Ask the Author: Lisa King
Answered Questions (6)
Lisa King
I think that most writers are readers. So, reading is the best part of being a writer. But then, most writers are dreamers too. So dreaming is the best part of being a writer. Most writers are brave, they speak their minds, they imagine new worlds, they tell stories, they invent myths, they thrive in solitude...so maybe brave, outspoken, quiet storytelling, while myth-weaving and imagineering is really the best part of being a writer.
Lisa King
This is a very deep question, because silence is just, so incredibly loud. Abraham Lincoln was rather inclined to it. Lao Tzu found it a source of great strength. Muhammad Ali thought it golden. Edgar Allan Poe preferred it. After considering your question with great sincerity, I believe that I would have to be silent concerning...Carr’s Water Biscuits.
Lisa King
The lights in the house suddenly flickered dim, with a sizzling sound like bees. Boards squeaked in the silence, as she tried to lightly tiptoe down the darkened corridor past her bedroom—but as she glided by its central gallery, the face in the hallway mirror was no longer her own.
Lisa King
This is a tough question, because I really love so many worlds. Some of my favorites are the Underearth world of “Druhim Vanashta”, city of demons created by Tanith Lee in “Tales from the Flat Earth”; The tapestry known as the Fugue, in Clive Barker’s “Weaveworld”; the archipelago of “Earthsea”, in Ursula K. Le Guin’s trilogy; and “Fillory”, the Narnia-like fantasy land in Lev Grossman’s “The Magicians”. But, if I had to pick just one fictional book world to visit, I would have to stick with good old Middle-earth. I would vacation for a week in the Shire, ramble through the Old Forest, see a waterfall in Rivendell, quickly helicopter over Mordor and the Misty Mountains, and sail down the River Anduin if Galadriel will let me borrow a boat.
Lisa King
The first part of the book, Boneshadows of Motherskin, was written every morning in 2018 and into 2019 over my morning coffee, at my old typewriter. There is definitely a vibe to hand-typed work. I don’t write in the same way on a typewriter as I do on a keyboard, laptop, or even by hand. There is a certain letter-pressed physical feel to old typewriters. Hot Rod Butterfly was written by hand, mostly in little journals, out in bars & restaurants, and sometimes at home on my couch. I was really getting into Automatic Writing at the time, always a student of the Surrealists. So, those poems really feel channeled. They’re very trippy. Boneshadows was more of a serious journey into writing what I felt each morning, based on the weather, the season, and the relationship with myself and my Mother, to a great extent. It was also a little diary, in a way, of my year.
Lisa King
Go work in your studio every day. I think it was Chuck Close who said, "Inspiration is for Amateurs, the rest of us just get up and work every day." Work-sit at your desk, even if you're tired or uninspired, or even bored. Inspiration will come. Like Picasso said, "Inspiration does exist. But it must find you working." The Muses have to know where to find you!
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