How to Bargain with Your Inner Critic

Have you held a sit-down with your inner critic? You know, that voice inside that’s always telling you you’re no good, that you shouldn’t raise your hand in class, that it’s safer to stand near the wall than to get out on the dance floor. Writers call that voice their “inner editor,” because it questions everything they write—the style, the organization, the spelling. The voice tells writers nobody will buy their stories and they should give up and pursue something else.

Scoff McGrouser, courtesy of Pixabay

Pros and Cons

I’ve portrayed the inner critic as bad, but it helps at times. An inner critic warned our ancient ancestors not to try befriending the saber-toothed tiger. Those who listened to their inner critic survived to pass it down to us as a useful survival trait. Today, the inner critic screams at you to stop when, while drunk, you tell your buddy, “Hold my beer and watch this.”

Though sometimes your inner critic prevents disaster, most of the time it urges against any action at all. It tells you you’re hopeless, useless, and unworthy.

Inner Critic vs. the First Draft

Writers who obey their inner critic without question never write anything.

However motivated the writer, however enthused about the project, the writer cannot get far if an inside voice declares the writing drivel, points out every missing comma, and lambasts the whole manuscript.

While creating a first draft, writers need freedom and confidence, not haranguing from a Debbie Downer. Nothing at this early point should hinder the flow or halt the momentum. Later, in subsequent drafts, the inner critic can prove its worth and let its editing prowess shine. If only you could give your inner critic a “time out” and banish it to its room. Hmm. Maybe you can.

By Name

Perhaps you can establish some control over this nagging inside voice. You could start by personalizing it. Give it a name. Activist Erin Brockovich calls hers “Negative Nancy.” I’ve heard Author Ines Johnson calls hers KeeKee.

I shall call mine Scoff McGrouser. What name will you give yours?

Now that you’ve humanized it, your inner critic now stands on your level, not like some mystical, all-powerful entity. You can talk to it. You can bargain on equal terms.

The Bargain

You’re writing a first draft and that familiar whiny voice pipes up, shattering your concentration and shaking your confidence. What can you do?

Address your inner critic by name, out loud if necessary (and if you’re alone). Be respectful and understanding. That critic, a permanent part of you, isn’t leaving your head. Tell it to take a break now. Be kind, but firm. Say you’ll be grateful for its help later. In subsequent drafts, it can critique to its heart’s content.

Evolving Relationship

Bargaining may not work the first time. You’re trying to break one habit and form another, and that requires persistence and patience. In time, you should find it easier to send the critic to a corner for a while.

In my case, I’ve learned to push Scoff McGrouser away long enough so I can write like—

Poseidon’s Scribe

Author Panel at Leaves Bakery and Books

On Sunday, I participated in an author discussion panel at Leaves Bakery and Books in Fort Worth, Texas. What it lacked in audience size it made up for in lively conversation about books with like-minded writers.

Josh Hickman, Scott Finley, Craig Shaneck, and me

Josh Hickman

Author Josh Hickman talked about his recent book Forgetting, The Trials and Triumphs of Caregiving for a Difficult Parent with Dementia. It details his struggles as a caregiver for his mother during her decline, and their ultimate reconciliation.

Scott Finley

Next, we heard from Scott Finley, who conducted exhaustive research for the writing of his Voyages of the Queen series. The first in the series, Shadow of the Queen, involves a murder on an ocean liner in 1929.

Craig Shaneck

After that, Craig Shaneck talked about his novel Athens Shrugged, a murder mystery set in Greece. He described it as James Bond on a budget, a nice tagline.  

Me

Oh, yeah. I might have yakked a bit about The Seastead Chronicles. Regular readers of this blog might have heard of it.

Many thanks to Challyn Hartogh and the rest of the staff at Leaves Bakery and Books for hosting the event. Several customers did stop by for their wonderful baked goods and tea, but not so much to hear—

Poseidon’s Scribe

Love the Book, Forgive the Author?

