I'm going to take a little break from the wrap-up posts about the Historical Novels Conference this last weekend in St. Petersburg to host an old buddy.
Ann Marie is someone I remember fondly from the old days at the San Francisco Writers Workshop. We both attended religiously about six or seven years ago. Now she has a children's book out called Up In the Air. Isn't that a gorgeous cover?
I'm very happy to host her today with a little Q&A about the process of writing this book and her career in general.
1)
What
inspires you to write
I get my inspiration from just about anything. Something I
read, or overhear; a thought that flashes through my mind, the look on someone’s
face; my dreams, especially my
dreams. Sometimes I just let my mind go blank and write down the very first
thing I think of and then see where that takes me. My very first book was
written this way.
2)
What
about Up In The Air. Which form of
inspiration did that take?
Surprisingly, neither of the above. The idea came to me
while I was meditating one day. That was the first and, as of now, the last
time such a thing has happened to me.
Ann Marie Meyers |
3)
Did
you always want to write?
No. Definitely not. I have always enjoyed reading. I
devoured hundreds of books when I was young, and I loved writing essays in
school and letting my imagination fly. Then, one day, (in my late teens
actually) to my utter shock, I started a journal and the very first words I
wrote were: “I want to be a writer”. I have no idea where that thought came
from, though I didn’t actually start to write until much later, and even then I
didn’t embrace the idea at first. I resisted.
Some of the famous authors I studied in school (eg: James
Joyce and D. H. Lawrence) were so unhappy I wanted no part of it. I wanted to
be happy, unfettered by depression (idealistic but true). Eventually though, over time, I learned to
accept the fact that I wanted, even needed, to write and create stories.
Quite by chance actually. I remember seeing advertisements
appealing to people to write children’s books, but I never paid any attention
to them. After my daughter was born, I began having thoughts about what she
might like to read but it wasn’t until she was about 3 years old that I actually
wrote my first children’s book, Up In The
Air.
. . . .
1 comment:
Thank you so much for hosting me, Erika!!!!
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