Books that screw with my happily-ever-after leave my possession quickly. Sometimes in an airborne manner.
3.Fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction. I find it more entertaining, and the escapism of it has appeal for me, even as I write it.
4.Have you published anything?
I got an Honorable Mention for a poem published in those giant, nationwide anthologies that come out every year. They sent me a mug too! I can always use a good mug; minty cocoa is so inspiring to my muse. I also had a few things get published at college, in various campus works, but as far as, you know, “real” publishing, no. That’s never been my goal. I write because I like to tell stories, and words are my willing accomplices.
I think it might be fun to publish a novel someday. If it’s not fun, though. I’m not sure I’ll do it again with anything else I write. Well, okay, unless thousands of adoring fans write fan letters begging for a sequel...that might sway me...if they also mail me minty cocoa mix.
5.What is your reaction when the muse visits? Drop everything and write it down or tuck it away in memory and write it later?
Both, depending. If I have free time between the house and the kids, I’ll write it immediately! Fresh muse, like fresh-squeezed OJ, beats the alternative, every time. Usually, though, I’ll jot down a couple paragraphs and save it on my computer, and write it out when I get time after the kids go to bed.
6 .Do you consider yourself a spontaneous writer or do you tend to plan things out in advance?
Oh, I’m terribly spontaneous. I used to start stories without knowing the ending! That’s probably why my first novel ended up as a quadrilogy...
Now I’ve improved a bit. I know the start and the end before I begin writing. It’s the middle that gets me still, sometimes. I make a mean outline (when I can be bothered to stop writing the story!), and I have a few unwritten novels with complete ones, so...I‘m learning to calm down, I guess. I just need more TIME, to write the things out!
7. How does reading other authors affect your writing skills?
It messes with me terribly. I read the entire works of Arthur Conan Doyle my freshman year in college, and ended up totally altering a character in an old novel of mine to reflect Sherlock Holmes’ powers of deduction. Okay, he was a dwarf, but still.
I’m a sponge, an octopus, a chameleon. I see it, I study it, I can copy it. It’s an odd talent.
8. When you sit down to write something is it fun or work?
It’s fun. If it’s work, I can’t tell if it’s any good, when I’m done. Museless, I lose my ability to judge my works’ quality.
9. How do you get past writers block?
I stay away from the computer! It’s the opposite of what everyone says, to write write write, but I don’t merely stop typing. I think like mad. Feeding the baby pears or sweet potatoes, I discuss plot options with him (he‘s not so good with the ideas, but he‘s an excellent listener). I get good thinking done in the shower too. Or I’ll just play with the kids, let them clamber around me, and my mind will be adrift on a sea monster’s cuttlebone, or wandering the deck of a Chinese treasure ship.
My characters hang out with me too, and they get quite bored waiting for their next lines. I imagine them as extras, sitting down between movie takes, in the scene I‘ve last put them in. They share sandwiches or sodas while they wait for me. They make fun of me and complain about the situations I’ve gotten them stuck in. Sometimes just listening to their banter in my head provokes an idea, and then I’m back at the keyboard, clickity-clicking away.
10. What feeds your desire to continue writing?
I want to finish things. So many of my plot ideas never got written, or I started them but never finished. I’m trying to do better on that. And since I keep getting new ideas, I doubt I’ll ever feel “finished” with all my writing. May the heavens forfend.
11.Who are your influences?
Every fantasy writer I‘ve ever read, good and bad. The sponge thing. J Honestly, I can’t point to one and say, yeah they made a huge impact on me. It all blends together. And, um, I’m terrible with names.
My family, for encouraging me as a child, and bragging about me. That means a lot to a kid with low self-esteem.
12. How do you know when your story is finished?
I’ll be dead, and my headstone will read “The End.”
All right, I might publish something or another during my lifetime, so I can’t really say that. But until it’s published, I consider any story of mine as still in the editing phase at the latest.
General things about you
1.Hobbies?
Writing, geocaching.
2.Pets?
Not at the moment.
3.Talents?
Back/neck massage and adjustment, cooking my husband’s favorite dishes, making wicked puzzles. I do a mean arm whip, and they tell me I’m a tolerable writer, when I‘m not being lazy.
4.Jobs?
Hmm... *thumbs through resume* Boring...boring...ugh, don’t even want to think about that one...boring...oh, here’s one:
I worked as a supervisor in the Fluff Department in a commercial laundry for a few years. Try saying that with a straight face in an interview.
I also worked at a hospital for a few years, in the business office. It’s taught me to hate the insurance industry with a fiendish passion. Nearly as much as the pharmaceutical industry. Don’t get me started.
5.What advice would you give to growing writers?
Eat healthy, get lots of sleep, and stay in school; don’t do drugs, run away from home, or get sucked into World of Warcraft. That way you’ll have plenty of time and energy to write!
Okay, really: read other books. See how the published authors did it. Look at their sentence structure, their use of description, their action and dialogue. And that’s aside from the plot. See how complex or simple they make it, and how they make the separate strands come together in the end (or not, leaving you hanging!).
I encourage you to check out her following work:
Thank you, Valkyrie, for all that you do on Storywrite!
Comments have been disabled to encourage personal communication with the member of the month.
