I
come into my office each morning with one goal—to calm the chaos in my head. I
don’t sleep well these days, probably my body telling me I need fewer hours in
the sack—and what I’m working on tends to make its way into my dreams and woozy
waking moments.
I
always have several projects going at once. This lets me jump off a stalled
page into one that might be more active and responsive to my persistent nudge.
There’s
a novel. The current one is set in the late 1940’s in Cambridge, MA. The
husband is pursuing his doctorate at Harvard; the wife is deciding if she wants
to stay married. I’ll be honest. This draws from the story of my parents, in
that same time and place. They’re both gone now, and I’m free to render them as
I like, without fear of offense or condemnation.
There’s
a story. The new one is about an older woman who decides to cut her hair, after
wearing it long all her life. Of course, there’s a lot more to it than that.
You’ll have to wait until I finish it and find a publisher to know the rest.
There’s
an essay—this one, in fact. Its immediate predecessor was a piece I wrote about
the television show Perry Mason. Did you know its executive producer was a
woman? I found that fascinating. You can read the piece here.
There’s
poetry. This is a relatively new passion for me. I’ve published twenty poems in
the last two years, and am really thinking about putting a chapbook together. I’m
having trouble arranging the poems, though. While I’m used to arranging stories
in a collection, poems feel a little different, as if their sequence needs more
care. I’m willing to admit that I might be overthinking this. All the poems
have to do is talk to each other in a way that makes sense. I’ll keep working
on it.
If
I’m not writing, I’m promoting. And let me be honest—I don’t like it much. I
know it’s necessary. My last novel just came out on October 1st, and
I’m still tweeting about it. My publisher is
running a sale on Smashwords, and I’m tweeting about that,
too. I try to stay on top of my newsletter, and get it out once a month. I’m in
the process of redesigning it, or my graphic design person is, or will be,
after the first of the year.
Every
writing day will have one or more of these elements, in some combination. When
it all stalls, which it does more often than I like to admit, there’s always
computer solitaire. Really, I’m a whiz with those cards.
Lastly,
I listen to the rain. I live in Western Washington, surrounded by huge
evergreen trees. There’s something about another two inches of rain falling
through their branches that I have come to love, probably out of necessity.
Contemplating nature frees the mind, and pretty soon I feel creative again.
Then,
I get back at it.
Thank
you so much for spending time with me today. You can visit me on my website,
Twitter,
LinkedIn, and Instagram.
Also Facebook, if you’re still into Facebook
these days.
Anne Leigh Parrish's fifth novel, A Winter Night, will be published in
March 2021 by Unsolicited Press.
Previous titles are: Maggie’s Ruse,
a novel, (Unsolicited Press, 2019); The
Amendment, a novel, (Unsolicited Press, 2018); Women Within, a novel (Black Rose Writing, 2017); By the Wayside, stories (Unsolicited
Press, 2017); What Is Found, What Is Lost,
a novel, (She Writes Press, 2014); Our
Love Could Light The World, stories (She Writes Press, 2013); and All The Roads That Lead From Home,
stories, (Press 53, 2011). Her short fiction has recently appeared in New Pop Lit, The Slag Review, and O:JA&L.
Recent poems have appeared in Mocking
Heart Review, Crow Literary Review,
S/tick, Wilde Boy, Feminine
Collective, 34thParallel Magazine,
and Q/A Poetry. She lives among the evergreen trees in the
South Sound region of Washington State.
Website:
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