I mentioned that I was having my friend Jamieson do a guest post this week about his new book.
Well, today is the day! It seems like everyone asks the same ol’ questions in a Q&A, and I figure that you can just Google it, if that’s what you want to see (or email him, he’s really sweet, he’ll likely answer you), so I made him work for it!
This is a unique, just for us, written for me, post by Jamieson.
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Remembering to Slow Down
One of my goals for 2014 was to slow down.
In 2012, I had twenty three books of mine published. While I had been writing one book, I was editing two or three of them and then promoting the books that had already come out. I also work full time. I had one job during the day: mild mannered office employee. I also had another job during the night: writer. I was a literary super hero.
Then in January of 2013, my life changed. I was struck with Multiple Sclerosis. I had to learn how to walk again, to talk again, how to see. I had to teach myself to type all over again. From January to April, I wasn’t able to write.
I could only get a few words out at a time. Where I had been able to write a few thousand words in one sitting, I was able to only write five or ten. I stitched those words together into poems. Those poems became Talking to the Sky.
I published that collection in 2014. I thought it would be my first release of the year, so sure was I that I had more books and novels coming. In the end, however, Talking to the Sky was my only release for 2014.
At first, that bothered me. I felt like a failure. I had so many words inside of me that were crying to get out. When I wasn’t writing, the words were still there, patiently waiting for release. However, I had to examine how I was going about things, how I was writing.
I would sit at the computer waiting for the words to come out and nothing would come. I would bemoan the fact that, except for the odd poem, my words had essentially left me. Then my mother gave me a crucial piece of advice.
“You should only write when you’re inspired to do so.” She said.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re different now. Your words have more power as there aren’t as many of them. You can’t just expect the words to flow as they used to. You should only write when you’re inspired to do so.”
It took me a while to wrap my brain around that one. I was so used to sitting down at the computer and letting the words pour out. Now I had to force them to go onto the page. So I tried something different.
I followed my mother’s advice and wrote only when I was moved to do so. I slowed down and relished in the act of doing so. We’re a society built around go go go that we miss the good things in life, the great things.
I slowed down. I read more, went for walks, I painted canvasses and pieces of art. I started loving myself and ended up falling in love.
Soon, my words morphed into short stories and there were more poems. Still though, when the end of 2014 came, I felt I hadn’t written enough. There were still so many words to be used, so many stories waiting to be told.
I received a shock when I collected the poems contained in Talking with the Earth, however. Talking to the Sky was only 220 pages long. Talking with the Earth was 420 pages. So I took a look at what I had written last year. Along with essays, articles and blog posts and both my blogs, I had written enough short stories for a new collection.
I was stunned. I had no idea that I’d written so much in one year. I had written more than I than I realized and it all came from slowing down and waiting until the words wanted to be written.
Thanks Mom.
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Tune in early next week, for that original, exclusive poem I mentioned. I’m so excited!
And here are the links to his book, US, and CAN.
And here’s the cover.
And him.
Laurie Stewart: 