WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.910 align:middle line:90% Does anyone have a question? 00:00:02.910 --> 00:00:06.961 align:middle line:84% I have a question actually, Jenny. 00:00:06.961 --> 00:00:09.810 align:middle line:84% It seems like a lot of your writing, especially the Peter 00:00:09.810 --> 00:00:12.270 align:middle line:84% Pan book, puts me in a trance that I 00:00:12.270 --> 00:00:13.560 align:middle line:90% don't want to get out of. 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:17.010 align:middle line:84% And that makes me wonder if you put yourself 00:00:17.010 --> 00:00:19.540 align:middle line:84% into a kind of trance to write it. 00:00:19.540 --> 00:00:22.110 align:middle line:90% And if so, how? 00:00:22.110 --> 00:00:25.770 align:middle line:84% I was only halfway kidding today in Ander's class, 00:00:25.770 --> 00:00:30.000 align:middle line:84% when I said that I receive communications when I write. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:34.110 align:middle line:90% 00:00:34.110 --> 00:00:38.100 align:middle line:84% And I was speaking to Julie about this earlier, 00:00:38.100 --> 00:00:42.030 align:middle line:84% about my writing process, and if I 00:00:42.030 --> 00:00:44.640 align:middle line:84% still, as I said in a previous interview, 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:47.460 align:middle line:84% wake up in the morning and write, if that's when I write. 00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:53.580 align:middle line:84% And I really can only compose upon waking. 00:00:53.580 --> 00:00:57.390 align:middle line:84% So I think that incantatory quality comes 00:00:57.390 --> 00:01:01.830 align:middle line:84% from having just arrived from the land of dreams 00:01:01.830 --> 00:01:10.380 align:middle line:84% and trying not to dispel that cloud of a world 00:01:10.380 --> 00:01:14.490 align:middle line:84% where things are possible, and nonsensical things 00:01:14.490 --> 00:01:19.740 align:middle line:84% are possible, where you don't question certain actions 00:01:19.740 --> 00:01:21.730 align:middle line:90% or behavior. 00:01:21.730 --> 00:01:24.150 align:middle line:84% So I like to think about language holding 00:01:24.150 --> 00:01:26.130 align:middle line:90% that type of possibility too. 00:01:26.130 --> 00:01:28.620 align:middle line:84% So I'm not really one on self-editing. 00:01:28.620 --> 00:01:34.110 align:middle line:84% I try to leave my prose as pristine as it occurs to me. 00:01:34.110 --> 00:01:39.870 align:middle line:84% And I feel like I write by rhythm more than narrative. 00:01:39.870 --> 00:01:47.100 align:middle line:84% So yeah, I think the dream world and the rhythm communications 00:01:47.100 --> 00:01:49.980 align:middle line:90% that I receive from the unknown. 00:01:49.980 --> 00:01:50.720 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:01:50.720 --> 00:02:01.265 align:middle line:90% 00:02:01.265 --> 00:02:06.500 align:middle line:84% Do you listen to poetry from people that live on the street? 00:02:06.500 --> 00:02:09.350 align:middle line:90% Do I listen to poetry? 00:02:09.350 --> 00:02:13.280 align:middle line:84% From people that live on the street? 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:16.670 align:middle line:90% I'm not sure, maybe I have. 00:02:16.670 --> 00:02:22.010 align:middle line:84% I have a poem from 1963, Jim Morrison. 00:02:22.010 --> 00:02:24.950 align:middle line:84% "The Negroes in the forest are brightly feathered. 00:02:24.950 --> 00:02:26.750 align:middle line:90% They say forget the night. 00:02:26.750 --> 00:02:29.480 align:middle line:84% Come live with us in forest of azure. 00:02:29.480 --> 00:02:32.750 align:middle line:84% Out here in the perimeter, there are no stars. 00:02:32.750 --> 00:02:37.280 align:middle line:84% Out here, we are stoned, immaculate." 