The fantastic Sandra Simonds tagged me to take part in The Next Big Thing, a series of self-interviews with writers which operates much like a zombie contagion— each writer tagged then infects another set of writers, until we are Zombie Poet Nation. Or maybe it’s like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, in which we will all be connected, but through a series of interviews rather than by association with the movie Diner. Or maybe it’s like that commercial Heather Locklear did in the 80s, where she told two friends about Fabergé Organics shampoo, & then they told two friends, & so on, & so on…
The questions are the same for everyone. The answers, they are not.
What is the working title of the book?
& now my feet are maps
Where did the idea come from for the book?
The idea for the book was born out of the books read at bedtime with my nine-year old sons, Caleb & Malcolm, which heavily skew to fairytale and folklore– how they resonated with me as an adult, how they rekindled my childhood indignation at the treatment/fate of certain female characters.
What genre does your book fall under?
Poetry.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Charlotte Gainsbourg & Marianne Faithfull, with Guillermo del Toro directing. Assorted monsters constructed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Soundtrack by Jarboe. There would also be a comic book by Dame Darcy & a video game by Tale of Tales, in the style of The Path and 8.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
In a fairytale, when you / think you’re out of the woods / you’re not.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Probably about a year and a half to write & another year of revising & tweaking.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Doomed/ill-treated heroines of children’s literature, especially Susan Pevensie (from the Chronicles of Narnia), Wendy Darling (from Peter Pan), Gerda (from The Snow Queen), & The Little Mermaid (the Hans Christian Andersen character, not the Disney Princess).
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
This book project is ultimately concerned with the overarching issue with which I seem to wrestle in all of my work– the woman at the center of the heroic quest: as healer/caretaker, as mother/lover, as maiden/witch/crone. Fairytale & folklore here provided the lens through which this larger issue is examined, dissected, & reassembled.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It will be published by Dusie Press this spring!
[...] Extraordinary Poet and all around fantastic woman, Elizabeth Scanlon, yasked me to participate in The Next Big Thing, an ongoing network of self-interviews in which each [...]
[...] Jenn McCreary (23 January 2013) [...]
Great interview, Jenn. I just added you to the Blog Hop Database: http://nathanieltower.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/the-next-big-thing-blog-hop-database/
Awesome — thanks, Nathaniel!
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[...] teacher, and champion of the hybrid form. Other links to check out are . Susana Gardner and Jenn McCreary and more will be added every [...]