Jal
asked
P.J. MacNamara:
You write as Maria, Peter's Brazilian wife, very well. Do you find it easy to write as a woman? If so, why do you think that is? Do you prefer it?
P.J. MacNamara
I got bored with writing in third person and left it in my wake very early on (around 1990, I think). In my experience, what a person is thinking and feeling and believing at any given moment is often in total contrast to what they are saying out loud, and if you really want to get inside someone's head and heart and see what kind of a person they really are you have to BE them, not just observe them.
If you can be anyone, and you get bored easily, which I do when I'm writing, it's an obvious next move to put challenges in your own path. Putting yourself in someone else's place is always a challenge. Whether they are a different sex, different race, different mindset, different level of intelligence, whatever, it's always interesting to me. People are interesting to me. It's like dressing up. Put on a funny hat and a false moustache, walk with a limp and talk with a Scandinavian accent and it's easy to believe you're someone else.
As far back as 1988, people were reading some sexual ambiguities into my writing that never really had any basis in real life. I've never been gay or bisexual. I don't feel like a woman trapped inside a man's body or anything like that. But I have had a number of friends in what has become known as the LGBT community in the last 35 years, and pretty much all of them have asked me this same question you've asked. Yes, it does come quite easy to me writing as a woman. Yes, I enjoy it. And I think once I realised I had a natural aptitude for it I ran with that particular ball further than I've chosen to run with some balls that were a little less interesting. All my LGBT friends love Maria. She's become something of an icon, a standard-bearer for me, and I'm thrilled to bits by that. But there really isn't any more to read in to it.
Anyone who knows anything about astrology can probably sense the powerful presence of Venus at work in me. That's where my strong feminine side comes from.
If you can be anyone, and you get bored easily, which I do when I'm writing, it's an obvious next move to put challenges in your own path. Putting yourself in someone else's place is always a challenge. Whether they are a different sex, different race, different mindset, different level of intelligence, whatever, it's always interesting to me. People are interesting to me. It's like dressing up. Put on a funny hat and a false moustache, walk with a limp and talk with a Scandinavian accent and it's easy to believe you're someone else.
As far back as 1988, people were reading some sexual ambiguities into my writing that never really had any basis in real life. I've never been gay or bisexual. I don't feel like a woman trapped inside a man's body or anything like that. But I have had a number of friends in what has become known as the LGBT community in the last 35 years, and pretty much all of them have asked me this same question you've asked. Yes, it does come quite easy to me writing as a woman. Yes, I enjoy it. And I think once I realised I had a natural aptitude for it I ran with that particular ball further than I've chosen to run with some balls that were a little less interesting. All my LGBT friends love Maria. She's become something of an icon, a standard-bearer for me, and I'm thrilled to bits by that. But there really isn't any more to read in to it.
Anyone who knows anything about astrology can probably sense the powerful presence of Venus at work in me. That's where my strong feminine side comes from.
More Answered Questions
Jal
asked
P.J. MacNamara:
There are 20 items in your first book and I understand there will be five books eventually, so it is reasonable to suppose there will be perhaps around 100 separate items in the series in total, fiction, non-fiction and poetry, covering a period of over 30 years. Do you have any special favourites out of all those? If so, which, and why.
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