Ask the Author: Georgia Scott
Answered Questions (19)
Georgia Scott
I confess that I've never gotten far with The Tin Drum. I don't know why, but it felt like work to read. So, my favorite is the one of his I finished and would reread. Cat and Mouse. It's shorter by several hundred pages and set right in my neighborhood where Grass lived. Our local library is called The Cat and Mouse in his honor. There's also a cat cafe around the corner but that's another story. I pass it going to the shops and look in on the cats. They look back at me through the windows. The doors have gates and are locked. You can't go in without being scrutinized by the staff who guard the cats. I call it Colditz for Cats. They pace when not sleeping and look for a way out. Ah-h but Catalonia. I've been more than once. The last time I went swimming impromptu after lunch. Not a skinny dip but in my underwear. I couldn't resist the water. Inspiring? Absolutely. You are lucky to live there.
Georgia Scott
The Tin Drum also made Gdansk notable. Gunter Grass devotees come to view his childhood home nearby. They point and take selfies with a bronze statue of the writer on a bench in the park. Oscar, the boy with a drum, sits there, too. You can sit between them. I do sometimes. While writing my last book, Grass offered advice. With my latest, he is also encouraging.
As to your question, I can't help but think of the writers, musicians, and painters who have made Paris their home. What took them there matters less than why they stay. Creative energy is what I believe many would say. It's a tank that never empties. And the streets are beautiful to walk. Gdansk is my Paris.
As to your question, I can't help but think of the writers, musicians, and painters who have made Paris their home. What took them there matters less than why they stay. Creative energy is what I believe many would say. It's a tank that never empties. And the streets are beautiful to walk. Gdansk is my Paris.
Georgia Scott
Braving the shadows is the job of a writer. To do any less would shortchange readers and writers alike. Yet there are benefits, as well. In summer, the shadows give cool relief. In winter, they're a reminder that the sun still shines. I would paint, if I could but words are the colors I've been given. "Is it difficult...?" Yes. Navigating life is only harder.
I hope that answers your question, Jacek.
I hope that answers your question, Jacek.
Georgia Scott
I would love to, Beata. Polish cafes were what I missed most while I lived for a time in London. The chains don't compare. The names of independents are crazy at times but check out Fucafe in Gdansk. Their tiramisu is excellent. Just message me when you know you'll be here. We'll talk books and family heirlooms. I saw the picture that you posted of your grandfather's bookcase. My mother's hope chest brings back similar memories to me. Beautiful.
Georgia Scott
Where do I begin, Joe? With the church spire outside my window or the forest on the hills beyond that? With cobblestone streets in the rain that remind me of tap dancers or the choo-choo train sounds of the language? With graffiti that isn't angry or bread rolls in babies' hands? With the beaches that curve the bay or women so comfortable in their own skins that they sun themselves in their bras? With cafes that are one of a kind, not chains or deli counters where salami is sold fresh (as few or many slices as you want)? With a history of hardships overcome or nights of dancing on tables until dawn? With snow that shimmers like diamonds and new skyscrapers as bright? With men who still kiss my hand or the flight of birds from Africa outside my kitchen windows? Saying why I'm here is like explaining love. All I know is I fell once and can't - as Jane Eyre would say - "unlove" now. It is where I am home. May it always be so.
Georgia Scott
Humor like desire is personal. Funnybones and erogenous zones can vary from person to person. My feet are hopelessly ticklish. My ... well, I won't go there. But to answer your question, Jonathan, Young Frankenstein is one of my favorite films. But my favorite Mel Brooks film has to be The Producers.
It was the debut for Mel Brooks as a director and shows a daring that is rare to find. While Young Frankenstein remakes the 1930s film in a humorous fashion, The Producers makes us face ourselves in the aftermath of the Holocaust. What makes us human? Is it the capacity to laugh? What kind of laughter? It's all there in The Producers. For me, it's a philosophical nightmare that you wake from and feel oddly relieved after. It's horrible. Crazed. Yet, it's life affirming. It makes me throb with laughter.
It was the debut for Mel Brooks as a director and shows a daring that is rare to find. While Young Frankenstein remakes the 1930s film in a humorous fashion, The Producers makes us face ourselves in the aftermath of the Holocaust. What makes us human? Is it the capacity to laugh? What kind of laughter? It's all there in The Producers. For me, it's a philosophical nightmare that you wake from and feel oddly relieved after. It's horrible. Crazed. Yet, it's life affirming. It makes me throb with laughter.
Georgia Scott
Heidi without the mountain? Moby Dick without the ship? I can't think of those books without their settings any more than Rocky without a boxing ring. The stories I write are inseparable from their settings. Like the flowers that grow in cracks of concrete, they arise. They aren't planted and could never be transplanted elsewhere. To illustrate, let me bring up something I recently reviewed. In Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Marguerite Duras grounds past traumas and present passion so much in setting that the lovers call each other Nevers and Hiroshima. Characters and settings are similarly entwined in the love story I'm writing. Set in a former Soviet bloc country in the 1990s, to picture those times, think of someone who missed out on adolescence getting a chance to catch up. That is the tempo after the Berlin Wall comes down. It is rash and jubilant. Now imagine that your love is forbidden. I wouldn't tear these lovers from that setting any more than pull that imperfect child from her perfect New England town in American Girl: Memories That Made Me. No returns, as they say in some shops. No exchanges on any settings.
