Ask the Author: Sidney Thompson
Answered Questions (5)
Sidney Thompson
The first one that comes to mind is the plot for a book, or for a story in a book. I wrote the story "The Voyeur" (in my collection Sideshow) to relive and examine the mystery of why my parents decided to get a divorce. Sometimes we can't ever know what happens behind closed doors until our parents separate, and then, isolated, they begin to reveal themselves to us. My book of poetry, You/Wee: Poems from a Father, is also a plot from my own life, based on the mystery of life and all the sub-mysteries it contains, that a pregnant wife and growing baby in essence create by their very evolving, sensational, profound nature. And my autistic son Owen in part inspired the plot of Kudzu's Enormous New Life; what he perceived and how he communicated his thoughts, needs, and questions early in his life led to a plethora of mysteries, until his mother and I learned to accommodate to his method of communication, instead of expecting him to accommodate to ours.
Sidney Thompson
The first ones that come to mind are Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little for older kids craving a story, and Dr. Seuss and Goodnight Moon for younger ones who simply enjoy playful language and concepts. I think Goodnight Moon by Brown and Hurd is just breathtakingly good; it's a poem in exquisitely concise, musical words and images, equivalent to a Bach concerto, either D or F minor, for sure. Really. I'm not kidding. And for those children in between, who crave more mature stories in their picture books, I really like Corduroy by Don Freeman.
Sidney Thompson
You recall your father struck your mother outside the kitchen window once so hard that her wire octagonal glasses fly in the slow motion of your memory in the arc of a rainbow toward the hand towel that hung on a hook left of the sink. You're brushing your daughter's hair because strands in the back always wind up as bangs in her eyes and you don't want that for her future.
Sidney Thompson
If I were guaranteed to survive, a couple of books come to mine. Treasure Island truly captured my interest when I was a young reader. Life among pirates, Black Beard in particular, would be a top choice. Moby-Dick comes to mind as well. To get to see the ocean life described in that book, plus the pirates, plus the colorful Queequeg, I'm inclined to answer Moby-Dick. Master George Reeves, a character in my novel, is as tyrannical and intellectual and stubborn as Ahab. That's where my mind is at still, with my own book, so that might explain my choice now.
Sidney Thompson
Time to yourself. You are justified to spend copious amounts of time alone, thinking and researching whatever it is you want to learn most about, re-experiencing the past, reassembling those people and places of your life into tidy amalgams, while listening to music that inspires you.
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