00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:39.440 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:02:39.440 --> 00:02:40.850 align:middle line:90% Very nice, thank you. 00:02:40.850 --> 00:02:47.400 align:middle line:90% 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:52.860 align:middle line:84% Stars are a very powerful conjurer of poetry. 00:02:52.860 --> 00:03:02.840 align:middle line:90% 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:03.980 align:middle line:90% Thank you for the reading. 00:03:03.980 --> 00:03:08.030 align:middle line:84% I was really captivated by a lot of the imagery in what you 00:03:08.030 --> 00:03:09.110 align:middle line:90% write. 00:03:09.110 --> 00:03:13.850 align:middle line:84% And I'm curious to know of the places that you've lived 00:03:13.850 --> 00:03:16.400 align:middle line:90% and what you've experienced. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:20.847 align:middle line:84% Where are you now that, I guess, it's not necessarily 00:03:20.847 --> 00:03:21.680 align:middle line:90% a personal question? 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:26.480 align:middle line:84% But when you write, what's your kind of setting? 00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:28.430 align:middle line:84% Do you write in front of a window? 00:03:28.430 --> 00:03:32.000 align:middle line:84% Are you in a small room with no windows? 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:33.770 align:middle line:84% I'm just curious, what kind of environment 00:03:33.770 --> 00:03:36.500 align:middle line:84% you like to create for yourself when you write? 00:03:36.500 --> 00:03:39.890 align:middle line:84% This question, I kind of made the space. 00:03:39.890 --> 00:03:44.480 align:middle line:84% Because it's something that I'm trying to come to terms with. 00:03:44.480 --> 00:03:47.720 align:middle line:84% Because I used to have very ideal writing conditions. 00:03:47.720 --> 00:03:49.970 align:middle line:84% And I always used to tell myself, oh, I 00:03:49.970 --> 00:03:51.860 align:middle line:84% have to have my desk in front of a window, 00:03:51.860 --> 00:03:54.152 align:middle line:84% and there has to be a view, and it has to be beautiful. 00:03:54.152 --> 00:03:56.480 align:middle line:84% And I have to look at trees and look at nature 00:03:56.480 --> 00:03:57.770 align:middle line:90% and look at seasons. 00:03:57.770 --> 00:04:01.730 align:middle line:84% And I don't even have a desk now I don't have a view. 00:04:01.730 --> 00:04:04.240 align:middle line:84% And I don't have the time to write. 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:09.230 align:middle line:84% So my ideal writing conditions are 00:04:09.230 --> 00:04:12.810 align:middle line:84% very incongruous to my actual writing conditions. 00:04:12.810 --> 00:04:20.209 align:middle line:84% But if I did have my way, I would have a view. 00:04:20.209 --> 00:04:23.300 align:middle line:84% And it would probably be in the Blue Ridge mountains. 00:04:23.300 --> 00:04:25.280 align:middle line:84% And it would probably be springtime. 00:04:25.280 --> 00:04:30.380 align:middle line:84% And there would probably be a lot of birdsong and lightning 00:04:30.380 --> 00:04:34.478 align:middle line:90% bugs and gentle-- 00:04:34.478 --> 00:04:36.020 align:middle line:84% I guess it couldn't always be spring. 00:04:36.020 --> 00:04:37.270 align:middle line:90% The lightning bugs are summer. 00:04:37.270 --> 00:04:42.770 align:middle line:84% But it would be very ideal and scenic and beautiful. 00:04:42.770 --> 00:04:50.210 align:middle line:84% But right now, I have uneaten pizza and baby socks and baby 00:04:50.210 --> 00:04:57.890 align:middle line:84% diapers and a view of the street cleaner coming once a week. 00:04:57.890 --> 00:04:59.030 align:middle line:90% It's not that ideal. 00:04:59.030 --> 00:05:02.180 align:middle line:84% But I do believe that there is an intrinsic relationship 00:05:02.180 --> 00:05:04.880 align:middle line:84% between creativity and environment. 00:05:04.880 --> 00:05:10.820 align:middle line:84% And I probably could be more proactive and at least, 00:05:10.820 --> 00:05:11.990 align:middle line:90% hang pictures. 00:05:11.990 --> 00:05:16.130 align:middle line:90% 00:05:16.130 --> 00:05:17.545 align:middle line:90% It's not a functional desk. 00:05:17.545 --> 00:05:21.110 align:middle line:84% It exists, but it's not functional. 00:05:21.110 --> 00:05:23.810 align:middle line:84% Part of the question was also related 00:05:23.810 --> 00:05:26.890 align:middle line:84% to because you're a new parent or you have young children, 00:05:26.890 --> 00:05:30.370 align:middle line:90% the transition of that. 00:05:30.370 --> 00:05:34.640 align:middle line:84% Yeah, it's very difficult trying to make time. 00:05:34.640 --> 00:05:37.780 align:middle line:84% And there's this voice in your head 00:05:37.780 --> 00:05:42.820 align:middle line:84% that says that you can't take time away from your kids 00:05:42.820 --> 00:05:47.320 align:middle line:84% in order to do creative work, whatever that work is. 00:05:47.320 --> 00:05:49.450 align:middle line:84% And I'm slowly realizing that I'm 00:05:49.450 --> 00:05:52.420 align:middle line:84% a better mother if I take at least an hour a week 00:05:52.420 --> 00:05:54.380 align:middle line:84% and try to do something creative. 00:05:54.380 --> 00:05:58.750 align:middle line:84% So I'm trying to force myself to do that more, even 00:05:58.750 --> 00:06:02.980 align:middle line:84% if it's something very short like 750-word micro pieces, 00:06:02.980 --> 00:06:05.830 align:middle line:84% which Ander and I were talking about, 00:06:05.830 --> 00:06:10.180 align:middle line:84% how some suddenly your new genre is short pieces once you've 00:06:10.180 --> 00:06:12.448 align:middle line:90% encountered parenthood. 00:06:12.448 --> 00:06:15.590 align:middle line:90% 00:06:15.590 --> 00:06:19.550 align:middle line:84% OK, we have a question over here. 00:06:19.550 --> 00:06:22.190 align:middle line:84% I like in your writing how you inhabit 00:06:22.190 --> 00:06:25.850 align:middle line:84% this headspace of wonder and youthfulness, 00:06:25.850 --> 00:06:29.240 align:middle line:84% but also this headspace of wisdom and adulthood. 00:06:29.240 --> 00:06:31.340 align:middle line:90% And I find that very appealing. 00:06:31.340 --> 00:06:34.690 align:middle line:84% I'm wondering how you kind of strike that balance, 00:06:34.690 --> 00:06:36.440 align:middle line:84% or if that's something that you even think 00:06:36.440 --> 00:06:38.240 align:middle line:90% about when you're writing. 00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:41.780 align:middle line:84% Wow, I haven't ever thought about that. 00:06:41.780 --> 00:06:49.315 align:middle line:90% 00:06:49.315 --> 00:06:54.150 align:middle line:84% I think that at heart, I'm really impish. 00:06:54.150 --> 00:06:58.720 align:middle line:84% And that might account for some of the more youthful moments. 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:01.680 align:middle line:90% 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:06.990 align:middle line:84% And I think I always want to be better than I am and live 00:07:06.990 --> 00:07:09.510 align:middle line:84% better than I am and be a better person than I am, 00:07:09.510 --> 00:07:13.020 align:middle line:84% so that might strike the other chord. 00:07:13.020 --> 00:07:21.040 align:middle line:84% But I think that I'm a prankster and a imp more than anything 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:21.540 align:middle line:90% else. 00:07:21.540 --> 00:07:27.120 align:middle line:90% 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:29.820 align:middle line:84% I think that's a great place to end-- 00:07:29.820 --> 00:07:30.880 align:middle line:90% prankster and imp. 00:07:30.880 --> 00:07:34.300 align:middle line:84% Jenny Boully, let's give her a hand.