Ask the Author: Anna Pulley
Answered Questions (6)
Anna Pulley
I'm pretty scattered, generally, so I like to work on about six different things at a time. I have big dreams to write a semi-autobiographical novel about being half-Native American and in love with a married woman. I'm writing a ton of essays that I hope to make into a book one day. I have dreams to put together a resource guide for people who are hard of hearing. And I'm geeking on learning book marketing.
Anna Pulley
It's almost always from reading an amazing book. Cheryl Strayed is a big one. Joyce Carol Oates. Lorrie Moore. Jeanette Winterson. David Sedaris. Toni Morrison. Zadie Smith. And reading poetry (Sandra Cisneros, Jane Miller, Rilke, Rumi) always makes me look at the world in a whole new way.
I'm on a self-improvement book kick and that's wildly motivating, as well.
I'm on a self-improvement book kick and that's wildly motivating, as well.
Anna Pulley
Read everything you can.
Write what you're passionate about and what you'd want to read, not what you think you "should" write.
Connect with other writers. Tell them when they've inspired you or blown your mind or made you laugh. We don't do this enough with people we admire, generally.
Travel as much as you can.
Do what scares you. That's often where opportunity lies.
Write what you're passionate about and what you'd want to read, not what you think you "should" write.
Connect with other writers. Tell them when they've inspired you or blown your mind or made you laugh. We don't do this enough with people we admire, generally.
Travel as much as you can.
Do what scares you. That's often where opportunity lies.
Anna Pulley
I started writing haiku to get over my fiancee dumping me because she wanted to date men. After that happened, I could barely string two sentences together without cryin, but told myself that anyone could write 17 syllables.
Soon I had dozens and started a series called Haiku for Adulthood, where I made fun of the fact that I was almost 30 and an intern making $6 an hour in the most expensive city in the US and basically failing at everything. People seemed to really like the haiku, and they even inspired some copycats, which I was flattered by.
I probably would have stopped after a few months, but then I fell in love with this girl who was mostly straight and married and lived 2,000 miles away, and I thought, “That’s the girl for me!” We wrote hundreds of incredibly gay haikus to each other, in a desperate, Russian-novel-romance kind of way, but it really fueled my writing. I still consider her my muse, even though we don’t really haiku-serenade each other anymore.
Eventually, while stumbling back in the dating arena, I turned my focus to lesbian sex and dating, because I noticed how political and weird and humorous it was, the ways we court one another. For instance, I went on Craigslist and saw that 80 percent of the “looking for sex” ads were for political causes (seriously, a woman was looking for a date to a “Save the Whales” rally) and vague vendettas against their ex-girlfriends. So I decided to write haikus about that, and on and on.
Also, as an advice columnist, people (men) often would ask me how lesbian sex works, as if this was the greatest puzzle in the universe. So I eventually broke down and answered this query by making fun of it in haiku form on my blog.
The cat component of the book came about because my girlfriend Kelsey Beyer started drawing cat birthday cards for a few of her friends that I thought were hilarious. We didn’t think of illustrating the book that way until I showed Kelsey videos of Maru the famous internet cat, and she got very inspired. We thought, what’s more lesbian than cats? Nothing. So Kelsey made all the illustrations cat-related.
Soon I had dozens and started a series called Haiku for Adulthood, where I made fun of the fact that I was almost 30 and an intern making $6 an hour in the most expensive city in the US and basically failing at everything. People seemed to really like the haiku, and they even inspired some copycats, which I was flattered by.
I probably would have stopped after a few months, but then I fell in love with this girl who was mostly straight and married and lived 2,000 miles away, and I thought, “That’s the girl for me!” We wrote hundreds of incredibly gay haikus to each other, in a desperate, Russian-novel-romance kind of way, but it really fueled my writing. I still consider her my muse, even though we don’t really haiku-serenade each other anymore.
Eventually, while stumbling back in the dating arena, I turned my focus to lesbian sex and dating, because I noticed how political and weird and humorous it was, the ways we court one another. For instance, I went on Craigslist and saw that 80 percent of the “looking for sex” ads were for political causes (seriously, a woman was looking for a date to a “Save the Whales” rally) and vague vendettas against their ex-girlfriends. So I decided to write haikus about that, and on and on.
Also, as an advice columnist, people (men) often would ask me how lesbian sex works, as if this was the greatest puzzle in the universe. So I eventually broke down and answered this query by making fun of it in haiku form on my blog.
The cat component of the book came about because my girlfriend Kelsey Beyer started drawing cat birthday cards for a few of her friends that I thought were hilarious. We didn’t think of illustrating the book that way until I showed Kelsey videos of Maru the famous internet cat, and she got very inspired. We thought, what’s more lesbian than cats? Nothing. So Kelsey made all the illustrations cat-related.
Anna Pulley
The hella scrilla!
Just kidding. It's probably hearing from someone who liked or identified with my writing. Those little moments of connection and mutual understanding are the best.
Just kidding. It's probably hearing from someone who liked or identified with my writing. Those little moments of connection and mutual understanding are the best.
Anna Pulley
I go for a walk or do something physical. Often the "block" is more that we fixate on a problem or get overwhelmed. Taking a short break and going for a walk helps us think and to be more creative, says science. It's a renewal.
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