ARH – We are pleased to welcome Widdershins as our Featured Author for this week. Thank you for joining us today!
W – It’s great to be here. I came across this blog and community a while ago, and have enjoyed visiting ever since.
ARH – Thank you! Please tell us a little more about yourself.
W – Hm-m … there’s my standard bio from my blog which is as revealing as it is mysterious.
It goes like this: “I was born in England, grew up in Australia, moved to Canada in 2004 and married the love of my life. I’m a writer and shaman, a bicyclist and a feminist. I’ve been an architect, a seamstress, an athlete and a field hand.”
… but what do lists tell us about what’s going on inside someone?
I have been alive (this time around) for more than half a century, which apart from the Industrial Era of the 17th-19th Centuries, has been the most evolutionary time for us as a Species. Perhaps even revolutionary. Who knows where this era of mass communication will take us? … but that’s off the topic a bit!
I’m a Libra with a Taurus Moon, which accounts for a lot of things! I’m romantic. I love all the stuff going on in the world of science at the moment. And if I couldn’t get out into the open air at least once a day, I reckon I’d just wither away.
ARH – How did you get started as a writer?
W – The first time I could in all conscience call myself a Writer. with a capital ‘W’, was the first time I finished a story. It’s fairly easy to begin stories, and even getting through the middle bit, although challenging, isn’t all that difficult, but to get to the point where you have type those terrifying words, ‘The End’? Now that takes courage, and stamina.
But I truly got started when I read an appallingly bad SF/F story, I can’t even remember what it was now, and thought to myself, “Self. You could write better than that!” Self agreed, and I haven’t really looked back since.
ARH – Tell us more about Mortal Instinct.
W – More than what I’ve divulged on its page on my blog eh? Very well.
It isn’t your average story of valiant lesbians struggling to save the universe, that’s for sure.
We have an immortal being who might be a Goddess or a Snake, she hasn’t decided yet. We have Earth energy, powerful enough to contain the essence of the Immortal realm, but weak enough that one woman’s ambition could be it’s downfall. And of course, we have the tangled webs of almost-incestuous relationships that lesbians unwittingly create around them. (Or wittingly as we get older, hopefully)
And do the lesbians save the universe? … you didn’t really think I was going give the ending away did you?
ARH – Why did you publish with Eternal Press? What kind of response have you received?
W – I attended the Muse Online Writers Conference in 2010, which is a fabulous conference that happens in October. It’s free and you can play in your jammies if you like …anyway, they have a whole series of publishers there, some of whom offer themselves up for being pitched at. It’s a chat format, very nerve-wracking, but you hear almost immediately if they want you to submit your work.
They liked what they read and in September of last year, Mortal Instinct was released in eBook format, and in print a few weeks later. I’ve had nothing but good feedback, in fact, because it’s the first in a series, most of the comments have been along the lines of, “What happens next?”
ARH – What inspired you to write this book?
W – I wanted to write a story that threw away the most commonly held notions of what a SF/F story should include. The tortured hero, his trusty sidekick, the adorable urchin who saves the day and may or may not be the tortured hero’s illegitimate son, and the ultimate one of ‘good versus evil’, etc, all those clichés. (Cliché’s aren’t necessarily a bad thing, in fact if they’re done right, they can be wonderful retellings of the stories that have been with us for hundreds of thousands of years)
And, I wanted it to be a rollicking good yarn too.
But I think perhaps the most important thing to me was to write a story that incorporated my belief systems. That of treading lightly on the Earth, and honouring all Her children. Where passing through the veil between the worlds can have dreadful consequences for those who do it in ignorance, or without accepting the consequences of their choices.
Well … that, and lots of lesbians, in fact, only lesbians. There’s not a male pronoun to be found in the entire book. This would pass the Bechdel Test with flying colours.
Bechdel Test? …http://bechdeltest.com/ … 1- has to have at least two women in it. 2 – Who talk to each other. 3 – About something besides a man.
ARH – Are you working on a new novel? Can you tell us more?
W – I believe that it’s necessary for a writer nowadays to create a body of work as swiftly as they can. With the understanding that the ‘body’ is as good as the writer can create.
I have Book 2 of the ‘Gallery’ series well underway.
I’m working on a synopsis for a historical detective series, set here in Vancouver in the 1920’s, with a lesbian twist, of course, and maybe a touch of the otherworldly as well. I can’t help myself. I start out writing an ordinary fiction story, but somehow I slip between the Worlds and find myself adding little quirks to spice things up.
I’m also dabbling in short stories. Again my predilections trip me up. This time it’s wanting to turn the most innocent of short stories into full blown novels, so they’re also an exercise in discipline. I tell myself I can always turn them into novels if I they have sufficient depth.
But sometimes a short story is just a short story.
ARH – Can you tell us more about your decision to use a Pen name?
W – When I started my adventures in the interwebz, way back last century, I decided that if I was going to create an on-line presence, why not make it a memorable one. The automated options weren’t exactly riveting, ‘mutton123’ for example. It also had to be something that had meaning to me. Words are important, and the naming of things, doubly so.
Widdershins, technically, means to go counterclockwise. It can also mean to go against the grain, the accepted pathways, outside the box. As a feminist lesbian who was also a shaman, the widdershins-ing path was the one for me.
When my novel had reached a stage where I could seriously think about submitting it to publishers, I already had a significant on-line presence, so it really didn’t make a lot of sense to change what was already working. Besides, I think it’s rather cool … and mysterious … and whimsical!
ARH – As an author, what do you think is the most important piece of advice that you would give an unpublished writer?
W – There’s a few of ‘em.
Know the rules before you choose to break them.
Don’t assume that your publisher/agent/lawyer/beta readers/critique partners/ knows more about your story than you do. If you don’t know something, ask questions. Ask them until you have it figured out, then follow your heart.
Respect your readers. Without them, you’d be a diarist, an honourable profession if that’s what you want to be, otherwise … respond to emails, unless they’re from stalkers or other slimy creatures. Respond to comments on your blog, even if it’s to say, “Thanks for dropping by”.
And finally, follow Vernor Vinge’s Law, which goes like this: ‘All scenes should accomplish at least two of three things – 1, provide background information – 2, develop the characters – and 3, advance the plot’. If you can manage that they you’re well on your way.
ARH – Where can we go to learn more about you and purchase your books?
W – I can be found on my blog most days. Drop by for a cuppa, the kettle’s always on: http://widdershinsfirst.com
Mortal Instinct is available from my publisher in eBook format:
http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615724574
And from Amazon as an eBook and in print: (p.s. Print versions are still necessary for give-aways, promo’s, bragging to doubting relatives, and live sales, etc)(and there’s NOTHING like holding your first book in your hands, nothing!)
http://www.amazon.com/Mortal-Instinct-Widdershins/dp/1615724583
ARH – We appreciate you spending some time with us today Widdershins! We wish you continued luck your future writing endeavors.
W – It’s been a pleasure!
Beginning on April 2, 2012, the Pagan Writers Community will be hosting a “creative cluster” to work through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Writers, bloggers, poets, musicians, artists, and all other manner of spiritual creatives are welcome to join us!
Pagan Writers Community 