Do you refuse to read books written by authors who’ve held offensive beliefs or committed objectionable acts? Are their books, however well written, tainted by the author’s extra-literary reputation?

Image created at Perchance.org. Note: I do not mean to imply or suggest that any author, living or dead, mentioned in this post or not, is demonic or akin to a devil.

Controversial Authors

Rather than provide a complete list, I’ll mention a few, having found several discussed on this Reddit post. My beloved Jules Verne held racist and antisemitic views. Knut Hamsun supported fascists and Nazis. Ezra Pound was a fascist, racist, and antisemite. H.P. Lovecraft was a racist and Nazi sympathizer. Ernest Hemingway was a bully, alcoholic, racist, and antisemite. Ayn Rand had an extramarital affair and opposed altruism and religion. Isaac Asimov groped women. Marion Zimmer Bradley may have abused her child and tolerated her husband’s child abuse. Alice Munro defended her husband’s alleged sexual abuse of their daughter. This article about that last revelation prompted me to think about this post’s topic.

3 Degrees of Bad

We could divide our reasons for hating authors into three categories.

  1. Those who held and stated abhorrent beliefs that don’t appear, or barely appear, in their fiction,
  2. Those who held and stated abhorrent beliefs that are obvious in their fiction, and
  3. Those who performed objectionable actions, whether they wrote about them or not.

Any of these might cause you to refrain from reading books by that author. On the other hand, you might forgive an author for any of these reasons and choose instead to enjoy their books for the literary value.

Noncontroversial Authors

The world includes plenty of books. You could avoid books by troublesome authors and just read works written by saints. However, you may find saintly authors in short supply. Every author is, or was, human, and therefore burdened with faults and failings, just like non-writers.

Even those not known for offensive actions often wrote about their private beliefs. Today, many authors use social media to express opinions on news of the day. Fiction writers spend a lot of time musing about the human condition. They’re bound to form and express strong opinions on various topics, and some of those stances might offend you. The contemporary author whose works you most cherish might get toppled off the pedestal you’ve erected, after a single tweet or post.

Different Places and Times

Although plenty of today’s authors have said or done questionable things, I only included deceased authors in my list above. When judging author behaviors and beliefs, remember that we’re all victims, to some extent, of the culture we live in or grew up in. In various past societies, racism, sexism, and antisemitism once prevailed as normal. Phrases and character types that readers of those times and places accepted with little notice cause us to cringe today.

Is it fair to judge a past author’s work by today’s standards? Sure. You can judge, by any criteria you want, whether you like a book or not. Is it fair to blame a past author for not living up to our modern sensibilities? No. The author could not predict how society would change.

Authors Aren’t Their Characters

Though some do, I urge you not to judge authors by their characters. Some authors excel at showing us convincing evil characters. As readers, we might wonder how the author can get inside a twisted mind so well, and we might suspect the author of sympathizing with the bad guy.

In his novel Next, Michael Crichton portrayed a character named Brad Gordon as a creepy pedophile. I felt myself transported into the sick mind of this perverted character. Though Crichton managed the description well, I would never accuse him of pedophilia.

Your Choice

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, though many do. Is it fair to make your decision about what to read based on the author’s personal life or beliefs? Of course, but you might be denying yourself a pleasurable reading experience. What I’m saying is, you be you and I’ll be—

Poseidon’s Scribe

You’ll Never Sell Books in a Bakery, They Said

Thank you to Challyn Hartogh and her staff at Leaves Bakery and Tea Shop in Fort Worth, Texas. My book signing event there last Sunday went well.

The author at Leaves Bakery and Tea Shop

Located in an eclectic neighborhood of old buildings redone as trendy shops, Leaves Bakery and Tea Shop emphasizes muffins and tea, but caters to authors as well. After all, once you buy your scone and hot drink, you feel the urge to read a book, right?

And, yes, we all get the clever pun—leaves…books and tea. Nice.

