Ask the Author: Jonathan Heaslet
Answered Questions (6)
Jonathan Heaslet
Read. Listen. Write. In that order.
Jonathan Heaslet
My adult daughter is pregnant, leaving her boyfriend, and coming to live at home. My adult son has lost his job, his house and is bringing his family to live at home.
Jonathan Heaslet
I am doing some much needed homework reading books by non-White authors. Bryan Stevenson, Isabel Wilkerson, WEB DuBois, Richard Wright, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Toni Morrison. I have put off far too long reading books by these authors. Join me, won't you?
Jonathan Heaslet
I contend that this question is seeking to trick me into revealing my all time favorite book. Instead, I'm going to say that my reading habits tend toward those books that take me to unfamiliar places and uncomfortable people and situations. Scan down the list of books on my reading list and see if you don't agree. I have gone to Community (THE GIVER), to Tehran (READING LOLITA...), to Native American nations (AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S HISTORY...), to California with the Joad's (GRAPES OF WRATH), to New York with Eva Khatchadourian (WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN), to Chile with Victor Dalmau (LONG PETAL OF THE SEA), even to Hell (SCREWTAPE LETTERS). For me learning intellectually and feeling empathetically occur when I am removed from my suburban, middle class lifestyle in the USA.
So, you ask where would I go and what would I do? My answer: to someplace I've never been and to be with people unlike myself.
So, you ask where would I go and what would I do? My answer: to someplace I've never been and to be with people unlike myself.
Jonathan Heaslet
I am about half way through a dark novel, tentatively titled EAST OF APPLE CREEK. You've heard it said that you can't go home again. But what if you don't ever want to go home again. And what if you have to go home again. That is the dilemma facing Nathan Sherwood when he is awaken early Sunday morning with the news that his mother and grandmother died during the night. Now Nathan must return to his childhood home to face issues of his life and his loved one's deaths.
Jonathan Heaslet
My feeling is that the term "writer's block" is couched as a negative, as somehow a failure, that there's something wrong with the writer. What if one to be asked: How have "pauses" in your writing been beneficial? In my experience, writing is not linear. In addition, there are different phases of writing. Sometimes I'll write a scene. Sometimes I'll outline a chapter. Sometimes I'll write two chapters straight through. Sometimes I'll do conceptual editing, and other times line editing. And sometimes I just give myself the freedom to let what I have written marinate. Let your heart and mind lead you to write when, when not, and what.
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