Q&A with Rayme Waters discussion

What obsesses/drives you as a writer? Any images/emotions/issues/kinds of people/etc. that you find yourself returning to in many works?

Great question! I find myself returning to a few themes in my work over and over. I have a theory on one of them, but for the others I can't say why I'm driven by them. Maybe I've got to keep writing until I figure it out. :)

The one that seems to be the most prevalent is friendships from childhood and how they manifest into adulthood. My characters are constantly navigating re-born relationships, old friendships with new sexual tension or relationships that are in ruins yet can't be completely left behind. In almost all of my stories you can see this happening-- Eduardo and Cinnamon from The Angels' Share are a great example of this, as are Rachel and Maggie from my short story Vocation. I think there is a quality to a relationship you had when you were young that can never be fully replicated by someone you know only once you are grown. That someone knew you before you were fully infected with the larger world makes the bond you have special.

Another theme is development. People building houses where they shouldn't be keeps popping up in my stories. This probably comes from growing up in a rural area that was slowly being subdivided to death.

Finally, I often include little, hidden spaces in my novels that serve to further the plot. The apple orchard and creek in The Watertower. The treehouse in Sanctuary. The chapel in Vocation. All three of these stories started out with me obsessing about these secret, semi-forgotten, yet magical places that didn't yet have a story attached to them. These hidden spaces had meaning that verged on the sacred for my characters and I found them to provide a spring of imagination that would help me bring the story to a satisfying end.

Those are some pretty great themes. I have a question: what part of writing do you like the least? Or find the least fun, or feel you are weakest at? Could be a mechanical thing (dialogue, description, etc.) or particular sections of narrative, or even content (scenes with conflict, for example.)

Thanks for your question Chris. The thing I'm weakest at w/r/t writing is daily discipline. Many writers I know sit down every morning and write a certain amount of words/time. I do not. I wish I had the discipline to do so--I would be much more prolific.

Otherwise, the only part of writing I don't enjoy is the current state of the publishing industry. I think the publishing world, overall, is in disarray and much like the music industry is being choked to death by middlemen who do very little for the creator of the work or the consumer of the work and manage to walk away with the lion's share of the profit. Hopefully, soon, things will improve, but until then it is very hard to connect quality stories with those who might enjoy them most. That's the hardest part of being an author in my opinion.

I share your concerns about the publishing industry. I love the new options for self-publishing, especially since I really enjoy all aspects of the book production process, but the economics are pretty crappy.

My hope is that eventually the devices and marketplaces will become so commoditized that the creators will have more leverage, but with large companies like Amazon and Apple exerting so much market power, it will still be a highly asymmetric situation. Perhaps musicians and writers need to form some kind of union or cartel-like organization to balance things out.