Big thank you for your question, Suzanne.
Big thank you for your question, Suzanne.
Georgia Scott
Always? Always is for love. We sign our lives away with the word. Love always. Yours always. We promise, always, to be true. We give ourselves to one another with the word on our tongues and brand it on our hearts. Writing is different.
I didn't always know the ending of American Girl: Memories That Made Me. There were alternate endings that I had in mind. I spent time with them. Some more intensely than others. They brought laughter and tears and gasps of the best kind. They were good each in their own way. Flaws, I can excuse. Even embrace. Perfection doesn't come into it. What I'm after is something else.
You know the bracelet with a catch so small it's hardly there? It makes a faint "click" when it's latched that you feel, more than hear. That's the ending which at first sight, like love, had me. My ending for American Girl: Memories That Made Me has that "click."
I didn't always know the ending of American Girl: Memories That Made Me. There were alternate endings that I had in mind. I spent time with them. Some more intensely than others. They brought laughter and tears and gasps of the best kind. They were good each in their own way. Flaws, I can excuse. Even embrace. Perfection doesn't come into it. What I'm after is something else.
You know the bracelet with a catch so small it's hardly there? It makes a faint "click" when it's latched that you feel, more than hear. That's the ending which at first sight, like love, had me. My ending for American Girl: Memories That Made Me has that "click."
Georgia Scott
I don't make reading lists. I just pull from shelves what I want. Like clothes from a closet, it depends on my mood at the time. I did though make a list of music to go with my new writing. I'm working on a love story set in the '90s so it's got to have George Michael's album Older, Seal's "Kiss From a Rose" (from the Batman movie) and other songs, and Madonna's "I Want YOU" and "Take a Bow." If you have any suggestions of others, let me know.
Georgia Scott
Unlike in life, what's best about being a writer is you can go back, fix things, rearrange or omit the worst. You can make it better and more beautiful. You can move yourself to tears of joy. You can find what you never thought of looking for. You can see with the wonder of a child. You can time travel. You can wave the wand that makes the dying live again. You can preserve what is good and put in its place what went wrong and know now why. You can make order of disorder and peace from suffering. You can do all this though it's exhausting because like a mother with a new born it's also exhilarating to launch a new being into the world. Thank you for your question, Daniel.
Georgia Scott
I'm writing a love story.
Georgia Scott
How did she end up in Poland?
Georgia Scott
Some will say "Just keep writing." That's like saying "Keep splashing" when you're drowning. Aspiring writers deserve something more concrete. So, here are five things I fall back on. They work for me. Might for you.
1. Go back to paper. If it was good enough when you first learned to write, it's good enough now.
2. Use pencil. It requires pressure. Contact with the paper makes a nice sound.
3. Erasers are optional. You can cross out passages. Later, you may be glad they're still around.
4. No screens in the room. Only music.
5. Slow things down. Then, chances are the words will come and come.
1. Go back to paper. If it was good enough when you first learned to write, it's good enough now.
2. Use pencil. It requires pressure. Contact with the paper makes a nice sound.
3. Erasers are optional. You can cross out passages. Later, you may be glad they're still around.
4. No screens in the room. Only music.
5. Slow things down. Then, chances are the words will come and come.
Georgia Scott
Where I live matters. I need the edge. Coastal and calamitous places are best. The more urban the better. Graffiti zones. Run down or ageing with a Dylan Thomas rage thumping the streets. Here, I'm at home. And I feel inspired.
Georgia Scott
I told you. Never call someone's name to wake them because in dreams they will think it is God and they'll go before their time.
Georgia Scott
Wonderland. It would be a return trip as I played Alice in the play at school. A dark haired Alice (though I offered to dye my hair), I had a lot of lines. This time around, I'd look around more and just listen. I'm sure the characters there would open up if I gave them time. I'd bring peanut butter sandwiches and a whole bunch of mandarin oranges to share with everyone. If trains, planes, and ferries are anything to go by, that rabbit hole has more stories waiting.
Georgia Scott
That's a bit like saying when my favorite time of day is to make love. I like to be surprised. So, when words come to me when I'm out walking, I have a small notebook ready in my pocket ready for them. I also have paper by my bed so I can jot down words in the middle of the night. When I was working at universities and raising a family and my time was pulled in many directions, my solution was to head off for a few days writing by myself to jump start new projects. My favorite place to go was Hel. It's a seaside resort that was once a fishing village off Poland. One of my sons came with me for a short holiday once and knowing I wrote there said "You can write if you want." To which I said. "Oh no. The muse doesn't speak when others are there." I've since found that my muse is getting bolder. She doesn't care who is with me. Velvet times of late evening or the first glimpse of morning are as welcoming to her. Least favorite time? If I'm ever caught out without a pen.
Georgia Scott
Coming out of writer's block, I found I was older but my muse was younger.
American Girl: Memories That Made Me was the result.
American Girl: Memories That Made Me was the result.
Georgia Scott
A pillow. Not to cry in or to muffle my screams. Just in place of paper. Paper was the face that made me feel the worst shame. Can't write, it said. Or worse, won't write. So, one day I got an indelible marker and wrote one word. Then, another. Names of places and people at first. Adjectives came later. When the pillow was covered with words, I was recovered.
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Nov 11, 2025 01:54AM · flag