Ask the Author: Justin Teerlinck
Answered Questions (8)
Justin Teerlinck
It dawned on Blank that she once had a name, a name she could no longer remember. For the first time she wondered if she was well or unwell, if she was the keeper or the kept...
Justin Teerlinck
Critterlandshire. I'd sit down with Bandit, my anthropomorphic raccoon friend, and her friend Penelope Constance Nutcakes (a.k.a. Pen Pen), a gray squirrel. We would take tea in a hollowed-out tree whilst Pen Pen's elderly 8th Grade teacher Mrs. Pumpernickel (an American Black Bear) rocked in a rocking chair, knitting by the hearth with a crackling fire. It would be raining buckets outside. We'd share a plate of biscuits. Bandit would eat more than her share and get a tummy ache, even though she was properly warned beforehand. We'd all get out our pipes--even Mrs. Pumpernickel--and smoke Duffy's Pipe Powder (the finest pipe powder that even peeped from a pipe).
Justin Teerlinck
The first novella in the trilogy, Weekend At Byron's, began as a Christmas/Yuletide present for my best friend. I wanted to somehow unite him in time with his hero, Lord Byron, who I knew little about at the time. Very quickly, it became a spoof of many pop culture influences including The Terminator, Frankenstein, and Weekend At Bernie's.
Justin Teerlinck
There was no internet when I was a kid, and I hated everything on TV, and couldn't watch it much anyway. I spent hours and hours locked up in my room with nothing but books, pen and paper. It began with diaries, then bad teenage poetry, then bad fiction, then humor fiction. Humor and writing became ways to deal with the tragedy of my upbringing.
Justin Teerlinck
The third novella in a time travel/gothic/humorous sci-fi tale. I'm also developing ideas for a mystical Western novel that centers around an unwilling prostitute who murders her pimp and goes on a quest to avenge the deaths of her family.
Justin Teerlinck
Writing is nothing worth aspiring to. You must begin with inspiration, with thoughts. Art is first and most important. Craft and voice develop naturally over time. Do not be afraid to "read" the kind of writer you want to be. Voracious and wide ranging reading strengthens your stylistic repertoire.
Justin Teerlinck
That's like asking what's the best thing about breathing. It simply is my lifeblood and soul. My emotional and physical survival depends on it. It has saved me from dire circumstances many times. It's like a hand, a limb, an extension of my ability to interface with the universe and my imagination.
Justin Teerlinck
I've never had writer's block, just fallow periods where I wait for ideas to ripen. 85% of my ideas come to nothing. I write in fits and spurts, without any discipline. I never attempt to force the creative process. It flows naturally, without my willing it to do so.
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Sep 05, 2021 07:39PM
Apr 04, 2023 10:51AM