To have someone who believes in you is a gift. To have a string of such people is simply incalculable: I am overwhelmed to have such good fortune. From the start of my writing journey there were many willing to read and question, advise and support, inspire and encourage, and in doing so, help me find my way into the fictional yet fractured Ueland family who people the core of Crazy String. So yes, I have much gratitude for so many.
How do you begin to write a novel is often the first question I’m asked. I guess, as a woman who had witnessed much and lived to tell, all I needed to do was sit myself down and let the words come. On the best writing days I allowed the story to simply unfold and did my darnedest to meet each character without judgement. Well, that’s not exactly accurate. It wasn’t that simple, but I did try to stay out of the way of whatever was building on the page. At first, characters arrived shrouded in shadows, one then the next slowly stepping closer, until there was a whole illuminated cast who lived and breathed life into Crazy String.
The very act of painting has fueled much of the imagery found in my writing, while providing another creative outlet for me. A wild joy directs my brush strokes, color choices, even the texture of my painting, and of course, such unlocking of artistic freedom bounces back into my writing, in sentence structures, word choices, even how the characters feel. When I reminisce about all the different avenues artistic expression took me on, writing and painting rise to the top. Capturing emotions on canvas, returns me to decades ago, when I attended The New School in NYC, having the good fortune to study under a significant artist-teacher, the Abstract Expressionist painter, Norman Carton. His guidance is forever stirring at my core.
To allow both loves, painting and writing, to come together for Crazy String, is indeed a cover story.
