Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
I am a poet, creator, performer, and brand builder from Alexandria, LA. Any number of creative projects keep me busy at any given time, and I stay actively engaged in our local arts scene. From organizing poetry readings and workshops to performing spoken word, community theatre, or with my band. As a side hustle I freelance logo designs and help build marketing plans for small businesses, non-profits, and local campaigns. My most passionate calling is speaking to groups on living with grief and re-building a life of meaning and purpose after devastating loss. I live amongst the lush greenery of central Louisiana with my somewhat neurotic dog Jackson.
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “Pretty Little Widow”?
I wrote the poems for “Pretty Little Widow” in the span of the last days of my husband’s battle with brain cancer and the 2 years after his death. So the struggles were less about the act of writing and more about the challenges of learning to live with the ever-present grief. In truth, writing was my life-line. It was therapy for me.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
Anne Sexton was an early favorite poet of mine, and her raw confessional style of poetry influenced my own writing. And then I discovered the beautiful hopefulness of Mary Oliver and the fierce honesty of Brene Brown and Elizabeth Gilbert.
Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
Kisatchie is a national forest that stretches through most of the center part of Louisiana. Filled with blooming azaleas and dogwoods in the spring, it is my favorite place to hike or do some trail running. And Kincaid Lake, nestled in the midst of the forest, is the tranquil place for paddle boarding in summers oppressive heat. I have spent many of my years here, marking the passage of time by the changing of the seasons.
Q5. What inspired you to write the book ‘Pretty Little Widow’?
I did not set out to write a book, actually. Instead, as I mentioned already, I was using writing as a coping mechanism or therapy tool to figure out how to live with the grief of losing my husband. After I had written several poems (mostly dealing with grief as the subject matter), a couple friends suggested that compiled together, they may be helpful to others going through a similar ordeal. So I began pulling the poems together and grouping them into common themes. And at that point I could see a cohesion in what I had been writing. And I thought “maybe this could be helpful to others.”
Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘Pretty Little Widow’?
I wrote the poems over the course of a couple years. I compiled them and organized them into a collection and gave them to a few friends to read and critique. Then I set it aside for about a year. I attended writing workshops where other writers critiqued some of the poems, and I would take the workshop notes and make more edits. Finally, after a little over 3 years from the time I wrote the earliest poems in this collection, I organized them into the current form and published them. It was truly a learning experience and a process to get it to the book that it is today. A book I am very proud to have my name on.
Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your books?
Currently, “Pretty Little Widow” is available as an ebook on Kindle and as a paperback on Amazon.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘Pretty Little Widow’?
This is one of my favorite stories. I have a friend (who was barely an acquaintance at the time) who is an artist. A painter. I had been following her work on social media for a few months and liked her style, but nothing had really grabbed my attention yet. One day she posted a picture of a painting she had just completed, and it was unlike any of her other work I had seen up to that point. I was immediately transfixed by it! It was as though she had seen into my mind, into my very soul and painted what she saw there. There was an instant, electric connection for me to that painting! I had to have it. So I messaged her and ultimately ended up with painting, which now hangs on my bedroom wall. (See poem “Lost Wanderings” pg 75, “PLW”) But even after all that (falling in love with the painting and writing a poem about it), it wasn’t until I had the book compiled and ready to publish that I realized I had the perfect cover for it. That painting. Once I could visualize the physical manifestation of the book, cover and all, the process of finishing the book and publishing it all happen very quickly.
The title “Pretty Little Widow” comes from a poem within the book that I wrote shortly after my husband passed. It is a poem about feeling pitied and pandered to as new widow. How people who did not understand the loss of spouse grew impatient with my ongoing grief and just expected me to “get over it.”
Q9. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?
Keep writing. Even if you think you have nothing to say. Even when you aren’t motivated or feeling inspired. Sometimes you have to write a lot of throw-away pages before you get to the stuff worth keeping. Just keep writing. Develop a discipline, a habit. That discipline will carry you through when motivation and inspiration fail you.
Buy Pretty Little Widow on Amazon
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