Friday, October 19, 2018

Interview with Tasha Gray @ Fast or Write!


Alrighty! It has been a while since I've posted on here, but I can't think of a better reason to break out the old blog, than to post this interview where I grilled my poor friend Tasha (at Fast or Write) about her writing!




For those of you who don't know, Tasha is a short story fiend! She will take any premise submitted to her and turn it into an amazing short story with unworldly speed! She really loves collaborations, so if you have an idea, go shoot it to her on her website: 
Fast or Write (or on FB or Twitter under the same name), where you can submit your prompts or ideas to her, or even order a short story custom made--or a short story box with goodies relating to the stories to send to a friend! They are a total experiance that will make the mailboxes of your choice very happy (Check out my review of one here!)!

So, we've established that Tasha loves collaborations, and this month she is collaborating with me! October is a month of art! There is #Inktober, #Drawlloween and #Drawtober! It is basically a month for pushing yourself to create something.  Tasha challenged me to do 31 drawings so she could write stories off of each one! She interviewed
 me about that here!
Now on to the good stuff, where I interview her
!
*Clears throat and tries to act professional!*

Let's start with an easy one! How long have you been writing?
Tasha:
Forever? I remember my first written piece was in elementary school and was an edge of your seat poem about a fat cat who sat on a mat (spoiler: he eventually went to heaven at the age of eleven).


We went to the school library every week and one day I saw a poster of Newbery award winning books (most of which I had read). This poster had these little pictures of people and when I asked the librarian who they were, she told me they were the authors. It never dawned on me that REAL PEOPLE wrote books and I wanted to write my own. I mostly wrote simple things I threw away, though I did win an award at school for a poem I wrote about a marsh. I attempted my first novel in middle school. It was never finished and was a sci-fi inspired by The Giver by Lois Lowry.

What inspires you most?
Tasha: …to write stories or in real life? Stories are impossible to nail down. A recent one was inspired by a BuzzFeed story. I literally never know where or when a story idea will get me.
In real life, I’m so inspired by people who do kind and good things without thinking because it means there is still hope for humanity. I also love people who are unapologetically themselves. They have every reason to give up or have failed multiple times but they just keep doing whatever it is they need to get to their goals. I am not those people but I want to be.

What are some of your favorite prompts?
Tasha: I love the weird prompts that don’t seem to make any sense because they always get my brain going! If it confuses you, then it’s probably a great prompt for me!
Since I never know what will create a story, I don’t know that I have list of favorites. I have some very good prompts I haven’t been able to write about yet but I will not give up on them! If anyone has submitted a prompt that I haven’t produced a story on, trust me, I have them…I have them ALL.
I also love working from your art though I’m always terrified to do so! I worry you’ll hate where I took your pieces! It’s still so much fun because you created something unique and I get to create my own thing that may or may not be anything like your original thought process.

(I LOVE EVERYTHING YOU CREATE OFF OF MY DRAWINGS! I am constantly amazed how you come up with things!)
What is your favorite story you’ve written?
Tasha: Yikes…I don’t know. I a terrible critic of my own work so when I think of a short story or novel I’ve written, I almost feel embarrassed that I wrote it. My ‘favorite’ is always the one I’m about to work on since it still has exciting possibilities. We always long for and idealize what we don’t have, don’t we? This is why humans are forever disappointed when we get what we want.

Who is your favorite character you’ve made? What are they like, and what makes you love them?
Tasha: Mac has been the most fun to write because he’s my first main character who’s not a good guy and he doesn’t try to be. 

What is your writing process like?
Tasha: 
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...
process…hahahahahahhahahaha
I really don’t have one. Since the TBI, my writing has been spotty at best, which is why I ask for prompts and why I haven’t been attempting novels. Normally I stare at a prompt until I find the hook then I sort of spill words onto the screen and smoosh them until I can hold up my finger painting in the hopes one of you will coo over it, pat me on the head and offer me a juice box and cookies.
You deserve all the cookies! All of them! Can you tell us what your desk/writer space looks like? Can we see?
Tasha: 
I share this space with the infamous podcaster Dragons in Genesis. It was his grandfather’s rolltop desk. He got it from his grandmother as a surprise for me because he knew I’d ALWAYS wanted one. The majestically deranged left side is mine.
The funny part is very little of my writing takes place at that desk. I’m a couch writer for the most part, though I often do my note-taking at the desk or will write longhand there.


