Rom-Coms with Real Mess, Real Magic, Real Heart.
I was thrilled to be invited to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario last week to do a workshop on the many new ways we can publish our writing (e-publishing and Print on Demand publishing) and to speak on the panel about my training and work as a freelancer in ‘traditional’ journalism. One of the organizers Claire Owens blogged about this fantastic event, and included the Queen’s TV feature. Take a look!
Queen’s Media and Journalism Conference 2013
My talented author pal Elisa Lorello tagged me in a blog hop, and I thought it would be a fun way for you to learn more about her, more about me (in the interview below), and to ‘meet’ some of my other talented author friends.
Elisa Lorello is a best-selling novelist and the author of four books: Faking It, Ordinary World, Why I Love Singlehood (co-authored with Sarah Girrell), and her latest, Adulation. Currently on sabbatical from teaching, Elisa recently returned to the northeast from North Carolina, where she is busy developing new projects (she’s superstitious and never talks about her works in progress!) and getting re-acquainted with snow. Elisa’s blog post will be about Adulation–perfect for Oscar season! Please visit Elisa at I’ll Have What She’s Having.
I am tagging the following authors in this ‘blog hop.’ Could you please visit them this week? I think you’ll love getting to know them and their work.
Arianna Merritt: Author, M.Ed., Learning and Development Specialist
Website: http://ariannasrandomthoughts.com
Nate Hendley: Author & Freelance Writer
Blog: http://crimestory.wordpress.com/ Website: www.natehendley.com
Mark Stratton: Poet/writer – poetry collection “Tender Mercies” available here: (http://radio-nowhere.org/nb/?page_id=766) and website here: http://radio-nowhere.org/nb
BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW…
AN INTERVIEW WITH HEATHER GRACE STEWART
Tell me about your writing process. Do you plan out what you’re writing or sit down and do it? What was the greatest surprise about this writing process for you?
I plan to write, but I don’t always plan what I’m going to write. Unless I have a magazine deadline or I’m writing a presentation, I set aside time, usually 7:30 in the morning to noon, to write creatively. I try to avoid distractions like the Net and the phone until noon. As far as plot, poems just come to me and I go with the feel of the poem and then edit later. I’m working on a novella right now, and I did plot a little down on paper, including character sketches, but I find what works better for me is to just sit and write for a few weeks without any rules. Just stream of consciousness, every morning.
That’s been the biggest surprise to me. I didn’t realize plotting out can sometimes strain my writing. The Friends I’ve Never Met. was a story that just woke me up like an alarm clock at 4 a.m. every morning for several weeks, without fail, and I found I just had to go write this story down. After a few weeks I went back and made sure the plot and characters were working, and then I fattened everything up, and did many, many edits.
Ideas come to me in the shower, and especially while I’m driving alone, so I have learned to use a small tape recorder whenever I go on a road trip. I used to try to write on a yellow sticky note at the stop lights, but I could never read my writing later. I’m going to try texting myself, too!
What was your worst job ever? (doesn’t have to be about writing) and why? What did you learn from it?
When I was 16 I worked at a Rifle Range. I had to sweep up barracks and clean the toilets. That wasn’t so bad, but the army officer in charge was weird and made me put up heavy tents in the blazing July heat, and then take them down as soon as they’d been put up, as if I were in the army too. I experienced a lot of harassment and sexism that summer. I think it made me ballsier. I didn’t take crap from a boss ever again after that. Ha ha, maybe that’s why I work for myself!
If you knew tonight was your last meal for a week, what would you eat?
Probably many many slices of pineapple cheese pizza with green olives. And a pint of beer – Heineken or Tsing Tao- mabye even a Hoegaarden. And vanilla ice cream for dessert, with Smucker’s hot fudge on top. Okay this interview is making me hungry.
How do you feel about frogs?
I have a special relationship with frogs. I truly love them! Besides being fascinated by the biology, like how they get oxygen through their skin, since I was very young, I’ve been able to catch them easily ( the other kids coined me the Green Lake Frog Catcher) and get them to stay on my palm for over 10 minutes with out hopping off. I rub their temples and pat them and they stay. I’m the Frog Whisperer.
Where’s your favourite place to chill out, and why?
There’s a private beach on Cape Cod ~ it’s actually the cover of my latest book, Three Spaces, and it’s so quiet and full of fascinating aquatic life. My daughter and husband love exploring it after the tide goes out late afternoon. We try to save crabs and starfish by throwing them in deeper. The private beach belongs to a small motel, and compared to other places we’ve vacationed, it isn’t expensive to stay there, but if I tell you any more it won’t be my favourite place to chill out any more. 🙂
Thank you for reaching out and making space on your Kindles for THREE SPACES. I has been out two weeks tomorrow. And guess what? In two weeks, I’ve sold more Kindle copies of THREE SPACES than any of my other poetry ebooks. In fact, it has already outsold the Kindle copies I sold of Carry On Dancing (mind you, as of end of December 2012 – I’ve just learned from my publisher – I have sold 242 copies of that book, print and ebook totaled, realizing my goal to sell 200 copies before its 1st anniversary mid-March! I am SO thankful to my publisher, several Chapters bookstores, Kingston’s Novel Idea, and The League of Canadian Poets for your help selling those copies. And of course to you readers for buying & telling others about my work. Please keep spreading the word…
Still haven’t sold as many ebook copies of THREE SPACES as THE FRIENDS I’VE NEVER MET – that one blew me away! I keep thinking about writing another screenplay, because I never imagined I’d sell so many copies of a SCREENPLAY on the Kindle! (don’t forget it’s also on many other ereaders like Kobo, Nook, Sony, and iBooks).
