Ask the Author: Denny Taylor
Answered Questions (7)
Denny Taylor
Great question! Right now I am fascinated by two characters in "Split Second Solution." The first is "Death" -- who runs counter to all human stereotypes of death as a terrifying wraith. In "Split" Death appears mostly as "Cat" who hates people dying. Her other personas include Bat, Bowie and Gaga. Death's constant companion is "Eternity" who is an extra-terrestrial observer. Et is pure energy and not time bound. She appears as the Old Crone and Botticelli’s Venus. Death and Eternity bicker like an old couple, but it is clear that they care deeply for each other. Sometimes they are very funny -- especially when Death appears as Cat. Together, they counter the deeply disturbing message of "Split Second Solution" -- in which the terrifying Ginger Tom eerily resembles the new US president. The parallels between the novel and events taking place at this time are worth noting and it is Death and Eternity who are struggling to overcome the existential risks of human existence.
Denny Taylor
The problem is not inspiration but how to turn it off occasionally so I can rest. I do not know or understand the creative process -- why I continue to have more ideas than I can possibly work on. I have hundreds of notebooks and they are always close by. As a child I had projects underway in every room in our little house -- art projects -- I had construction sites all over the house. I was lucky that my mother and father never told me to put them away. When we had a meal whatever I was working on was carefully pushed to the back of the table as we made room for our plates.
Denny Taylor
I am working on the second novel in the Split Second Solution series.
I have a another children's book that will be published in April called Toodle-oo Ruby Blue. The illustrations are nearing completion. The artist is Rachel Backshall and the watercolors are fabulous! I am enjoying working with her immensely. We have two more Ruby Blue books that will be published later this year.
I also have a series of non-fiction short books on existential risk that are in the queue. These are books that are based on the last 20 years of my research on catastrophic events -- some of which could now be considered cataclysmic. I am really keen to get this work into the public arena. These are dangerous times and we must all pitch in.
Of course, there are also all the books that are being published by the incredible authors of Garn Press which I founded. Two books that GP has just published are First Do No Harm: Progressive Education in a Time of Existential Risk by Steve Nelson, and Every Least Sparrow by Carolyn Walker. These are magnificent ground breaking works and I do hope you will have a chance to read them.
I have a another children's book that will be published in April called Toodle-oo Ruby Blue. The illustrations are nearing completion. The artist is Rachel Backshall and the watercolors are fabulous! I am enjoying working with her immensely. We have two more Ruby Blue books that will be published later this year.
I also have a series of non-fiction short books on existential risk that are in the queue. These are books that are based on the last 20 years of my research on catastrophic events -- some of which could now be considered cataclysmic. I am really keen to get this work into the public arena. These are dangerous times and we must all pitch in.
Of course, there are also all the books that are being published by the incredible authors of Garn Press which I founded. Two books that GP has just published are First Do No Harm: Progressive Education in a Time of Existential Risk by Steve Nelson, and Every Least Sparrow by Carolyn Walker. These are magnificent ground breaking works and I do hope you will have a chance to read them.
Denny Taylor
Write everyday -- even if it's only for an hour. Don't miss a day.
Listen as you are the street to the way people speak.
Keep a notebook. Write down what you hear as you are walking by. Don't say to yourself, "I'll remember that." Write it down as soon as you can.
Read a lot. Limit T.V. (I don't have one.)
Pop your bubble. We all live in them. Our world view is limited by the bubbles we float in. Make sure you are aware of the bubbles that surround you. Study them -- bubbles are framing devices -- understand what's happening from other points of view.
Mostly write about stuff that energizes you, that you want to know more about, what's happening ...
Recognize it's hard work -- but if you love it the struggle to write and publish is worth every second of the effort it takes.
Listen as you are the street to the way people speak.
Keep a notebook. Write down what you hear as you are walking by. Don't say to yourself, "I'll remember that." Write it down as soon as you can.
Read a lot. Limit T.V. (I don't have one.)
Pop your bubble. We all live in them. Our world view is limited by the bubbles we float in. Make sure you are aware of the bubbles that surround you. Study them -- bubbles are framing devices -- understand what's happening from other points of view.
Mostly write about stuff that energizes you, that you want to know more about, what's happening ...
Recognize it's hard work -- but if you love it the struggle to write and publish is worth every second of the effort it takes.
Denny Taylor
A life beyond the everyday. Imagining. Playing with language. The surprise of a word or a sentence that greets me as I wake up in the morning. Characters who become imaginary friends -- Word, X-it, Cat, Eternity in Split Second Solution. Participating in the struggle against injustice, finding things out. Loving and laughing and having fun -- daring to write beyond the expectations society has for working class kids like me who know they are bright but destined for menial work. Feeling the power of the printed word. All of it -- !
Denny Taylor
This is such a great question Melissa. We are told so much and often what we are told is far from the truth. The problem is compounded because the truth is often hidden and people's stories are lost.
