At my desk
I know writers who minimise distractions by using software to restrict their access to the internet, or turn their desks to face a blank wall, or shut themselves away in a room with little but their laptop and a chair. I can’t do that. When I’m thinking things over–who to steer a conversation in a…
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Rearranging the furniture
For months I was working on a story, interrupted frequently by work (I teach creative writing, and direct a creative writing programme), and by life (husband, kids, dog, cat), and unable to get past a certain point. My character had just arrived back in her home town to visit her father who’s in hospital. She…
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Spring, at last
It’s sort-of spring here in Interior Alaska, but then, spring comes in two parts here. First, break up: The snow mostly melts. The big early season mosquitoes start pestering us. Last autumn’s leaves, frozen beneath the snow all winter, re-emerge. The buds on birch trees make them look like knobbly strings unlit Christmas lights because…
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The trouble with sequels
I have to confess that when I’ve just finished a novel, and done all of the work of getting it down onto the page, and revising it over and over, and editing it, and going through proofs, the question that confounds me is: So, are you writing a sequel? I’ve never written a sequel because…
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First, know yourself
Recently I sat down with Robert Hannon for an interview about my new novel, Turnback Ridge, and about the ideas that inspired it. What a pleasure it was to talk to someone about my journey to Alaska, life as an immigrant, and the craft of writing, and to get messages and calls from friends who…
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A Day in the Life
Somewhere around the middle of the semester, I set my undergraduate fiction writers a task: write 1-2 pages about someone engaged in a job you’ve never done. Make it feel very real–and to do that, you’ll have to do research. Every semester I get pages about doctors and archaeologists, baristas, cashiers, butchers, mortuary workers. Some…
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Viewing the world anew
This summer, I took two of my sons to a sporting event in the Netherlands–they won medals, we hung out with their team-mates and other parents then, when it was all over, we stayed on for a few days. I’m from Europe, and there’s something about going back that is like a balm: seeing tiny…
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Sit and Write
At so many Q&As with writers, someone in the audience will lift their hand and ask a question along the lines of, “How to you write?” They want details–does the writer get up hellishly early and slog away at their keyboard for hours before sun up? Do they plan every scene in advance? Keep a…
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Alaska Quarterly Review reading
In 2016, I was lucky enough to have one of my short stories accepted by one of the premier literary journals in the US: Alaska Quarterly Review. The story went on to be included in The Best American Mystery Stories 2017 (which was an honour, and also something of a surprise as “Williamsville” is a…
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