Since you are my most loyal readers, my dear blog-following friends, you can be the first to know I’m working on a romantic-comedy novella. I say novella because the thought of coming up with 60,000 words when I have 1,000 so far frightens me to death. But I am not giving up! The plan is to write it as a novella, see if it has promise as a novel, and then write it as a screenplay too! Ask me again about this in 2014, because for me, this is a huge project and I’m taking baby steps with it for now.
Amid all this writing, I’m going to be giving a workshop on the wild new world of e-publishing (There’s An App for That: YOU!) at Queen’s University next week, March 9th, and I’ll be the panel of journalists on March 10th. I’m also going to be signing books & reading at Chapters Pointe Claire Quebec on Sunday, April 14th, to celebrate National Poetry Month, and I’m planning a reading & signing at a beautiful garden in Hudson, Quebec this July.
THREE SPACES will be available on Kobo , Nook and iBooks shortly. Sorry for the delay, hang in there !
Limited First Edition, signed, printed colour copies of THREE SPACES are available for $36 plus shipping. (Yeah, it’s not cheap, but they are in full-eye-popping colour). Just contact me via this page for details. At this point there are nine copies left up for grabs. Second edition copies with a colour cover and black and white interior will be for sale online (at Amazon stores around the world) at $14.99 by the end of April.
Speaking of April – here is a little inspiration for those of you living anywhere with snow and sleet in your line of vision every day (like me). These purple tulips are $6 of bliss that keep me going when it’s miserable outside. Hang in there!
Full disclosure: Heather Grace Stewart is my friend. She also happens to be one of my favorite poets. And her poetry collections only get better over time. Her latest, Three Spaces, is proof.
Stewart introduces the collection by informing us: “We are living in an age of three spaces: public space, personal space, and cyberspace. This book is my attempt to connect, take apart, and examine those three spaces that co-exist in our society.” That she does, and more. As always, Heather Grace Stewart integrates verbal and visual by using photographs that splash simplicity and delicate beauty and partnering them with words that evoke the same. Every poem, every picture, every part of this book tells a story.
She also intersperses poems with short prose chock full of depth and introspection. “Everyday Heroes” is an intimate portrait of an early male figure in her life. “To Infinity, and the Bus” is a slice of childhood; and although the child is hers, we can’t help but re-live a moment from our own. Additionally, Stewart uses dialogue and lyrics to tell her stories, and we’re more than happy to join the conversation.
“Cyberspace” offers the most humor, I think. “A Twittertine” is a 25-word love letter that would’ve melted me on the spot, had I been the recipient. Stewart also examines the silent personal connections authors make with readers, one that can’t be measured or detected by analytics or metadata. As an author, I could relate, and it reminded me of just how important those face-to-face interactions still are.
Above all, this collection is a reflection of Heather Grace Stewart’s radiant spirit. She is both a witness and a participant of life. She embraces her inner child as much as she does her daughter. She appreciates and celebrates the little things. She loves and lives out loud.
Buy this book. Get hooked. Add it to your space. You won’t be disappointed.
~ ~ ~
Elisa Lorello is the author of the Amazon best-selling books Faking It, Ordinary World, Why I Love Singlehood and Adulation. Find her books here
Three Spaces is available in Kindle stores worldwide and coming soon to Kobo, iBooks, Nook, & Sony Reader.
Welcome to my blog hop, where you will learn a little more about me and three other authors:
Tracey Allen (Sustainable/Gluten-free/Passive Solar) http://simplifyandsave.weebly.com/blog-save–simplify.html
Luigi Benetton (Technology/Business) http://luigibenetton.com/category/technozen/
Paul Lima (Business of Writing) http://paullima.com/blog/
and here’s my official website:
Heather Grace Stewart (Author/Poet/Speaker) http://heathergracestewart.me
If you’ve never visited my blog before, thanks for dropping by! Hope you’ll stay a while, and please be sure to visit my writer friends’ blogs. Thanks!
I’ve been writing creatively since I was five years old, and my first poem was even published (in the school newsletter!) From that moment on, I was hooked on writing. I went to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and wrote for the Queen’s Journal and Tricolour Yearbook. Then I attended Concordia and completed a graduate diploma in Journalism. After a few years working for a newspaper and several magazines as their associate editor, I decided to become a freelance writer, and in 1999, I founded Graceful Publications, my freelance writing and editing business.
Little did I know that one day I’d expand that business to become a book publisher! I’ve been traditionally published a few times (Jackfruit Press, Bewrite Books and Winter Goose Publishing) and recently, through Graceful Publications, I published a book of children’s poems, The Groovy Granny, my screenplay The Friends I’ve Never Met, and I’m so excited to announce that my 4th collection of poetry, prose & photography, Three Spaces, will be released in ebook format mid-February 2013 (print will come a month later). I really enjoy doing readings and speaking engagements, and am looking forward to doing a workshop on epublishing at the Queen’s Conference on Journalism and Media next month.
I think the best advice I can give to aspiring authors is to follow your passion. You may have to keep a job you don’t like much to pay the bills, but if writing about fly fishing or vampires or poetry is your passion, then find the time to do that, because that’s probably where you’ll do your best work and find your greatest joy. Don’t give up, either. There are so many different ways to get your work out there now – you can make your own ebook for free, or post samples of your writing on a blog, record them in pod casts, or even Tweet them!
So, don’t give up! Write every day, even if it’s a few words on a little sticky note. Those few words could spark a great novel some day.
Heather Grace Stewart 