“The Writing Process” Blog Hop

Thank you to Tricia Sanders for inviting me to the “Writing Process” Blog Hop. I first met Tricia at the Missouri Writers Guild Conference and have enjoyed getting to know her over the years on Facebook. See her answers to the blog hop questions and get to know her at http://triciasanders.blogspot.com/.

First, I’ll answer the four blog hop questions, then I’ll introduce you to three friends I hope you’ll visit next on the tour.

1)      What are you working on?

As I thought about the answers to these questions, I had a little chuckle when I asked myself, “Should I give the ‘writerly-correct’ answer, or the honest answer?”

Well, I’ll give both. The “writerly-correct” answer is that I’m working on the sequel to The Red Kimono. And that is true – kind of. I continue to work on the sequel and have completed approximately half of the first draft. But I also have to admit that I haven’t been as disciplined or dedicated to it in the last several months as I should be. But I will.

 

The more honest answer is that I’ve been working on being a grandma and have recently started babysitting my first grandchild, little Tommy, who just turned three months old. I love spending my days with him and experiencing the world as new through his eyes. I’m curious about how seeing the world in new and different ways will impact my writing.

 

Though I haven’t been as productive on the sequel to The Red Kimono as I’d like, I do have a new book about to be released. Life: Haiku by Haiku. (April 2014) is a book of poetry which, in seventeen syllables, captures moments that touched my life over the last few decades.

2)      How does your work differ from others of its genre?

My goal in writing many of my stories is to try to give the reader multiple perspectives. Typically, I write in more than one point of view, so that I can show perspectives in one character that another character might not see or consider. I think we often don’t consider what another person might be dealing with, or what he has gone through, before making judgments that often affect both lives.

3)      Why do you want to write what you write?

I think I pretty much answered this in #2, but to expand further, perhaps it would help to read a bit of my bio:

Jan Morrill was born and (mostly) raised in California. Her mother, a Buddhist Japanese American, was an internee during World War II. Her father, a Southern Baptist redhead of Irish descent, retired from the Air Force. Many of her stories reflect memories of growing up in a multicultural, multi-religious, multi-political environment as does her debut novel, THE RED KIMONO, which was published by the University of Arkansas Press in February 2013.

My childhood—growing up with the customs and traditions of two very different families—has helped me to see the world from different perspectives. Perhaps more importantly, I’ve seen how sometimes people make judgments about a person based on his/her race, religion, political philosophy, sexual orientation, social class—the list goes on and on. Often, that judgment is made out of fear and before knowing much of anything about the person.

Much of my writing is about characters in conflict over their differences. As in real life, sometimes they overcome these differences and sometimes they don’t.

4)      How does your writing process work?

While I was writing The Red Kimono, my process was to get up very early, usually around 5:00 a.m., have a cup of coffee, then start writing until about 8:00. This worked for me because I wrote before most of “my world” awoke and before the swirling around in my head of all the day’s activities began. I think that’s one reason I haven’t been as successful getting on track with the sequel. I haven’t managed to get into that kind of routine again.

Perhaps that should be my goal. That is, rather the goal of writing a certain amount every day, I should focus on finding a set time to write, and stick to that time long enough to establish a routine again.

Anyway, thank you for the hardly-veiled opportunity to brag about Tommy. 🙂

And now, I’d like to introduce you to three of my writer friends. Hope you’ll hop on over to their blogs next Monday, March 31.

Linda Austin is the author of Cherry Blossoms in Twilight and Poems That Come to Mind and encourages lifewriting through her Moonbridge Books blog at http://moonbridgebooks.com.

Meg Welch Dendler is the award-winning author of the Cats in the Mirror middle grade science fiction/fantasy series and over 100 articles and interviews.

Links:
http://www.megdendler.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MegDendlerAuthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6951290.Meg_Welch_Dendler
Twitter: @megwelchdendler and @kimbababy

Books:
Why Kimba Saved The World
Vacation Hiro

Shirley McCann’s fiction has appeared in Woman’s World, Alfred Hitchock Mystery Magazine, as well as numerous other fiction publications.

Blog: http://shirleymccann.blogspot.com