Tag Archives: women

April 30, 2015 · 12:32 am

Rebecca Foust Part IV

Rebecca Foust and the writing life…

VAH: Are you a full time writer?

RF: Yes.

VAH: Is writing vocation, occupation, or profession?

RF: Vocation because I do it for love, not money.

VAH: When the page is blank what gets you writing?

RF: Writing—anything—gets me writing.

VAH: What is your “process” when working on a new piece of writing?

RF: Right drunk and revise sober. Let it all out in the first draft and then pare back and revise.

VAH: Do you have a submission system or plan?

RF: Yes, three times a year: fall, spring, summer.

VAH: What does your typical writing day include?

RF: Unfortunately it begins with answering a ton of emails—the main reason I go on writing retreats is to get away from emails and social media.

VAH: That immersion into writing and the ability to turn off the tech is quite inviting.

Bonus:

VAH: If you had a super power, what would it be and why?

RF: Never have to sleep because I hate to sleep.

VAH: What is a little known fact about you that will amaze and/or amuse?

RF: I used to collect rocks.

VAH: How fun! I used to collect rocks too. In fact, I occasionally can’t resist picking up and stashing one away in my pocket.

Three random, non-writing facts about you?

RF: I love to cook. Have 3 kids. Am a pretty good snowboarder. Once was proficient on the stationary trapeze.

VAH: Who is your biggest fan?

RF: My sister Sandy Geimer.

Thank you Rebecca Foust, for taking the time to talk about your writing life.

Rebecca Foust Sampler:

Southern Indiana Review Spring 4014 Issue, “the fire is falling,” Jan 2014:

“Dynamic Response of Multi-Layered Soil Media in the Frequency Domain,” featured on Poetry Daily, 2/1/15

“Biography,” “But What Can Wake You,” and “Eulogy,” published in OmniVerse, Fall 2014

“Dream of the Rood” featured on Poetry Daily, 10/2/14

“Prodigal,” Valparaiso Poetry Review, Volume XIV, Number 2 (Spring 2013)

Rebecca Foust was the 2014 Dartmouth Poet in Residence and is the recipient of fellowships from the Frost Place and the MacDowell Colony. Her fifth book, Paradise Drive won the 2015 Press 53 Award for Poetry. Molly Peacock calls it “jagged” and “fresh” and Thomas Lux says “There is great music in these poems, and sonnet after sonnet is masterful. Not si

beck 2 nce Berryman’s Henry have I been so engaged by a persona.”

Foust’s poems are widely published and appear in current or next issues of the Hudson Review, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, North American Review, Southern Indiana Review, and other journals. Her book reviews and essays have published in American Book Review, Calyx, Chautauqua, Prairie Schooner, and Rumpus, and her essay, “Venn Diagram” won the 2014 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Award and appears in the current issue of Malahat Review.

Find Rebecca Foust on the web and social media: Website. Twitter. Facebook.

Paradise Drive

Leave a comment

Filed under writing life

Tagged as 3x5, author interview, Becky Foust, form, interview, Paradise Drive, poem, poet, poetry, Press 53 Award for Poetry, Rebecca Foust, Three by Five, women, writer, writing, writing life

April 23, 2015 · 12:18 am

Rebecca Foust Part III

April’s conversation with Poet Rebecca Foust continues.

Part II Becky_author photo_cropped_7-12-14 I with Poet Rebecca Foust

VAH: What words of wisdom do you have for the emerging writer?

RF: Learn to accept rejection and to reject acceptance (Ray Bradbury). The writers who succeed are the ones who don’t give up. Do it for love, not money or fame because those things are not gonna happen. Enjoy the process. As Isak Dineson said, write every day with hope but without specific expectation.

VAH: What choices have you made regards to traditional or independent publishing and why?

RF: Traditional because with 5000 books of poetry a year getting published now, a writer has to do all she can to distinguish her work in the great wash.

VAH: What part does social media play in your writing career?

RF: Lately, more and more. FB is vastly more efficient than email for spreading the word. I am just learning twitter and the jury is out on whether this will be effective in helping to distribute my work.

VAH: Both can be useful marketing tools and just as effective time sucks.

Do you belong to writing or author organizations and what benefit have you found in doing so?

