This month, we are going to read about a special author, Magdalena Ball!
Enjoy her interview!
Interview with
Magdalena Ball , the author of
Repulsion ThrustTell us about yourself first. That's rather an open ended question! I could define myself any number of ways, but I'll focus on my publications here -- I run the website The Compulsive Reader (
www.compulsivereader.com), and am also the author of the poetry book Repulsion Thrust, the novel Sleep Before Evening, a nonfiction book The Art of Assessment: How to Review Anything and three other poetry chapbooks Quark Soup, and, in collaboration with Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Cherished Pulse and She Wore Emerald Then. She also runs a radio show, The Compulsive Reader Talks. Of course I'm other things too! I'm a mother to 3 gorgeous children, I'm a wife, I'm an information manager for a big company, I'm doing a Masters degree in Marketing, I'm working on another novel and a few other poetry books. I'll stop there, although I could probably keep going!
When did you start writing? Around about the same time I started reading -- somewhere between 3 and 4. Writing is something that has always been with me. I think I wrote my first story when I was little and just kept doing it. I only really began to get quite serious and send out work when I was an older teen and then stopped for some time under the spell of academia. I picked it up again seriously just after my first child was born, some 13 years ago, when I decided that bits and pieces wouldn't satisfy me -- I needed full scale books in hand.
What genres have you written? I tend to write in lots of different genres, but definitely prefer literary fiction (as a reader as well as a writer) when I'm writing fiction, and poetry will always be my first love (there are those who have classed my poetry as 'sci-fi' poetry, and although I think that's probably not true, there is plenty of science in my work, and I welcome all readers and all promotional opportunities, so am happy enough with the classification. For nonfiction, I probably would be comfortable writing in any genre at all.
Is Repulsion Thrust your first book? Repulsion Thrust is my first full length book of poetry. I've had other chapbooks (short poetry books) published, and a novel and nonfiction book (see "tell us about yourself" above), but I have to admit, it's always exciting to hold a full length, traditionally published book in the hand.
Tell us about your book. What is it about? Repulsion Thrust is a poetry book that tends to tackle big subjects not often the fodder of poetry: quantum physics, astronomy, time travel, ecological destruction, and technological singularity, vi
ewed through the lens of the human condition. It's poetry about the universe and about the way we (that's humans) fit with it - I've tried to be fairly large in my scope, reasonably topical, and to say something comprehensive about what it means to be alive (to me anyway) in the 21st Century.
What inspired you to write this book? I've always wanted to write a full length poetry collection. I was inspired by the success of my novel Sleep Before Evening, and felt it was time to plot out a full scale poetry book, but each individual poem was inspired by all sorts of things, from the news, to a plethora of great books I'd read, to New Scientist. I think the biggest influences/sources of inspiration were, aside from emotional responses, the work of Stephen Hawking, the work of Richard Dawkins, the work of Ray Kurzweil, and the work of Charles Darwin. I thanked all of these people in my acknowledgements, and Kurzweil even endorsed the book (much to my delight), but there were many other sources of inspiration, including, of course, my own family.
How long did it take you to write it?About a year, which is relatively quick for me. I take much longer (about 3 years) for fiction.
Who is the publisher of your book?
Bewrite Books at
www.bewrite.net They're utterly wonderful and also published my novel Sleep Before Evening.
Where is it on sale? Good bookstores everywhere! But those reading this can go directly to Amazon:
www.budurl.com/RepulsionThrust or to Smashbooks at:
Tell us about your other books/work. Sleep Before Evening is a coming of age novel about a teenager teetering at the edge of reason. A death in the family sends her brilliant academic career and promising future spiraling out of control until resentment towards those who shaped her past leads her on a wild and desperate search for the truth about herself. On the seedy side of New York, she meets Miles, a hip musician busking the streets and playing low-rent venues in a muddled bid to make his own dreams come true. In her new life, she finds anarchic squalor, home grown music and poetry, booze, drugs, sex, violence, love, loss … and, above all, exhilarating freedom on her troubled journey from sleep to awakening.
Quark Soup is also poetry, which, as the title suggests, has a strong astrophysical theme.
The Art of Assessment is a guide to book reviewing.
The Celebration Series of chapbooks is my collaboration with
Carolyn Howard-Johnson that looks at specific holidays and provides chapbooks designed to replace a greeting card - providing real poetic sentiment. More can be found at my website:
www.magdalenaball.comWhat are the major challenges that you have faced in your career? Time is always an issue for me. I try to squeeze so much into each day, but it isn't always possible to get to everything on my list! Making time for the big, longer term projects amidst the everyday urgencies is definitely my biggest challenge.
Has the Internet helped you in your writing career? I really cannot imagine working without the Internet anymore. It colours everything I do, from providing me with an accessible, global, working community of readers and writers, to providing promotional platforms, social networking, writing challenges, and even changing the notion of the way a book works (with multimedia, electronics, and so on). Of course great words haven't changed a bit since the pen and ink (or quill) days, but the ability to work in a global, rather than a small scale regional venue is wonderful.
What do you advise new writers to do? To keep writing of course (BOS - bum on seat), but also to read a lot of what you want to write, to keep raising the bar on yourself, and to continue to grow as a writer, trying new things and working to find the words to say what you want to. Never be satisfied with the easy cliche - always go deeper.
Thank you!
http://www.magdalenaball.comhttp://magdalenaball.blogspot.com/----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tour with
VBT-Writers on the Move through
February. New and famous authors, plus useful information
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