Ask the Author: S.J. Howarth
Answered Questions (6)
S.J. Howarth
Honestly? I write a poem about the frustrations of writer's block! If that doesn't work, I have favourite authors I will return to again and again...reading Richard Brautigan clears writer's block much of the time, or Charles de Lint, sometimes Anais Nin, Dylan Thomas, Halldor Laxness or P.D. Ouspensky's Strange Life of Ivan Osokin. Find the writer's that you love, who fire you up. Trust it will return - if you've written before, words you're proud of, or words that move you, it will return!
S.J. Howarth
Being able to capture and create something with words, being able to reach other people with that creation and give them something from that.
S.J. Howarth
Write as often as possible, all day if you can. Write about not being able to write, write about panic, love, fear, hope, beauty, sunsets, kissing, hummous, cats, people, climate change, Marmite - anything and everything. Ask people to give you a theme or topic to write about. Write in one sitting, edit in a subsequent one. Write without too much care or structure and tidy it up, smooth off the edges later...
S.J. Howarth
At the moment I am working on a second collection of poetry, as yet untitled and completing my first novel, entitled The Hope Tree, a book a work of contemporary fiction that considers desperation, the peace in surrendering to the universe and the subsequent adventures and redemption that can bring, when nature is allowed to be our guide...it's about Jonah Black, a man in his late 30s who has given up and given in...and about what happens when he finds it in him to take a risk, to take responsibility for his own changes...and to find hope, redemption and perhaps even a little bit of love to keep him warm...
S.J. Howarth
Every day, something inspires me. Sometimes it's a snippet of a conversation overhead, something unusual, something simple and beautiful nature. Other times in the people in my life, people not in my life - occasionally it's world events or our modern disconnection and collective ennui.
S.J. Howarth
My recent collection of poetry is my first and spans the last 15-20 years, covering loss, hope and isolation. All filtered through my wry, gallows sense of humour.
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