RF: Left Coast Writers at Book Passage in Marin is great. AWP conferences are great, too. And I love Marin Poetry Center, which offers so much for $25 a year: monthly readings by high profile poets, a monthly roundtable workshop, the chance to contribute to an annual anthology, and the opportunity to read in the summer traveling shows.

VAH: I’ll need to look into the Marin Poetry Center. Do you have any favorite online sites or blogs that you find useful or interesting?

RF: Narrative, Cortland Review, and the Best American Poetry and the North American and Mid-American Review Blogs.

More with Poet Rebecca Foust posting here on days that end in three (or occasionally begin with 3).

In the meantime, enjoy a sampling of her work:

Southern Indiana Review Spring 4014 Issue, “the fire is falling,” Jan 2014:

“Dynamic Response of Multi-Layered Soil Media in the Frequency Domain,” featured on Poetry Daily, 2/1/15

“Biography,” “But What Can Wake You,” and “Eulogy,” published in OmniVerse, Fall 2014

“Dream of the Rood” featured on Poetry Daily, 10/2/14

“Prodigal,” Valparaiso Poetry Review, Volume XIV, Number 2 (Spring 2013)

beck 2 nce Berryman’s Henry have I been so engaged by a persona.”

Find Rebecca Foust on the web and social media: Website. Twitter. Facebook.

Paradise Drive

Leave a comment

Filed under writing life

Tagged as 3x5, author interview, Becky Foust, form, interview, Paradise Drive, poem, poet, poetry, Press 53 Award for Poetry, Rebecca Foust, Three by Five, women, writer, writing, writing life

April 13, 2015 · 12:17 am

Rebecca Foust Part II

April’s conversation with Poet Rebecca Foust continues. Today’s installment looks at what the writer reads.

VAH: Rebecca, Do you have a favorite literary character?

RF: Boo Radley

VAH: Harper Lee’s characters are often mentioned in response to that question. First time for Boo Radley though.

Any favorite authors?

RF: No, I love so many.

VAH: You’re stranded in a snowstorm, stuck on a deserted island. What books would you hope to have with you or find?

RF: Shakespeare and the bible.

VAH: The gamut of emotion there. Love, pain, joy, anger, revenge, hope, redemption, drama, comedy… and would last a while.

What is the most memorable book, story or poem you’ve read?

RF: Well, I just wrote a piece for Poetry Daily on Yeats’s “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” and that is the only poem I have ever truly memorized, so let’s say that one.

VAH: I find hope that you’ve only memorized one poem, since I can’t memorize anything.

Do you have a favorite book, poem, or story?

RF: I love the poems of George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins and John Donne. My favorite book of poems is probably Ariel by Sylvia Plath, The House on the Marshland by Louise Gluck or Winter Stars by Larry Levis.

VAH: What author or books keep you up at night because you can’t put them down?

RF: I recently loved The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and Donna Tart’s The Goldfinch and The Secret History. I really loved The Old American by Ernest Hebert. Anything by Tobias Wolff is great. I love reading short stories too. Poems take more attention and work and it is hard for me to read them at night with the focus they require.

VAH: Reading poetry at night before bed would probably keep my mind awake, churning the images around. Which reader are you – always finish what you started or put it down and move on if you don’t like it?

RF: Always finish because I am stubborn and not a quitter.

More with Poet Rebecca Foust posting here on days that end in three (or occasionally begin with 3).

In the meantime, enjoy a sampling of her work:

“Dynamic Response of Multi-Layered Soil Media in the Frequency Domain,” featured on Poetry Daily, 2/1/15

“Biography,” “But What Can Wake You,” and “Eulogy,” published in OmniVerse, Fall 2014

“Dream of the Rood” featured on Poetry Daily, 10/2/14

“Prodigal,” Valparaiso Poetry Review, Volume XIV, Number 2 (Spring 2013)

beck 2 nce Berryman’s Henry have I been so engaged by a persona.”

Find Rebecca Foust on the web and social media:

Website. Twitter. Facebook. Paradise Drive

Leave a comment

Filed under writing life

Tagged as 3x5, author interview, Becky Foust, form, interview, Paradise Drive, poem, poet, poetry, Press 53 Award for Poetry, Rebecca Foust, Three by Five, women, writer, writing, writing life

April 3, 2015 · 12:19 am

Rebecca Foust Part I

Three by Five welcomes Poet Rebecca Foust. This installment focuses on writer beginnings.

