I have a delightful treat for you today! Author, and fellow blogger, Feather Stone granted me an interview. If you are feeling insecure about your writing or your creativity is restrained or stumped, her words will reassure you and get you back to the creative space you need to be in. I think you'll find her positive attitude to be inspiring and contagious.
Feather Stone is the author of The Guardian's Wildchild. A summary from her website:
Caught in a reckless attempt to stop Dark forces, Sidney Davenport, a young, rule breaking, spirited member of the secret paranormal community of Guardians, finds herself imprisoned on a naval ship and slated for execution. Her struggle with the unfamiliar emotions of fear and anger becomes even more complicated when she can no longer fight her attraction to the very man who has orders to perform her execution.
Thanks so much for agreeing to talk to me. What did writing
The Guardian's Wildchild mean to you, personally?
Writing
The Guardian’s Wildchild was a journey of awakening. I’d believed I could write
a little, but I didn’t know I could write an epic novel. Once I became open to the possibility of being a successful author, a dormant part of my being emerged.
Passion for creating scenes, characters, dialogue, and plot began to consume my
thoughts. The more I submitted to the urgings to sit at the keyboard and spill
out volumes of text, mirroring the images in my mind, the more I became a
slave, a happy and mystified slave.
As
my confidence was strengthened through taking writing classes and support from
my fiercest critic (my husband), writing The Guardian’s Wildchild became an
obsession. With the completion of each chapter, the success flowed into other
areas of my world. Finding my voice in the world of fantasy gave me courage to
speak up and be heard. My identity and sense of self-worth got a healthy kick
in the pants.
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| How Feather envisions Sidney Davenport |
My
instructors had been clear in the classes advising us that getting a novel
published is rare for new authors. When I had finished writing and rewriting
the story, I was thrilled with the results. However, I’d accepted the fact that
it was likely going to remain just a part of my legacy to my family. Nothing
more. It may sound odd, but I was so grateful for the experience of having
written such an amazing story, that was enough for me. It was only through my
husband’s insistence that I did search for a publisher.
Writing
The Guardian’s Wildchild was a gift, a beautiful experience that transcends
description. I wrote every day for about ten years. During the long hours at
the keyboard, time stopped. Troubles faded. Magically I was transported to a
world that took shape before my ethereal eyes. I never knew where it was going
to take me. I trusted the beckoning piper. As the inspirations took shape, I
obediently and lovingly manifested what I saw, heard, felt into my physical
world.
In
the end, there wasn’t just The Guardian’s Wildchild sitting on the book shelves
in my local Coles bookstore. I had been transformed.
Sounds like a divine
experience. You said you wrote every day for ten years. What did you find helped
you to settle down to write, and did you have any routines that helped you get
into writing mode?
Nothing
in my life previously had filled me with such enthusiasm. I suppose my husband
might tell you I was obsessed, perhaps possessed for at least the first five
years.
Believe
it or not, I had no trouble sitting down to write for all those years. I was
driven. While I was at my paying job, all I could think about was about writing
when I returned home. You would think that after putting in an eight to ten
hour shift at work that I would be too tired to sit at the computer at home.
My
incentive came from the fact that the inspirations were so clear and grand. I
was anxious to express what I saw and felt before the visions faded. As the
flow of scenes came into focus, I forgot about the fatigue, even became more
energized as I was carried away on the magic.
I enjoy the positivity in your writing experiences. A lot of the
time you hear how hard it is, what a struggle it is to find time, etc. (I'm
guilty). What does
your writing area look like? Do you have
anything specific that encourages or supports you while you're writing?
Ah, confession time. Now, you’re probably asking “What does
my physical writing area look like?”
It’s pretty basic. Laptop on kitchen table, coffee cup, cat staring at me,
hubby asking “Are we eating today?”
You see, the thing is, the laptop is not where the story
gets created. I’ve discovered I’m pretty much the run-of-the-mill writer. Other
authors will tell you they spend hours or days creating scenes, dialogue, plot,
everything within their grey matter before writing a word. Same here.
