1. What am I working on?
My sanity.
I'm still writing and editing Senate of Blood which should be finished quite soon. In my last posted I mentioned how I am going to be reading out the chapters on my YouTube channel; this will be happening, but please note that some names might change in the novel as well as on screen... There are a few names I can't pronounce with enough confidence to say them to the entire Internet, so that will happen.
I'm also working on a few short stories that may go in Rose In Ice but I'm not sure yet. I'm also working on a new poem for Rose on Fire which will be an exclusive YouTube based poem for a few months before I put it in the collection.
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
My poetry is a weird mixture of spoken word, dirty pretty, and me doing my absolute best to break every single one of the rules I was taught at school. I put no symbolism into my poetry so it is all surface; that means that nothing stands for something else. The curtains are blue because I want them to be blue, not for some sort of reference to depression, gender conformity, or suicidal tendencies. They are just blue.
For my novel, I do think a weekly serial has become rare. It used to be the almost standard thing in literature, and in fact the vast majority of the novels by Dickens were published as serials. Thankfully technology allows me to do it. I also have in SOB the idea of creator and created having a relationship, and how stressful it can be; characters really do run off on their own, and none more so than Weaver.
It has always been my dream to create a monster that will give my readers nightmares, but not in a horror sort of way. Humanity is terrifying, so by showing all aspects of humanity it is possible to see just how terrifying it is to be a part of it all. Oh, and there's the odd fluffy bunny type love. I write that as often as I write murder.
3. Why do I write what I do?
I don't know. I have been asked this a lot, "Why do you write such dark pieces?" and I don't know.
I have no idea. I write what is in my head, and my head is full of imagery and images that demand to be shared with the world. I have no idea why I write what I write. I just write and hope that someone can make sense of the hells and the heavens inside my head, because I sure can't.
4. How does my writing process work?
I'm going to do this as a project based thing, because it seems to apply to everything I have written.
Cherry is one of the poems I have written that I hate the least. I had to write something for a university assignment, and I asked if it could be a dirty pretty poem. Once I got the green light, I had to come up with an idea.
I saw an image, almost like a photograph, in my head of a couple enjoying a picnic, but there was something wrong about it. The smiles were fake. I wanted to know why.
That night I got another piece of the puzzle in the form of a line: "You wear vintage misery like I wear cherry lip gloss" (and I would like to add now this was before the Fall Out Boy album Save Rock and Roll was released, but wow what an album). The next morning I typed it into Word. This was before I had Scrivener, which I love and have used to create the Fire collection, and all of my SOB writing/editing has been done in that too.
It was then that I gave the piece a title - Cherry. I like starting with a single line or a title because it gives me a focus point, and makes life easier; titling a finished poem/story is insanely difficult. Music goes on, preferably on shuffle and loud. Then the thought process began.
So... vintage misery. Obviously depressed for long enough for it to be called vintage. Is it depression? No, she isn't depressed. Who is she? She is in a relationship, so focus on the other person. Who wears the cherry lip gloss, and has to endure the vintage misery? She doesn't like either, she is "encouraged" to wear the lip gloss. Got it. Abusive relationship. Ends in a final declaration of love, and suicide.
So Cherry was born. For my university assignment, I took out nearly all of the punctuation, but I felt like I was betraying the poem, hence keeping it for the collection. Editing was easy for this one; there were a few lines that just didn't quite feel perfect, so I rewrote them, and it was done. I may or may not have a sequel in mind for Cherry.
For some pieces, the narrator comes to me, or I see it play out in my head. Tulip, the first story in Ice, played in my head like a short film, and I converted it to words. I'm really proud of Tulip because the ending shocked me, despite the piece being so short.
I'm going to tag my gorgeous friend Jax who you shall be meeting soon as well. I'm also tagging Helena just because I can.
See you after the take over!
E