VAH: Welcome Rebecca Foust to Three by Five! The first question is always – why do you write?

RF: I am impelled to by a pressure from within.

VAH: Why writing and what led you to identify as a writer?

RF: I’ve always been a writer but did not know it till the year I turned 50 and published my first poem and book.

VAH: That certainly gives the many older, emerging writers hope. Any influences with your development as a writer?

RF: So many—women writers like Sharon Olds, Molly Peacock Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, Louise Gluck, and Gwendolyn were all important because in college we studied only Dead White Men and I needed role models to convince me that I could write, too. James Cummins’s book of hilarious and smart linked sestinas based on the Perry Mason TV series was a big source of inspiration for Paradise Drive.

VAH: I think that question is one of my favorites because it so often gives some back story to what the author is doing. For any difficult profession – seeing someone that looks like you that is successful makes such a huge contribution towards successful individual effort. Role models give hope.

What do you remember about your first story or poem?

RF: Don’t recall my first poem but “Mom’s Canoe,” my most widely anthologized poem was the first poem I published, in 2007 the year I turned 50.

VAH: I love the rhythm and music in that poem. Fifty is a milestone and Mom’s Canoe seems to have gotten you off to a fine beginning.

Do you have a favorite piece you’ve written to date?

RF: A very short poem called “Only” written for my son who has Aspergers.

VAH: That poem must be particularly close to your heart.

More with Poet Rebecca Foust posting here on days that end in three.

In the meantime, enjoy a sampling of her work:

“Dream of the Rood” featured on Poetry Daily, 10/2/14

“Prodigal,” Valparaiso Poetry Review, Volume XIV, Number 2 (Spring 2013)

beck 2 nce Berryman’s Henry have I been so engaged by a persona.”

Find Rebecca Foust on the web and social media:

Website. Twitter. Facebook. Paradise Drive

Leave a comment

Filed under writing life

Tagged as 3x5, author interview, Becky Foust, form, interview, Paradise Drive, poem, poet, poetry, Press 53 Award for Poetry, Rebecca Foust, Three by Five, women, writer, writing, writing life

April 1, 2015 · 9:45 am

Three by Five Welcomes Poet Rebecca Foust in April

Find Rebecca Foust on the web and social media:

Website. Twitter. Facebook. Paradise Drive

Leave a comment

Filed under writing life

Tagged as 3x5, author interview, Becky Foust, form, interview, Paradise Drive, poem, poet, poetry, Press 53 Award for Poetry, Rebecca Foust, Three by Five, women, writer, writing, writing life

March 23, 2014 · 10:14 am

Poet Diane Lockward – Part III

Three by Five presents Part III and the conclusion to an interview with Poet Diane Lockward.

VAH: The blank page stares back at you, what gets you over writers block?

DL: I don’t wait for inspiration—I pursue it. That means showing up at the desk and being willing to write badly. Of course, there are days when I don’t feel like doing that, but I know that if I’m willing to do it anyhow eventually a poem will show up. I write on yellow legal pads, churning out pages and pages of garbage. Every few weeks I go over those pages and invariably find something worth saving and working on. I should probably mention that I’m not an everyday kind of writer. I know myself and my particular writing process well enough to know that I’m just not going to do that. I regard the non-writing days as gathering time. I do, however, spend a good deal of time each day doing something related to poetry.

VAH: Brass tacks of the writing life – how do you keep up with what you send out and results of your submissions?

DL: I have a form where I list journals, poem titles, and dates as I send out submissions. As responses come in, I indicate the results on the form, circling the Acceptances, crossing out the Rejections. It’s a primitive system, but it works. I also indicate the length of time it took a journal to respond.

VAH: Diane, Do you have a favorite, inspiring quote and why it works for you?

DL: Anton Chekov said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” That’s an important craft tip, beautifully said. It’s the old “show, don’t tell” advice, but in giving it, Chekov demonstrates what he means. Although Chekov was a prose writer, I keep his words in my head when I’m writing poems.

VAH: What does the typical Diane Lockward writing day include?

DL: I read poetry with breakfast—journals, books, anthologies. Then I check my email. I do some non-taxing exercises in front of the TV and watch the news. I get dressed. If it’s a writing day, I sit at my kitchen table with another cup of ginger tea, and I read some poems, steal an idea, an image, or a line and run away with it, free writing for 10-20 minutes. Then I devote some time to revising poems in progress. If there’s time, I run a few errands. Late afternoon I spend reading a novel or memoir. After dinner reading is usually a literary biography or a craft book.

VAH: I like the balance and informal structure to your work day. Writers are often working in isolation. What are your thoughts on the writing community – writing or author organizations you belong to or where online you frequent for community, online conversing, networking or commiserating? Do you have any favorite online sites?

DL: I strongly believe that we poets need to support each other’s work. We make up the majority of the audience for each other’s work. If we want people to buy and read our books, we need to do that for other poets. As the Poet Laureate of my town, I feel a responsibility to bring poetry into the community. Thus I run the two events I mentioned before—Girl Talk and the Poetry Festival. Both of these events give poets an opportunity to read in front of a packed room and to sell some books. These events also give area residents an opportunity to listen to some poetry.

I have also worked as a poet-in-the-schools and am on the roster of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. I have worked at every Dodge Poetry Festival since 2002 and I read at the one in 2006. Both my blog and my Poetry Newsletter are efforts to spread the word about poetry. I also put out a weekly Gazette for the women poets’ listserv I belong to—Wompos.

Right now I’m reading manuscripts for a book contest. And for the second time I’m a guest editor for Adanna, a literary journal which is putting out a special issue on Women and Food, so I’m reading submissions for that.

Although I know that social media gobbles up time, I’m on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +. I don’t spend much time on either Twitter or Google +, but I like the poetry community that has become part of Facebook and have made good contacts there.

VAH: Social media can seem like a consuming job all by itself. Now for a couple bonus questions – what are three random non-writing related facts about you?

DL: My favorite dessert is Boccone Dolce. And I can make it. Three layers of meringue, each topped with melted chocolate, a layer of whipped cream, and sliced strawberries.

My favorite exercise is walking which I do with an iPod.

I feed goldfinches all summer. They have occasionally flown into a poem, for example, “April at the Arboretum.”

VAH: Boccone Dolce sounds tasty! How about a little known fact about you that will amaze or amuse?

DL: When I was a child, I would routinely eat an entire jar of dill pickles in one sitting. Then I drank the juice. A pickle juice cocktail.

VAH: Thank you Diane Lockward for taking some time with Three by Five. Coming on the 30^th, a review of Diane Lockward’s The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop (Wind Publications, 2013).

Leave a comment

Filed under writing life

Tagged as 3x5, author interview, Diane Lockward, interview, poem, poet, poetry, women, writing life

December 4, 2013 · 10:00 am

Primary Lessons by Sarah Bracey White

Sarah loves to learn and as a joyous, clever toddler she is growing up in her Philadelphia Aunt’s home where the future is bright. She can be anything, do anything, her Aunt Susie tells her. When her friend starts kindergarten, she wants to follow, and talks her way into the neighborhood Catholic school – even though she’s only four. She’s advanced to the next grade at the end of the year. Except her mother returns and takes her back to South Carolina. She leaves the only home she’s known. A place where she was encouraged to ask questions, seek out answers, and aspire to become whatever she could dream. Dreams are dust in a place defined not by ability, but the color of your skin.

Primary Lessons is the true story of Sarah Bracey White’s childhood and coming of age. This is a personal story reflecting the struggle and trauma of systemic cultural racism and its cousin classism in mid 20th century America. While the setting of Philadelphia is a small part of the book, this provides a comparative backdrop for all that follows. In those crucial early years of 0 – five, Sarah lives in a nice middle class home in a big city, enjoys the ease of indoor plumbing and is encouraged in her creativity and questioning about the world. In Sumter, South Carolina, she is brought back to a family she’s never known. Despite her single mother’s quite respectable position as school teacher, the family lives in poverty, crowded in a small shack compared to Aunt Susie’s home, without plumbing and an outhouse for a toilet. The once distant mother is now ruling her every movement, older sisters perceive her in the way or a nuisance and she has no friends to play with except her paper dolls. Instead of encouragement, she now hears she isn’t old enough. Instead of school she plays alone. Instead of possibility, her life is defined by what she cannot do because of the color of her skin, aggravated by the perception her mother has about what is proper and respectable all driven by her mother’s own demons fueled by the inequities of Jim Crow south. Where a question once brought learning and discovery, now it can as easily bring a slap for endangering the family or future.

