Ask the Author: Idabel Allen
Answered Questions (9)
Idabel Allen
Among other things, finding out Harvey Weinstein owns the rights to the Bloom County "Opus" movie.
Idabel Allen
Last year, I finally got around to reading The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. This summer I want to dive deep into some new fiction. I'm not really sure what. I've had my head stuck in older fiction for so long, I'm not really hip to anything current. I really like Eudora Welty, Charles Portis, William Faulkner and such. I just finished David Joy's Where All LIght Tends To Go. I enjoyed that, but would like to find something new that had some humor or warmth to it as well. I'm open to suggestions:)
Idabel Allen
Ideas for stories never come to me whole. They come over a period of time, a thought here and a thought there. For my novel, Strange Agonies In Some Lonesome Wilderness, I had read a news story about an African American minister who setup church in an abandoned building in Memphis. From this building he played old gospel albums that drew in lost souls for him to minister. This story stuck in my head at a time I thought I might try my hand at writing something scary and suspenseful along the lines of Peter Straub’s Ghost Story. I became fixated on this minister as my protagonist and started seeing him as a sort of fallen minister - a good man, who in a moment of desperation does a little evil. But there’s no such thing as a little evil. Once introduced, it spreads into every aspect of life. This was the starting point of the story, when I knew I had something to work with. The story took on a life of its own while still maintaining the theme of a good man who does a little evil.
Idabel Allen
The greatest mystery in my life is how I went from playing softball to married to mother to writer on Goodreads. It all happened in a blink of an eye. And yet here I am, ready to see what else is going to happen.
Idabel Allen
I don’t know that I exactly get inspired to write. Writing is what I do and have known that I would do since I wrote my first short stories for class when I was twelve. It’s been my job all the years I raised a family and worked a day job. I have never waited to feel inspired, but have always put myself before my computer on a regular schedule. It is when I am writing that I feel inspired. This is because I am doing what I am meant to do. The more inspired I am in the writing, the better the writing goes. Perhaps the root of this is the books I read as child. If anything inspired me to write, it was the stories of Ray Bradbury and John Steinbeck and later William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Truman Capote and others.
Idabel Allen
In addition to promoting Rooted, I am working on publishing a young adult novel, Cursed! My Devastatingly Brilliant Campaign To Save The Chigg in the fall of 2017. Preview chapters of this book are published as a bonus in my novel, Rooted. After that, I will be publishing a historical fiction novel, Strange Agonies In Some Lonesome Wilderness. As for new writing, I am currently building up quite a nice collection of published essays and articles for Writer’s Digest, TripFiction, Women Writes and others publications. All the while my ever-restless mind is fishing about for inspiration for my next novel.
Idabel Allen
Just write. Put everything you have down on paper. Work at developing your craft. Don’t worry if most of what you write in the beginning ends up in the garbage can. The bits and pieces that you hold onto are the blocks you build with. Give yourself time to develop and know that no one can truly tell you how to write your story. Only you have that vision. You have to trust your instincts.
Idabel Allen
For me, writer’s block usually means I am forcing something in the story that is not meant to be. If I am following the natural progression of the characters, the story flows as if on its own. If I’m struggling, it means I’m trying to cram a square peg in a round hole. Once this happens, I try to step back from the story, get away from it for a few hours or days and come back to it with fresh eyes. This usually does the trick. Also, keeping a good writing schedule (time and location) helps makes it mentally easier for me to get back into where I left off before.
Idabel Allen
The best part of writing is seeing where the story takes you. Getting to know my characters and being surprised at what they say and do. I’m as much amazed that I am able to pull off these books as anyone else. The other thing that I really enjoy is readers’ feedback and interpretations. Writing a book is a multi-year process for me. You live with something long enough you think you know everything about it. Then some reader points out things you never considered before and suddenly the book takes on a whole new light. It kind of re-energizes the story for me.
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