Today's Moment of Art

Seascape (1879), Pierre-August Renoir

Lace and Blade 5 Author Interview: Doranna Durgin

From lands distant or nearby, familiar or utterly strange, historical or imaginary, from ancient times to the Belle Époque comes a treasury of luscious, elegant, romantic fantasy. Come with us on a journey through time and across boundaries, inspired by the longings of the heart and the courage residing in even the meekest person.

Kindle: https://amzn.to/2PBzyj6
Print: here (Amazon) or here (Barnes & Noble)

ePub: https://www.books2read.com/u/bwYJwP

A lifelong horse lover, I fell in love with Doranna Durgin's early novel, Dun Lady's Jess and have been a fan ever since. So I was particularly delighted to edit her stories for Lace and Blade 4 and 5.

Deborah J. Ross: Tell us a little about yourself.  How did you come to be a writer?

Doranna Durgin: I was always a writer.  I think I started in at the typewriter in early grade school, writing horse stories that didn’t know where to go with themselves.  I finally wrote (and illustrated and bound!) my first complete book when I was twelve, and never stopped writing from that point.

DJR: What inspired your story in Lace and Blade 5?

DD:  I wanted to do something new—not based in a previous world, but something intense and complete unto itself.  I woke up one morning thinking, “Clockwork Unicorn.”  So the story grew from there.  Why was it clockwork?  Why was that element important?  How would the story center around it?  And what did the story want to say?So rather than being inspired, it was more a matter of making space for what wanted to grow.

DJR: What authors have most influenced your writing?

DD: More than anything?  Will James, who wrote a whole lot more than Smoky.  Ernest Haycox.  A spate of men’s adventure books that I got into when I was too young to be reading them.  We’re talking grade school and middle school here.  In high school, Anne McCaffery & Katherine Kurtz made an impression that carried forward, mixed up with some Mary Stewart and some of the early SF masters.  In my mid-20s I found now-friend Jennifer Roberson’s books, and those made an impact.  At that point, I think, I started to develop enough of my own self that although I continued to find authors I adore, they weren’t as influential in what I was doing. 

Writer's Round Table: Pros Give Advice on Writer's Block III

Writer Bobbie Bolig writes poignantly about what it's like to be blocked. I asked some pro writer friends for words of encouragement.

"Overcoming Writer's Block"

By Barb Caffrey

When writer and editor Deborah J. Ross asked me about how I'd overcome writer's block for an upcoming column series at her blog, I wasn't sure what I'd write—though I did tell her that of course I'd write something. Because, you see, I've had to overcome writer's block several times over the years, with the first time being due to my husband's unexpected death fourteen years ago. I know that tragedy, illness, family health problems, work-related issues, and other things can creep into your subconscious, and make it nearly impossible to write anything at all.

And yet, we're creative people, we writers. We need our creativity, or we don't function very well. We expect to be able to write, even when we feel terrible; even when our husband just died; even when our mother just broke her leg in three places; even when our workload is so high, we can barely turn around from doing the work and falling into bed, repeating ad nauseum.

Is this fair to expect this of ourselves? No, of course not. But as I said, we expect to be able to write no matter what.

There are reasons for this, of course. There are folks out there who put up such a good front in the professional writing community that you'd think nothing fazes them. (Granted, they may not have ever run into the situations I have, you have, or someone else you know as a writer who's dealing with tragedy, long-term illness of their own or in their family, or some other deep and frustrating concern.) They'll tell you that the death of their mother didn't stop them, so why can't you write? They'll tell you that they once worked seventy-five-hour weeks, came home and took care of young children, and woke up at four a.m. every day to write for an hour or two before they had to start breakfast for the kids and get off to work.

I believe that is possible, that sometimes people can—for a short time—overcome such difficulties and write. And it certainly is possible even with high-hour weeks to schedule in your writing time; I've done it, most writers I know have done it, and while it doesn't always feel great because you want to do more and can only manage a few hours here and there, it's a lot better than nothing.

But those outliers who actually can do such superhuman things and then pass them off as normal are detrimental to the rest of us. We aren't superhuman. We're people. We're fallible. We're mortal. And we only have so many hours in the day, with a sharply limited and finite energy supply to give.

What can we, the fallible, mortal writers who aren't outliers, do to keep writing under such difficult situations?

Kitten Hooligans

The kittens are now about 5 months old and have turned into a couple of hooligans. Most of the pics I took turned out blurred because they're moving so fast. Nonstop wrestling, then falling over, then more wrestling alternating with getting into whatever mischief they can... They are well matched. Although Freya (dilute torbie) is about 6 weeks younger, she's bigger and heavier. Sonja may end up bigger, but had a rougher start in life. It's unusual for a red/orange kitty to be a girl, but she is.

Today's Moment of Art

Pergola with Oranges, (c. 1834), Thomas Fearnley