Ask the Author: Laura Ramnarace
Answered Questions (9)
Laura Ramnarace
The world of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I would spend summers in Rivendell with the elves and winters in a fine Hobbit hole in the Shire. In the summers I would spend my days swimming in the river, doing yoga beside it, enjoy meals outdoors with my friends and family. In the winter I would write while sitting in a cozy chair by the fire, sipping a huge mug of hot chocolate.
Laura Ramnarace
Her favorite color was red. Blood red.
Laura Ramnarace
I don't have a summer reading list but an ongoing and ever-growing list that people recommend to me or I just come across. Right now I have in front of me "Thinking in Pictures" by John Sayles, "Britt-Marie Was Here" by Fredrik Backman, "Olive Kitterige" by Elizabeth Strout, "Big Little Lies" by Liane Moriarty, "Gaia Codex" by Sarah Drew, "The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma" by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. , "Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States: Restoring Cultural Knowledge, Protecting Environments, and Regaining Health" by Mihesuah. And so on.
Laura Ramnarace
Having the time and psychological space to write feels like such a wonderful luxury that I never have writer's block. Or I haven't so far. I do think writing takes a lot of trust in your own mind and voice. A writer has to have an odd mixture of the desire to write well and non-attachment to how people respond to it. I suspect that writer's block comes from a crippling perfectionism.
Laura Ramnarace
It's really fun to make up a story and to see other people respond to it.
Laura Ramnarace
Just write regularly. Read what other authors have to say about how to write, but take it all with a big grain of salt because everyone has their own process ultimately. If it feels too much like work then maybe its not the right thing for you. If you can only write when inspired then maybe that's okay, just don't expect to complete a novel that way in any reasonable amount of time. Never write because its going to make you rich and famous because that's extremely unlikely. Go to school and get a nursing degree or something practical if you're just looking for a way to earn a living.
Laura Ramnarace
I am working on the second book in the Sung Home trilogy. I am pretty close to the end of the first draft. I expect to complete the rewrites, editing, etc. by sometime in February or March.
Laura Ramnarace
I don't really have to do anything to get inspired. Everything around me, all that I read and see, gives me ideas and I love the process of writing. My imagination is pretty active so I always have plenty of ideas.
Laura Ramnarace
I was feeling especially terrible about the huge problems in the world today -- climate change, mass extinctions, plastic islands in the ocean, mass shootings, etc. I'm aware that these things are going on all the time but this one day it felt overwhelming. Instead of fighting it I just curled up on my bed and let the feelings flow through me. As awful as that was I knew that they would subside in time and I'd feel calmer, if not exactly better. As the intensity of the feelings eased I asked myself, "What do you want to happen with all of this?" The answer that came was that I wanted a fresh start for humanity. To be able to push the reset button somehow. Then my imagination started taking hold. What might this force-quit and restart look like? To be clear, I do NOT want a virus, or anything else to kill off most of humanity, but by this time I was in a free-flowing, creative mode. Story mode. I had been reading about the melting of the glaciers and the permafrost and how that will release viruses that have lain dormant for thousands of years. Given that 90% of indigenous peoples from the western hemisphere were wiped out by viruses from Europe (see "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond), combined with modern mobility, it's not inconceivable that such a thing could happen worldwide. Then I thought of a character living in the aftermath. Somewhere along the line I remembered another book I read, "Songlines" by Bruce Chatwin, which talks about how the Australian Aboriginal people traditionally used songs as their oral maps. These map songs could be passed down through generations so that if a person heard a songline from a grandparent for instance, they could find their way to the place described, even if that grandparent had never been their themselves. The cave idea came from some caves that a sculptor, Ra Paulette, created in northern New Mexico. They are not as extensive as the ones in Sung Home, but are just as beautiful and functional.
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