Interview With Author Marilyn Flower
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
This baby-boomer writer-poet also answers to ‘Sacred Fool,’ and claims to live at the corner of Humor Lane and Satire Street. Being retired allows me all kinds of time to write–in theory, anyway. Real life, well…you know how things go…
When I’m not writing or blogging, you might be able to catch me doing improv or reciting poems silly and sensuous at an open mic. I’ve written four non-fiction books, three published, one on the way. My first is about overcoming bucket list fears. Two are guides for writers, one about character creation, and the other about blogging as your characters. The bun in the oven is about using a process called SoulCollage® to enhance our writing.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I’m a sucker for challenges. In 2020 Ninja Writers hosted a challenge. We were to publish a daily blog post on a topic near and dear to our hearts. Then compile and edit those posts into a book. BYOB they call it—Blog Your Own Book.
The notion to do a series of posts as the characters of my novel in progress smacked me on the head, grabbed my hat, and threw it into the ring. That was numero uno. Once I got started, I couldn’t stop.
The most recent fallout from this addiction is Developing Characters: Fun Ways to Cast Your Fiction, available on Amazon. In particular, envisioning your characters using SoulCollage®, hearing their voices through blogging as them, and discovering their strengths and fatal flaws via the Enneagram. Because, Hokey Pokey fans, that’s what it’s all about! I use all three of these with my two novels in progress. Why? It works and it’s fun.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I love writing dialogue. Sometimes I speak my character’s voices out loud as I write. If I get into a flow or it’s a sensitive conversation, I get the dialogue down as fast as I can so I don’t miss anything that comes through me. Later I go back and add the tags, beats, actions, and setting. But when the tap’s flowing I don’t stop for the side bits.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Pat Conroy could have been my brother. When I read the opening lines of The Great Santani, I went, “I know that man. He’s my Dad!” Mercifully, my dad was only about a three where as Pop Conroy was off the chart in narcissistic pain and violence.
But we’re such kindred spirits, I read and reread the entire Conroy cannon regularly—even his cookbook. By the way, our Scorpio birthdays are only a day apart. He broke my heart by dying before I ever got a chance to meet him.
Of course, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s because of Atticus. And how much I longed to have a dad like him I could be proud of and learn from, as well as a timeless story about racial hatred. Oh, and Boo. My heart went out to Boo. Still does. In many ways he’s the soul of the story, not just a ghostlike man who only comes out at night.
And I’m head-over-heels in love with doctor-writer, Abraham Verghese. I’ve read almost all of his work. Favorites include My Own Country, about the early days of the AIDS epidemic, Cutting for Stone, and his latest best-seller, The Covenant of Water. Those two novels are based on his family and his life in Ethiopia and India, with lots of fascinating medical history woven into the stories.
What are you working on now?
Man Pregnant! Is the story of an unfaithful pro-life pastor who winds up pregnant. You heard right. And the mother of his baby is not his wife. It’s his choir director. His best friend’s wife by the way, and they’re both black. I contrived the story just so he’d have to walk in the shoes of young pregnant teens. He desperately wants what he fights to keep them from having.
Long, Hard, & Twisted has no socially redeeming features whatsoever. My soft-boiled detective’s partner in crime-solving’s been turned into a mouse. By a shape-shifting femme fatale who hides from the world as a unicorn. She has the hots for him and turns his boo into a bunny she threatens to feed to a snake if he doesn’t return her love.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have both a website and an Facebook author page. So far, the Facebook page’s getting more action.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep learning and keep writing. Don’t get so lost in learning craft that you stop writing. You master craft through the act of writing. And, of course, read, read, read! Don’t just read books. Devour them. Read them twice. Once as a reader, the second time, as a writer. Try to dissect how they do what they did that captivated you.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
As you write, read your work out loud. You’ll catch things your eyes gloss over. Listen for voice. You author voice and the voices of each of your characters. Hint: those are all distinct. Keep practicing. Keep listening. Read other authors out loud as well.
What are you reading now?
I’m currently rereading All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood. This would be To Kill a Mockingbird if young Scout fell in love with a tender giant of a Native American in his early twenties and Atticus ran a meth lab. WTF? But it’s that compelling because it’s that well-written. So compelling and well-written, I’m reading it again.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I envision a cozy mystery series set in Berkeley, California where clues to whodoneit are revealed in the process of doing SoulCollage®.
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?
God’s Hotel by Dr. Victoria Sweet
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
Playing with Fire by Julie Taymor
Author Websites and Profiles
Marilyn Flower’s Social Media Links
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