This week i was able to set up another interview with an award winning author and poet. Carole Howard-Johnson took some time out of her schedule to enlighten us on some of her art.  I have been enjoying her book and i hope this interview helps inspire others.

Carole Howard-Johnson

Author of the awards-winning novel This is the Place.
Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered,
has already garnered the Red Sky Press Award and two others.
For More information go to: http://carolynhowardjohnson.com

 

SC: Tell us a little about yourself

CHJ: I’m a woman who was independent before it was fashionable.  I was raised in a time and place when women weren’t so much repressed as unaware that they had choices.  Often that inhibited their search for self-realization.  I was not immune to that but I was less retrained than most. 

SC: Where did your inspiration for writing come from?

CHJ: Russian literature is permeated with the concept of homeland.  That is also very important in my writing.  My homeland is Utah. I am part of its culture, even though I am not part of its predominant religion.  I believe that writing that comes from one’s central core is very explicit but also very general because it addresses issues that are part of the human condition.

SC :Do the same things inspire you now?

CHJ: Absolutely.  It’s not that I can’t write about other places, other people.  I do.  And I do more of that now than I once did.  Nevertheless, if I examine those stories or poems I find that they still go back to that nucleus of who I am and how that relates to who my reader is. 

SC: How long have you been writing?

CHJ: I’ve been writing since I was a teenager but I gave it up for years.  I try not to have regrets for I think we learn from our mistakes.  Those years of not writing, however, feel like a wasteland compared to those times when I did. 

SC: What are your methods for overcoming writers block?

CHJ: I tell my critique group that I never have writers block. I just sit at the computer or take up a notepad and write a word.  Another one follows.  My issue is “novel-block.” 

SC: How would you describe your style of writing?

CHJ: Literary. Nostalgic. Layered.

SC: Do you find it difficult to write in multiple genres?
 

CHJ: That depends on the genres.  I am not interested in writing in many of them—even many of the ones that I enjoy reading.  Still my first book, This is the Place, is a mainstream/historical/women’s/literary novel with just a touch of romance.  My second Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, is a collection of creative non-fiction.  My work in progress is a book of poems.  It is Skyscapes: A Woman's View. I am also writing a series of nonfiction books on how to survive and thrive in retailing.  That’s pretty broad!  Ha!

SC: Tell us a little about your published works.

CHJ: I think I just did!  (-:      This is the Place has won eight awards.  I am most proud of the Revewers’ Choice Award which was nominated and voted on by reviewers. Harkening has won three.  It was voted among the top ten novels by readers. It is a collection of stories, which generally aren’t nearly as popular as novels.  So its popularity pleased me a whole lot.  I think that happened because there is some form to the stories. Many of the characters repeat in the stories and the thread sort of ties itself into a bow at the end. 

SC: Do you have anything in the works right now?

CHJ: I’m searching for a publisher who is experienced in publishing and marketing poetry right now.  The publisher of my first two books has done little with poetry and poetry is even less commercial than my first two books so I’m hoping to find another with a passion that at least approaches mine.

SC: There are several poets on the Stirring the Sky website that are interested in Publishing. What would be your advice to them?

CHJ: My advice, no matter what kind of writing interests a person is to take classes and to read.  Or rather to read and take classes.  I can see so much growth in my poetry from when I started that I am thinking of dropping some of them from my book before it is published.  I owe that to classes at UCLA and to literary conferences like the one I attended last summer in St. Petersburg, Russia  That organization can be found on the web.  It’s called Summer Literary Semesters out of New York. This is the link:  http://www.sumlitsem.org/russia/index.asp  They give classes at Herzen University in poetry, bring in famous guest poets to speak and to teach.

 Thank you Sylence, for the opportunity to share with your readers and writers.