So when I went to the Boston library at the beginning of the 1990's there were only four books in the library's vast collection on coalmining in Wales. The books were old and very dry but filled with lost information. My first attempt recreating the scene for Rosie was also dry and while accurate it was very boring indeed. I spent many years writing and rewriting Rosie's visit to the library. Daisy Blake, the wonderful zany librarian, added so much to the scene and she opened up possibilities for more complexity in the story. It was after Daisy entered the story that I added the information about Sarah visiting the library. I won't say more. It might spoil the story for readers who have not read the book yet.
The whole idea of using primary sources comes from my research and teaching. Always go to the source! Don't rely on others to interpret what is happening for you! Secondary sources come with the biases of others. So, if I read a blog that comments on a research finding I always click on the link to the research and read the report for myself.
To find our own truth we must do everything we can to do our own research and decide for ourselves what is fact, what is fiction, and what is propaganda.
Even so, serendipty sometimes helps us out. A few months before Rosie's Umbrella was published I was in ABC -- the furniture story on Broadway in Manhattan, and on one of the upper floors where they have very old and much worn furniture there was a big leather book on a table. It was a bound copy of the1936 The Times (UK) newspapers. I opened the book and on the page in front of me was an article about coalminers and their families in South Wales. The town where my Nan was born and I visited as a small child was mentioned. There were four acticles and I took photos of them with my phone and then returned home to begin writing the information in the articles into the story. It was such an incredible moment to realize that Rosie had information that had been forgotten or hidden for so many years.
The other primary source was the mass observation in the UK which was really cool. For more than fifty years everyday people kept diaries of their daily lives and they were collected and for a long time housed at the University of Sussex. I flew to the UK a few years ago to get into the archive and I included quotes from the documents I found in Rosie's Umbrella.
I am sure I am writing too much but I want to share one last primary resource and that is my mother. Sarah's memories of when she was a little girl are actually my mother's memories of her childhood and mine from my summer visits to the Garn when I was a small child.
It is extraordinary to me that all these different primary sources (there are more of course) were used in writing Rosie's Umbrella. The most important message I think is that just like Rosie we have to find our own truth and we can't always rely on the interpretations of others. This is especially true when the interpretations are imposed on us by people of power and privilege who have their own agendas that very rarely are to the benefit of others -- neither young people nor the public.
So when I went to the Boston library at the beginning of the 1990's there were only four books in the library's vast collection on coalmining in Wales. The books were old and very dry but filled with lost information. My first attempt recreating the scene for Rosie was also dry and while accurate it was very boring indeed. I spent many years writing and rewriting Rosie's visit to the library. Daisy Blake, the wonderful zany librarian, added so much to the scene and she opened up possibilities for more complexity in the story. It was after Daisy entered the story that I added the information about Sarah visiting the library. I won't say more. It might spoil the story for readers who have not read the book yet.
The whole idea of using primary sources comes from my research and teaching. Always go to the source! Don't rely on others to interpret what is happening for you! Secondary sources come with the biases of others. So, if I read a blog that comments on a research finding I always click on the link to the research and read the report for myself.
To find our own truth we must do everything we can to do our own research and decide for ourselves what is fact, what is fiction, and what is propaganda.
Even so, serendipty sometimes helps us out. A few months before Rosie's Umbrella was published I was in ABC -- the furniture story on Broadway in Manhattan, and on one of the upper floors where they have very old and much worn furniture there was a big leather book on a table. It was a bound copy of the1936 The Times (UK) newspapers. I opened the book and on the page in front of me was an article about coalminers and their families in South Wales. The town where my Nan was born and I visited as a small child was mentioned. There were four acticles and I took photos of them with my phone and then returned home to begin writing the information in the articles into the story. It was such an incredible moment to realize that Rosie had information that had been forgotten or hidden for so many years.
The other primary source was the mass observation in the UK which was really cool. For more than fifty years everyday people kept diaries of their daily lives and they were collected and for a long time housed at the University of Sussex. I flew to the UK a few years ago to get into the archive and I included quotes from the documents I found in Rosie's Umbrella.
I am sure I am writing too much but I want to share one last primary resource and that is my mother. Sarah's memories of when she was a little girl are actually my mother's memories of her childhood and mine from my summer visits to the Garn when I was a small child.
It is extraordinary to me that all these different primary sources (there are more of course) were used in writing Rosie's Umbrella. The most important message I think is that just like Rosie we have to find our own truth and we can't always rely on the interpretations of others. This is especially true when the interpretations are imposed on us by people of power and privilege who have their own agendas that very rarely are to the benefit of others -- neither young people nor the public.
Denny Taylor
I started writing Rosie's Umbrella in the late 1980's. It began with a short story called "Rosie's Umbrella" that was based upon my own childhood experiences in the coal mining village in South Wales where my grandparents lived. I wrote two more short stories and by the beginning of the 1990's I began working on the novel. At first the only character that seemed real to me was Rosie Llywelyn, and so each time I worked on the story I focused on another character -- getting to know them -- and over a twenty year period they came alive. To me they are no longer imaginary. Isn't that what is supposed to happen? The characters in the books we read or write live in our imagination.
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