Ask the Author: Linda Egenes
Answered Questions (7)
Linda Egenes
All right, you may think this is a strange answer since I'm not a big fantasy fan, but I'd love to visit the elves in Rivendell (Lord of the Rings) and spend the day with Arwen just soaking in the air of the magical forest and seeing all the beautiful things there. I'd like to go before the War of the Rings starts, when times are peaceful and everyone is relaxed and playful. Somehow their woodland home tugged at my heart, perhaps because it reminded me of the forest I grew up in, in which I imagined elves and fairies hiding under the umbrellas of the mayapple plants and making cozy homes in the hollows of trees.
Linda Egenes
My last book was Super Healthy Kids: A Parent's Guide to Maharishi Ayurveda. My co-author, Kumuda Reddy, MD, asked me to write this with her, but truthfully, as an elementary school teacher earlier in life, I had wanted to write a book for parents for a long time. So in a round-about way it was inspired by my early experiences teaching kids.
Linda Egenes
Like many writers, I have ideas flooding my brain all day long. Right now I'm inspired to write fiction, although I have two nonfiction book ideas on the back burner as well. My current novel-in-process was inspired by an Amish girl I met while researching my nonfiction Amish book, Visits with the Amish. My next novel is based on memoir, of growing up in the 60s.
Linda Egenes
I'm currently working on an historical YA novel set in Kalona, an Iowa Amish community, during WWII. It's a coming of age story and has romantic elements, and the main character, Ida Mae, is based on an Amish girl I met while interviewing Amish teenagers for my book Visits with the Amish.
Linda Egenes
I guess I'd have to quote my dad here, "Just put something down on paper." If you start, you can finish. I'd also recommend that you write the first draft as fast as you can, so you tap into the infinite stream of creativity that lies within you rather than dissecting and judging each word with your intellect. The intellect steps in later, when you're revising, and then it's essential. But in the first draft, let 'er rip. You'll be amazed what comes out if you let it. There's the junk, yes, but there's the beauty too. And your conscious mind could never invent that.
Linda Egenes
I get to play with words all day, every day. I'm not saying it's not hard work. I have worked hard to improve my craft every single day since I started writing professionally in 1986. Yet that is also fun for me. When I say that writing is like eating candy, I mean that I love the pure act of writing. If I miss a day of writing, I feel like something is missing in my life.
Linda Egenes
I start typing in quotes or research or something that is easy to do but gets my fingers moving. I think of my dad, an engineer with 21 patents, who advised his protégés: "Just put something down on paper." Usually the act of writing itself leads to the flow of ideas spilling through my fingers. Also, to be honest, since I started a regular meditation practice in 1972, I have rarely had writer's block. Before that, I was plagued by indecision, procrastination and lack of confidence. Regular meditation (in my case, the Transcendental Meditation technique) made those things recede and the magic of writing takes center stage.
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