Singular events define Sarah’s life. The story presents well how young children learn to interact with their world based upon those decisions they make when small about how their world works and how to protect themselves from hurt. There is a great deal of hurt in Primary Lessons. The harsh impact racism had and continues to have in this country is ever-present.

There is also a great deal of perseverance. Sarah rebels and chafes against the restrictions of southern society and segregation personified in her mother. She grows up longing to belong, for a real family that would envelop her in the love she remembered from her time with Aunt Susie. She will not give in to fate. She will prevail. In the process, she will learn how close love and hate are in a family, hope often wears the mask of despair for its own survival and that every dream requires sacrifice.

About the author:

Sarah Bracey White was born in Sumter, SC. She is a librarian, teacher and motivational speaker. As a long-time arts consultant to the Town of Greenburgh, she designed and manages a creative writing program for children, edits an annual edition of their short stories and sponsors an annual poetry contest. The author of a collection of poetry, Feelings Brought to Surface, her creative essays are included in the anthologies Children of the Dream; Dreaming in Color, Living in Black and White; Aunties: 35 Writers Celebrate Their Other Mother; Gardening On A Deeper Level and Heartscapes. Her essays have been published in many regional newspapers and on the internet. Her memoir, Primary Lessons, was published by CavanKerry Press in September, 2013. She lives with her husband in Westchester County, NY.

Sarah was interviewed for Three by Five in July.

1 Comment

Filed under writing life

Tagged as book review, family, Jim Crow, memoir, nonfiction, race, Sarah Bracey White, women

November 30, 2013 · 12:00 am

Poet Mildred Achoch – Interview Part IV

Three by Five with a Glimpse into the Writing Life of Poet Mildred Achoch

Mildred Achoch writes poems and screenplays and has two blogs – Kenya Rock Film Festival Journal and Lost in Cyberspace and Other Found Poems. In 2013, she was a participating poet with the Found Poetry Review’s Pulitzer Remix Project. Welcome back to this last installment with Poet Mildred Achoch.

VAH: Any thoughts on the Master of Fine Arts for writing?
MA: I don’t have an MFA in writing but I do have a Bachelor’s degree in International Business Administration. I wouldn’t mind getting an MFA.

VAH: Do you have a favorite inspiring quote?

MA: I love this quote by Pearl Buck because it is a near perfect portrait of me. “The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive. To them… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off… They must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating.”

VAH: An excellent statement about the powerful drive to create that inhabits the artist. Would you share some less than creative insights now. What are three random not related to writing facts about you?
MA: a) I am a born again Christian b) I can play any song on the piano by ear. c) I am short sighted.

VAH: And one more fact that might amaze or amuse?
MA: I can sing jazz, opera and the blues.

VAH: If you had to choose a last meal – what would you want?
MA: French fries. They are my favorite and for a last meal, what better food than your favorite?

VAH: So true. Thank you Mildred for taking part in this interview series.

Thank you for stopping in at Three by Five, a way station on the information highway with a glimpse into the writing life.

Three by Five is on hiatus in December and January. Return February 3rd for the next interview of an emerging writer, independent author or just an interesting person in the writing community.

Leave a comment

Filed under writing life

Tagged as 3x5, author interview, emerging writer, found poem, Mildred Achoch, Pulitzer Remix, vicki hudson, women, writing, writing life

November 20, 2013 · 11:19 am

Poet Mildred Achoch – Interview Parts II and III

Three by Five with a Glimpse into the Writing Life of Poet Mildred Achoch

Three by Five returns today with a late Part II and in penance for that, combined with Part III.

VAH: When did you begin to see yourself as a Writer?
MA: When I wrote my first novel when I was sixteen. I began writing it during the school holidays then took it with me to (boarding) school and has my classmates read it as I completed writing it. It was their comments that helped me to see that I was good at writing. But more importantly, it was the fact that I immensely enjoyed reading my own writing!

VAH: What’s your best advice for emerging writers?

