Flumes Volume 2: Issue 1, Summer 2017 | Page 84

DA: I’m kind of excited too! I really want to finish it. I want to go back to She Who and finish it, but this was just like falling through a trap door. It’s just this whole little world and kind of interesting. That’s what happens to writers. You take your work seriously, and every once in a while you’re going to fall through a doorway.

JGH: That’s right. You know, are you familiar with Pam Houston?

DA: Oh very well. She and I are old friends.

JGH: She’s awesome. She’s just so amazing. I interviewed her a couple of years back, and she talks about these “glimmers.” She walks through life and finds these “glimmers,” and I find myself writing them down now like she says and not analyzing them. It’s so hard not to analyze them right away.

DA: Good! It’s so important, and also to rant. You know, I encourage young writers to rant. Give yourself permission to write any damn thing. You don’t have to be keeping a diary or anything like that. Write in insane passion! If you get a refrain in your head, be sure and make a note of it, and then, when you have time and energy, go ahead and flip through that notebook. Starters are wonderful. And I find that my phrasing, if I keep my book going, reoccur and then, I know I see something I need to work on.

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JGH: So do you find yourself writing small scenes, and then not knowing where they’re going to go and then….

DA: Absolutely! It’s your own curiosity that will make you discover. You have to discover what it is that caught your interest in the first place.

It’s time to wrap up. I want more. I am unquenched, but I want to be able to talk with Dorothy again in the future so I am mindful of her time and honor our arrangement by wrapping up our interview.

JGH: So, when should we expect this new book ? I don’t mean to put you

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