Ask the Author: Martha Engber
Answered Questions (9)
Martha Engber
Winter Light (Oct. 6, Vine Leaves Press) comes from my own high school awakening, when I began to look at my peers with a closer eye. I was haunted by the kids like Mary, who were clearly smart, yet were racing toward failure. I remember thinking, Why do they do that?
Martha Engber
I wake up in the morning!
Writing is the language I speak, and so is natural as breathe.
Writing is the language I speak, and so is natural as breathe.
Martha Engber
I'm looking for a publisher for a historical novel about two Native American women warriors on opposing tribes in precolonial New England. I'm actively working on a memoir titled "Bliss Road."
Martha Engber
Persistence + a will to progress is everything.
Martha Engber
I remember how much time I spent reading as a kid. Every moment was a godsend, especially when the material challenged me to grow. So as a writer, I think there's no better gift to give than giving readers like my young self another world to explore.
Martha Engber
For me, writer's block means I've made an error that's blocking my progress. I retrace my steps, find the problem, solve it and move on. I use a writing journal to talk to myself and record that writing journey, i.e., "I've tried five ways to start the story, and none seems right. Maybe it's because I'm too distracted now by X. Maybe what I need to do is focus on my poetry, which has been calling to me. Just writing that suggestion makes me feel so much more relaxed. Poetry it is!
Martha Engber
(Fictional)
I married. Then I met my true love.
I married. Then I met my true love.
Martha Engber
I grew up in Chicago and often went to the Art Institute of Chicago. The museum had the Thorne Miniature Rooms (https://www.artic.edu/departments/PC-...), a collection of 68 small rooms, each of which depicted a scene from a bygone era between the 1300s and the 1930s. Mrs. James Warn Thorne commissioned different craftsmen to do a room, which are unbelievably detailed. As I kid, I wished I could shrink down to the size where I could walk around the room and live in that place on that day back in that time. I wanted to be the peasant, or the wealthy heiress or the weaver. Wanting to experience so many different lives is the reason I became a writer!
Martha Engber
I've joined the Constant Reader Book Club here on GoodReads and am amazed at the marvelous book choices! So this summer I'm reading "Olive, Again," by Elizabeth Strout and "The Plague" by Albert Camus." I've also gotten lucky enough to get advance reader copies of the memoir "This is How We Leave" by Joanne Nelson and the poetry collection "A Plan in Case of Morning" by Phill Provance. Both are excellent!
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