MA: Best advice for emerging writers? DON’T EMERGE! Just stay in your closet. In fact, give up writing! Don’t even think of making it your career! Get a nice, safe, 9 to 5 job! However, if all the above words went in one eye and came out your other eye, then congratulations! You are a writer. And nothing anyone tells you will make you quit!

VAH: “A nice, safe, 9 – 5 job!” That’s a great way to sum up what writing is not for so many of us. Now, the writing community – do you have a favorite writing conference or retreat?
MA: I haven’t had a chance to attend any conferences or writing retreats/seminars but I have attended several workshops on screenwriting. I would love to attend a screenwriting conference or retreat.

VAH: Mildred, you’re a full time writer, if not writing, what would you be doing?
MA: Yes, I am a full time writer, to the horror and great disappointment of those near and dear to me! If I wasn’t a writer, I would be the lead singer/songwriter of a rock ‘n’ roll band.

VAH: Certainly still an expression of your creativity. When reading for yourself, what type of books do you most enjoy reading?
MA: I LOVE paranormal romances. I also enjoy science fiction.

VAH: Rock star or Author, who would play you in the Life and Times of Mildred Achoch?

MA: I don’t know who would play me but the theme song would be “Beautiful Day” by U2 because it’s such an uplifting song and I can’t get enough of it!

VAH: You suddenly gained a super power – what is yours?
MA: Speed. So that I could write and type faster!

VAH: Writers read, what kind of reader are you?
MA: I’m the kind of reader who can read three books at a go. One day, I may be in the mood for paranormal romance. So I wold begin to read that kind of book. Then the next day I could be in the mood for science fiction, so I would begin reading a science fiction book. The next day a biography. [Reading] just depends on my mood. And sometimes the location. I would carry the biography with me and read it “on the go” but the paranormal romance and science fiction novels I would prefer to read in the comfort of my home.

VAH: Writing every day as your paying job, what gets you over writer’s block?
MA: The rent being due!

VAH: Accounts due certainly have a way to motivate. Thank you Mildred Achoch for the glimpse into your writing life. The final installment with Mildred will post on November 30th.

Thanks for joining us Mildred. We’ll be back later in the month with more from this young writer.

Leave a comment

Filed under writing life

Tagged as 3x5, author interview, emerging writer, found poem, Mildred Achoch, Pulitzer Remix, vicki hudson, women, writing, writing life

November 3, 2013 · 6:29 am

Three by Five Introduces Poet Mildred Achoch

Three by Five welcomes Mildred Achoch, a Poet and Screenwriter in Kenya.

VAH: Welcome to Three by Five, Mildred! Why do you write?

MA: I write because I can. I found out early enough that I could skillfully combine words so as to communicate creatively. I also write because I cannot not write! They say it takes about 21 days to form a habit. Well, I have been writing for way more than 21 days! I’m hopelessly hooked!

VAH: Tell us about your first story?

MA: My first story was an interracial teen romance novel. I wrote it in longhand and I still largely write in longhand. I wrote this story when I was sixteen. I still remember the song that inspired it. “I love you always forever” by Donna Lewis, specifically the line that goes: “You’ve got the most unbelievable blue eyes I’ve ever seen.”

VAH: Do you have a favorite literary character?

MA: My favorite literary character is Bella Swan of the “Twilight” series. I think it’s because I can relate to her on so many levels. We are both introverts, love books so much that we’d rather go to a bookstore than shop for clothes and we both love vampires 🙂 Also, we come from broken homes.

VAH: A gift of books is how they provide both reflection and relief of our reality. If you were stuck on a deserted island, what books would you want with you?

MA: The Twilight books of course! Because I literally never get tired of reading them! They are so well written, the characters are well developed and the themes are very close to home: loneliness, sacrifice, love.

VAH: What has impacted you the most in your development as a writer?

MA: Working as a freelance writer on odesk.com, a portal for freelancers. Working with strict deadlines really helped me to improve my speed in writing and even in thinking. I discovered that, at least in my case, writer’s block is largely just an excuse for me not to write! I also have had the chance to work on diverse writing projects: novels, children’s stories, screenplays, world creation, articles, e-books short stories and so on.

Thanks for joining us Mildred. We’ll be back later in the month with more from this young writer.