Paired with Galen Steele, an up-and-coming poet, I set up my table and greeted everyone that came in. Accepting my prior invitation, some friends dropped by and chatted with me.

My new book, The Seastead Chronicles, received a prime spot near the center of my table, but I brought others to sell also.

As you can see by visiting the Appearances tab on this website, I’ll return to Leaves Bakery and Tea Shop later this month to conduct a Writers Workshop. I’ve titled it “Writing Drunk – Imbibing Passion for More Creative Binging.” If you’re in the area that day, please stop by.

Thanks to my appearance last Sunday, we now know the answer to how an author stays and Leaves at the same time! Thanks again to the staff there, from—

Poseidon’s Scribe

The Island’s Still Mysterious After 150 Years

This month marks a century and a half since the publication of Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island. Maybe you think you don’t care, but read on. That novel changed a genre forever, and pointed readers toward new ways to think about survival.

Partial Summary

Near the end of the American Civil War, five Union prisoners escape a Confederate camp by balloon. Swept away by a storm, they must, at last, abandon their balloon and jump into the sea. They crawl ashore and identify the landmass as an island. With ingenuity and determination, they survive four years there despite suffering numerous misfortunes. In time, they cultivate crops and raise animals, build a pottery kiln, a metal forge, and even a telegraph.

As a Sequel

The novel attempts to serve as a sequel to two earlier books—In Search of the Castaways and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. Though Verne connected the novels with some dramatic skill, he botched the timelines. He wrote a footnote attempting to explain the date discrepancies, but it did little more than inform readers of his awareness of the problem.

As a Robinsonade

Map of Lincoln Island

Something about island castaway stories touch us. Could we, too, endure in a remote locale, out of contact with friends and family, deprived of the comforts of civilized life? We take nature walks and go on camping trips, but do so while clutching smartphones, knowing we’ll soon return to our big-screen TV, while our door camera monitors the outside world.

In 1719, Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe, igniting an explosion of marooned-on-an-island stories, now called Robinsonades. Verne loved islands and had read both Robinson Crusoe and Johann David Wyss’ The Swiss Family Robinson. However, he deplored those authors’ choice to maroon their castaways along with survival equipment, the very tools and artifacts of civilization they needed. By contrast, Verne dropped his characters on an island with two watches, a match, a grain of wheat, and a metal dog collar.

This denial of resources became the standard for later Robinsonades, forcing characters to innovate and use available raw materials. No author or scriptwriter since Verne would dare equip their characters with large quantities of helpful supplies.

As a Comment on Civilization

Verne’s marooned characters don’t just scrape by. Bit by bit, they morph from castaways to colonists. In effect, they don’t separate from civilization—they restart civilization in a new place. In four years, they retrace the technological advances of twelve thousand years of human history. From Stone Age to Iron Age to Electrical Age, they recreate mankind’s major innovations. Perhaps this shines new light on the saying, “you can take the man out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the man.”

As a Bromance

The novel’s themes of survival, innovation, and perseverance stand out. But Nick DiMartino, in his book The Amputee’s Guide to Jules Verne, also detects a theme of male bonding. The castaways don’t argue, complain, or fight. They work together to survive. After they return to civilization at the end, they elect to live the rest of their lives together in the “wilderness” of Iowa.

With a Deus ex Machina

I suppose I can still call this a spoiler alert, even for a book 150 years old. What makes the island so mysterious? Peculiar things happen on occasion, aiding the castaways just when hope appears lost. Near the end they discover Captain Nemo, sole remaining member of the submarine Nautilus, has helped them when necessary. Not a deus (god), but he owns one heck of a machina.

As an Enduring Tale

The Mysterious Island still captivates today, in its sesquicentennial. Readers will enjoy the novel 150 years from now and beyond, because it asks a question applicable in any age. Could we, too, could endure if marooned on a remote island without our modern toys? Go ahead and read it. Explore Lincoln Island and imagine yourself being there. Accept this invitation to adventure, extended to you by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

Fanfiction—A Great Way to Start

Writers start as readers. We fall in love with stories written by favorite authors. Often, we seek to write like them. Some of us invent new stories involving favorite characters and settings. That is, we write fanfiction.