You also knit! What’s your favorite part of that?
Tasha: To be finished, which incidentally is my favorite part of writing! I owe so much to knitting! It’s the reason you guys are being flooded with stories!
I started knitting several years ago because I was involved in a work accident that left me with a mild TBI (traumatic brain injury). Once I recovered, I found my memory was shot, I couldn’t multitask properly and the old ones help me if my blood sugar dropped or I was overly tired because I couldn’t say words in the correct order. The worst part was I simply lost my ability to write creatively. My what-if machine had ground to a halt.
Since writing is a ‘higher brain function’ the doctor told me I may never be able to do it again. That played havoc with my depression since I defined myself as a writer. It was what made me special and was even how I met my partner! How could I NOT be a writer?!

I tried everything to get back into writing, but I just couldn’t do it. That’s when I picked up a pair of knitting needles and griped for over a year until I figured out how to do it without making the finished project look too bad.
The best part is that knitting helped me heal from the TBI. My memory started improving and multitasking because a tiny bit easier. The more I knit, the better I became. I’ll never be how I was before, but I’m better.
It was one day I randomly got a writing idea. I was nervous to try because I didn’t know if I could take another disappointment. I wrote a poem. It wasn’t great, but I could tell that old muscle was flexing. I still have issues with writing some days but I’m definitely a writer again thanks to knitting!

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on?
Tasha: With knitting? It’s hard to say since I always find fault in just about everything I do. I keep believing I could do it better if I had a chance. I just like making things that might make someone happy. If they are happy with the project, then so am I!

You do a story a month project people can sign up for. The Secret Short Story Society! Can you tell us more about it? I loved unboxing it! I love how the items included tied into the story!
Tasha: I want to say it came about because I wanted to share my stories. Really it came about because I wanted to give my friends gifts, print my writing in ‘serious’ way and maybe make a little money. That last part doesn’t work because I charge whatever the materials cost me…so that was a wash!
The S4 is a monthly printed story along with at least one surprise that goes along with the story in some way. These stories will not be put on the website because they are SECRET! It also gives me a chance to play around with ideas and characters without stress because I’m not crafting them for the public at large.
The first issue ‘Comfort’ came with a handmade comfort/voodoo doll. After all the trouble I went through making those dang things, I think I may buy my extras but you never know! I really hope it takes off because I have such FUN creating them!

Who is your favorite writer/author?
Tasha: The closest I can come to favorites would be Agatha Christie and Dorothy Parker. First, I just love their work and have always wished I could write like both.  Both had difficult lives but kept writing. I had always harbored a secret wish to be a great crime writer like Christie or a hilarious accurate poet like Parker. I am neither of these spectacular ladies, but one can always hope, right?
Octavia Butler was my heroine for sci-fi. I’m always blown away by how much feeling and…I can’t even describe it. She’s an experience that I love to go back to. She should be required reading in all literature classes.
Ray Bradbury is high up on the list too. I love how his work is so human even though he often writes about technology and how we interact with it.

I learned about twist endings from reading Ambrose Bierce. Horror was mostly Poe though he and Doyle taught me more about detective fiction (still think Christie was #1). I grew up reading Lovecraft but he’s…problematic now that I’m an adult.

What’s your favorite book?
Tasha: 
…nope. Not even going to try to break this down because it’s impossible.

Do any writers influence you? 
Tasha: How can they not?! Now that I’m an adult, I can see more of the writer’s as people instead of just their stories. I’ve been inspired by female (Margaret Atwood), POC (N.K. Jemisin, Dr. Nnedi Okorafor, Silvia Moreno-Garcia) and LGTBQ+ (Charlie Jane Anders) writers since they are so underrepresented in our literary culture but THEY KEEP WRITING because they’re writers and their voices matter. Those who say they don’t care about the author, just the story, don’t realize that the books that are being pushed by big publishers and stores aren’t necessarily the best out there in that genre. You have to care or our literary landscape will never change.

What is next for you? What projects are you excited about for next year? Are you already planning some?


Tasha: Yeesh. I’m not certain. I’m always working on something but since I have so many projects in different mediums, I’m never sure where I’m going next.

Ideally, I’d like to make writing my only job and income but that takes a lot of work and some luck. I’m in the process of cleaning up one of my novels, potentially for self-publication though I would love to find a publisher or agent to take me on. Since I write in varied genres, I’m never sure how to present myself.

In 2019 I hope to work more on tightening my writing enough that the public will pay me to read it. The work in progress for Drawlloween will take me on a different course than I’ve taken before but I think will be a fun project. I’m also looking into gathering some of my short stories to clean up and submit to various magazines. I’m always so hesitant to send my work out but I’m trying to get over that.

My biggest wish for 2019 is to get a wider readership for the website and possibly more people on board for the monthly Secret Short Story Society. If all else fails, maybe I’ll just focus on filling up our Etsy site with more handmade goodies! THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!!



1 comment:

  1. What a beautiful interview! And it's so inspiring that Tasha is able to continue writing after experiencing a TBI. I hope she gets a ton of visitors to her site and lots of new readers!

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