Ask the Author: Patrick Thyne
Answered Questions (6)
Patrick Thyne
I sit a bit, but not too long. Then I write something down, like "why am I having trouble this morning getting started?" Or I'll try to think of a story that's part of whatever I'm working on: "I want to write today about people and money; what is a story about me and money that I carry around in my head?" Anything to get started. It works most of the time.
Patrick Thyne
Getting to tell stories. The narratives that define and guide us -- whether in our self-reflections or in our cultural identities -- are made up of memorable stories. It is such stories that are the bearers of ideas and ideals that shape us.
Patrick Thyne
Write about what you care about. Whether it's fiction, poetry, nonfiction -- whatever -- write not for the market or for notoriety, but to express your convictions and to create stories that matter to you.
Patrick Thyne
I've started a web site, WHEN LIFE GETS DIFFICULT: STRATEGIES FOR FINDING YOUR WAY. I've posted my thoughts on a variety of subjects -- loss, spirituality and religion, work, health, death -- and hope to engage people in conversations through the blog attached to the site.
Patrick Thyne
It wasn't so much "inspiration" as it was the need to put down on paper what was tearing me up inside. But once I started to write the narratives, I was inspired by the thought of capturing Jesse in ways that would honor him and help me deal with my unending grief.
Patrick Thyne
Our son Jesse was killed in a traffic accident in January 2000, while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea, West Africa. Three years later, I decided to jot down some ideas for poems about him and about grieving. The poems turned into narratives about him and us which, over ten years, became THE AWFUL GRACE OF GOD.
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