VANESSA BUSH
INTERVIEW
1.)
When did you realize you wanted to become a writer?
I
wouldn’t say there was any defining moment, when the realization came to me. I
recall writing weekly stories, in elementary school. The teacher would assign
us a topic, and the class would write a short story. Almost every week, the
teacher would read my story aloud to the class. I had no idea why she chose my
stories, but I began to get a sense she saw something in me.
It
was a few years later, in grade seven, that we were required to write a poem
about spring. The teacher read it aloud to the class, and I found out later
he’d read it to all the teachers in the staff room. He came to me and said I
should try to get it published. This surprised me. That anyone would consider
what I write to be worth publishing.
I
had no desire to write, back then. I did it because I was told I had to. It was
when my teachers praised me that I started to feel a sense of accomplishment
and pleasure from it. I’m not sure if that was what sparked this love of
writing, but I found myself in a moment when inspiration would strike, and I
just had to get it down. I would write poems and, at first, had a couple
published in local poetry books. I then submitted them to contests and had
several published in anthologies in the U.S., Holland, and the U.K., under
Lauren Hunter.
I
started writing short stories, as the ideas came to me, and then I had an idea
for a novel. I worked on it on and off and finally finished it, but it wasn’t
until I wrote a few more novels, and tried to find a publisher, that I truly
considered being a writer. It was when my stories were accepted and published
that I really began to see myself as a writer.
Don’t
get me wrong. I’m not saying you have to be published, to consider yourself a
writer. I’m saying I didn’t think of myself as a writer, until that happened. I
don’t need to be published, to be a writer, but knowing others are reading my
stories, and getting some sort of pleasure from the experience, gives it
meaning for me. It adds a depth to the process, knowing it will be read. That
it will reach into the hearts and minds of people who will laugh, or cry, or
feel moved by my words.
Over
the years, from time to time, we may doubt ourselves, and question ourselves,
but the desire remains, and the ideas continue to flow, whether they’re
published or not.
2.)
How long does it usually takes you to write a book?
I’ve
written a 120,000 word novel in four weeks, an 85,000 word novel in nineteen
days, 50,000 words in twelve days…If I’m doing nothing else but writing all day,
every day, I can get a lot done. It’s when I get into a zone that I can’t wait
to write, the moment I awake—and when I’m too exhausted to focus, at the end of
the day, that I regrettably realize I must stop. I usually write around 5,000
words in a day, but I have written 8 to 9,000 words in a day. So, depending on
how long any given short story is, I can write them in one day.
3.)
What would you say your writing style and techniques are?
I
know dialogue pushes my stories forward and immediately pulls the reader into
the action, so I tend to focus on that. I’ll use narrative to help set mood, create
tension, and to build the world around my characters—but not so much that it
takes away from the momentum.
4.)
What is the most important thing for you to communicate with your readers?
I want them to relate to my characters,
no matter if they are good or bad. I want them to become part of the story, as
if there, in the midst of the joy or despair…for them to feel what the
characters are feeling. I want them to know the characters, as if they are
alive, and to cry at their loss, or rage at the injustice. I want them to come
away from the story having experienced something that touched them on some
level. Perhaps, left them with a thought, a feeling…a memory.
5.)
How do you find your inspirations?
Now
that is a really hard question for me. So many times ideas will literally come
to me out of thin air. They just pop into my head, and I find myself excited
about the story unfolding before me, and I need to get it down. There have been
times, when watching a particular movie based on a book, that I find myself
moved to write. Their creation inspires me to create, as if through the images I
sense their desire, their process, their drive and excitement. It reminds me of that passion, that
need to express, that thrill of living within the world of my characters, as if
one of them, as if I know them…as if they’re real.
6.)
What do you enjoy the most when you create a story?
When
I start a story, I may have the plot worked out in my head, as to where I want
the story to go and what it’s about. It tends to be a fairly general idea. I
then start to write it, and as I am writing it, the characters and the story
take on a life of their own. I don’t know what my characters are going to do or
say, until the moment they say it. Yes, I have an idea what I want them to do
and where I want them to go, but as to exactly what they will say or do to
accomplish that…is a mystery to me. It’s a lot like reading someone else’s
story, and I can’t wait to find out what happens next. The things that will pop
out of my characters’ mouths will make me gasp or laugh out loud. The words
come into my head, in that moment, as they’re speaking, as though overhearing a
conversation.
There
have been times when I started to write one story and it became something else
entirely. It goes off in a direction I never planned, and I go along for the
ride, wondering where it’s taking me. For me, it’s an exciting and mysterious
process.
* * *
Author Bio and Links
Author Bio and Links
Bio:
E. H. James has always been
fascinated by the unexplained. Wanting to delve deeper into the unknown, James
has read and researched in the areas of parapsychology and metaphysics, for the
past 40 years.
Taking those first hand
experiences, involving the unexplained, James has woven the real and imaginary
together into stories of the strange and bizarre.
James' stories range from the
paranormal and horror, to fantasy and science fiction, from short stories and
novellas, to 100K+ novels.
Author Links:
Amazon Author Page
Goodreads Author Page
Twitter
@EHJames1
Facebook Profile
Blogger
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