I create scenes while I’m brushing my teeth, walking Jasper,
or shopping for groceries – all the time, everywhere I go. If I’m conscious, building the story
internally is ongoing twenty four, seven. The cashier at the grocery store will
never know I’ve just imagined my character’s having the most incredible sex.
I don’t sit down to write a word until the scene in my head
becomes crystal clear. It may take days for the nuances of every movement of
the man’s hand unbuttoning the woman’s shirt to make it to the keyboard on my
laptop.
Then again, it could be that I just love replaying those
scenes in my head. I’m such a passion addict.
What supports or encourages my writing? It’s my hubby. In
spite of the frequent days of fasting, he’s my most loyal fan.
You've spoken of being
inspired and obsessed. What was it about
this story that grabbed you? What
inspired it?
Aside from the fact that the
original inspiration was the result of a paranormal experience, my passion
while writing the story flowed uninhibited. Even after publication, I’ll read a
few pages and still feel that passion that captivated me for so many years.
Picture this. You’re standing at the
headwaters of a raging river. Turning to discover its origin, you notice it
gushing from a chasm deep within the mountain. The river is churning wildly,
spitting its frothy spray in all directions. You become saturated with its cool
mist. Rainbows glisten above the torrent. Your eye is drawn to follow the
river’s journey. Something within you seeks to discover its desperate struggle.
Twisting like a serpent, it surges forward over boulders. The river plummets
with orgasmic convulsion down vertical crevices. You feel its pleasure. You
must follow. You must. You are no longer
separate from the river. You’re seeking your source with the intense desire of
lovers. Nothing, no power, no threat of death will stand in your way to feel
the embrace, of that final surge in joining with the source.
I believe humans receive
creative inspiration proportional to how much they allow their inner guide to
speak. Every person has creative talents. The problems arise when a person
allows negativity to sit on the throne, casting doubt, anger, fear, hatred.
These emotions hold the person in a prison. People remain blind to the truth of
their power, partly because their creative power frightens them.
Have your read the prose
wherein there is a statement, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our
deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more
than our darkness which scares us.” (Marianne Williamson in Return to Love: Reflections
on a Course in Miracles).
To answer your questions more directly, though the story
of The Guardian’s Wildchild is publicly registered as fiction, I believe it is
more truth than fantasy. I wrote the story given my core belief that human
beings are spiritual beings having a human experience. I believe that at one
time eons ago, perhaps on another dimension, human beings existed as both
spiritual beings and as physical beings, moving between these dimensions at
will. As a result of becoming enamored with physical sensations and giving
power to the ego, we lost our ability to become spiritual without going through
the death experience.
While listening to my inner guide, I felt the urgency to
tell the story with the same intensity as the river rushing to be one with its
source. There was no choice. It was beyond description with the spoken word.
That is all quite exquisite, and I know I could go on talking to you for ages. Unfortunately, we have to wrap it up. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
If you’re about to plunge into the world of being an author,
be prepared for an awakening.
I had invested ten years of my life into The Guardian’s
Wildchild. It had been my passion every waking moment of every day. I was a
prisoner, gloriously happy, at the keyboard. It wasn’t until after I’d finished
the first draft that I thought about getting it published. After rewrites and
the third rejection from a publisher I had to deal with the possibility that my
manuscript may never see a bookstore. It
dawned on me that during the amazing journey of writing the story, my life had
changed in beautiful ways that’s difficult to describe.
If you write with your eye on the prize, publication, you
may rob yourself of the joy of the journey. Free yourself from worry that your
magnificent creation may not be acceptable to others. Write because you feel
the rapture. It is then the flow of your vision will fall uninhibited onto the
page. If you truly love the story you write, it will change you. You will then
know that being published is secondary to the experience of being a creator.
I hope that Feather's words have been as encouraging to you as they have been to me. Her viewpoint is so fresh and positive that I can't help seeing my writing as something worthy of nurturing.
Feather is offering a The Guardian's Wildchild bookmark to anyone who leaves a comment. Please leave an email address in your comment and I will contact you for your mailing address.
The Guardian's Wildchild can be purchased at Amazon.com.
You can find Feather Stone at these sites:
