| How Do I Write?
|
When people learn I'm an author before they get to know me, it seems as if they expect a person who sits hunched over the typewriter or computer for hours each day, is familiar with literature of all kinds, and is in some other mysterious ways, different from ordinary people. When I try to tell people that being an author is only a very small part of my life, they either don't believe me, or are terribly disillusioned. Now is my chance to address this issue thoroughly! |
When I Get
Inspired... ![[cover of Nesuya's Basket]](basket.jpg) |
Many months pass without my writing a word. I've learned that the only things worth writing are the ideas that call me so strongly I can't keep from writing them. My book Nesuya's Basket, about the Maidu Indians was such a topic. Once I got into the research for this book, it consumed my life for two years. I gathered and wove basket materials, walked the places the Maidu walked, and made my helpless children gather, grind, leach, and EAT acorns. Each day while the children were in school, I wrote or revised part of the book. When my children and husband came home, I sat them all down and read the latest episode of Nesuya. The whole family lived and breathed this story until I had fulfilled the compulsion to put in writing the beauty of an often misunderstood culture, in a story that would hold people's attention long enough to appreciate it. |
![[Cover of Mrs. Merriwether'sMusical]](cat.jpg) |
Mrs. Merriwether's Musical Cat sprang from the wellspring of musical interest in my family. My mother began teaching me to play the piano when I was four years of age, and our cats, Firecracker and Mama Cracker, hung out on the piano keys. My three children filled my home with music during the years I wrote Mrs. Merriwether, and daughter Laura grew up to be an accomplished musician and music teacher herself. It is to Laura and my mother that the book's dedication primarily refers: "To the music teachers whose magic has touched my life." |
  |
Iva Dunnit and the Big Wind began as a collection of stories based on
humorous events in the oral traditions of my extended family. Nearly every
family has noteworthy tales of things that happened to mom and pop, or
grandma and grandpa. Once I began this collection, it seemed I heard new
stories at every get-together. The Big Wind was the one most appropriate
as a stand alone picture book and vehicle for Steven Kellogg's wonderful
illustrations.
The urge to write Least of All came, again, from a story told by a family member. My husband's mother grew up on a farm with older brothers who did all the work. Her only way to help was to churn the butter. As she churned, a book in her lap made the long hours tolerable. Once the idea of such a child teaching herself to read appeared, everything else in my life went on hold until Least of All was ready to submit. Not many subjects grab me hard enough to make me stop my other pursuits and write. During my early years as a writer, I tried to be like the stereotype, spending more time writing than I do now. I wrote much that is of no literary value and sits buried in my file cabinets. |
| What Next?
|
Is there anything calling to me now? I'm beginning to feel the urge to
write a novel about a play therapist - my current profession. A Play
Therapist helps children heal from traumatic events that have destroyed
their sense of well-being. Talking about hurtful, scary things is not as
safe and effective as playing about them with an adult who knows how to
play in a way that empowers the child.
So many funny, touching, and intensely interesting things happen in my offices that a great story is starting to beg to be written. I see it as either an adult novel with lots of truth in it, along the lines of James Herriot's tales of his veterinary practice, or a middle grade-novel written from the viewpoint of a child in play therapy. Time will tell if the potential story is good enough to make me write it. Surprises sometimes happen in the play therapy process, such as the time a four year old taped my feet and hands together with three inch masking tape. I realized too late what was happening, because he quickly taped my mouth closed and announced he was going to get his mother to show her. When I write that book, you can learn how it ended. How else do I differ from the stereotypical author? I'm not well read in the areas that people expect me to be. I read a lot, but mostly non-fiction on a wide range of topics, and novels in Spanish because learning that language is one of my great interests at the moment. I'm not reclusive at all, and love to get up and talk in front of people. When I've attended literary festivals with other authors presenting, I seem to be the only one not agonizing over what to say when I get up to speak. I agonize instead over what to wear. I live in a rural area where getting dressed up means wearing your best jeans. |
| Advice to New
Writers... |
Aspiring authors always want advice from those of us who
have had the luck of being published. Here is the advice I would give
anyone who wants to be a children's book author:
|
| Carol Purdy's Home Page
|
When I finish my slide presentation at school author visits, I always end with a picture of my old, dilapidated trash cans that lean against the side of my old, dilapidated garage. The message is, I'm just an ordinary person like the rest of you who is lucky enough to have a few of the things that have caught my attention in life turn into stories that were accepted for publication. |