Interview With Author Drema Drudge
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m Drēma Drudge, author. From reading cereal boxes on the breakfast table when I was a wee thing to reading my first chapter book in a mimosa tree which birthed my love for novels and twinned it with my affection for trees, the written word and I have been fast friends forever. I’ve also been writing in one capacity or another since I was about nine, starting with terrible poems and graduating to melodramatic stories in junior high. (No one explained to me then that my beloved books came from the destruction of my (almost) equally beloved trees!)
Mercifully, I eventually discovered that there are books, classes, and programs on writing and I learned how to write! Now I have an MFA in Creative Writing.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest novel is called Southern-Fried Woolf, and it was inspired by Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. I pair an analysis of Woolf’s book within a novel about a country music star’s wife.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I love writing outdoors! It’s my favorite place to write. Too bad I don’t live in a place where I can always do that, but whenever I can, I do.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Obviously Virginia Woolf, but also Toni Morrison’s novels in particular. I’m a big fan of all of the classics.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a literary mystery, but I’m not very far into it, so I can’t say much about it at this point.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I enjoy writing blog posts and sending news to my newsletter subscribers. I feel I have a personal connection with them.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing. Read, write, revise. Repeat. These three things will help you develop as a writer.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If you want to be a writer, write. That’s what makes you a writer.
What are you reading now?
I just finished reading the excellent novel Trust by Hernan Diaz. Its experimental nature and its mysterious plot drew me in.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ll continue writing novels, though I like the idea of writing a few short stories in between.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d bring Beloved by Toni Morrison, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Lust for Life by Irving Stone, and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
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