Types

Many varieties of fanfiction exist. You could write new adventures, where you take the original work’s characters on fresh escapades within their world. In Fix-it Fic, you write a tale correcting what you see as a flaw in the original work. Author Katie Redefer, for example, wrote Harry Potter fanfiction which depicted a romantic relationship never envisioned by J.K. Rowling. You might consider an update, where many years have elapsed since the original novel and you show older characters, or their descendants, dealing with a new adventure.

Reason

People write fanfiction because they love the original work. They seek to honor it in their own way. Perhaps they feel they lack the literary skills to create their own original story with fresh characters in a setting they invent. Fanfiction requires less creativity, because beloved characters already “exist,” and the world of the story sits ready-made.  

Risks

If you write fanfiction for your own private enjoyment, or if you share it with other fans and don’t charge them money, you run no adverse risk.

However, if you write fanfiction based on a work still under copyright protection, and you hope to sell your work, be careful. Some authors allow and even encourage fanfiction. Others sue for copyright infringement.

My Fanfiction

Like many, I started with fanfiction. Years ago, I wrote the first draft of a sequel to Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas. I intended to title it 20,000 Leagues Farther. In it, a descendant of Captain Nemo salvages the Nautilus (in modern time) and brings unwitting guests on an adventure-filled voyage. Though embarrassing to recall now, that amateurish novel helped me grow as a writer.

Since then, I’ve written several publishable stories of fanfiction. “The Steam Elephant” honors Verne’s The Steam House by taking his characters aboard their marvelous vehicle to Africa. This story appears in The Gallery of Curiosities #3.

The Six Hundred Dollar Man” puts an Old West steampunk twist on the TV show “The Six Million Dollar Man.”

In “A Tale More True,” a rival of Baron Munchausen (the fictional character created by German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe) takes a clockpunk trip to the Moon.

My story “Rallying Cry” honors both Verne’s The Steam House and Robur the Conqueror by portraying a secret World War I regiment using two of Verne’s vehicles—-the steam elephant and the aeronef.

In “The Cometeers,” I used the cannon and projectile from Verne’s novel From the Earth to the Moon. My story’s characters must save the Earth from a comet impact…in 1897.

My story “After the Martians” shows the aftermath of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, but WW I occurs using Martian technology.

In “The Unparalleled Attempt to Rescue One Hans Pfaall,” (included in the anthology Quoth the Raven) I depict adventurers from Rotterdam flying to the Moon, by balloon, to save a man whom Edgar Allan Poe left stranded there in his The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall.

“Reconnaissance Mission” honors Poe again, making him a character as a young Army soldier who undertakes a mission that would inspire his later stories and poems. This story appears in the anthology Not Far From Roswell.

My story 80 Hours updates Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days by sending a woman to circumnavigate the globe in just over three days.

I may well write more fanfiction in the future, but I feel more confident than I did before about creating my own characters and worlds.

I co-edited two anthologies of other writers’ fanfiction as well. 20,000 Leagues Remembered honors Verne’s undersea masterwork with fan fiction written by today’s authors. The book appeared on the 150th anniversary of Verne’s epic novel.

Ebook and print
Audiobook

The North American Jules Verne Society (of which I’m a member) sponsored its own Verne tribute anthology with Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne. This includes recently written short stories honoring many of Verne’s fantastic novels. It’s available in ebook, print, and audiobook versions.

Your Fanfiction

If you haven’t written fanfiction, I bet you’ve been tempted. For people who hope to write fiction someday, fanfiction might serve as a great place to start. The ready-made characters and story “world” simplify the process. Even if you write just for yourself or to give away stories free to fellow fans, fanfiction could provide good practice and a chance to learn the craft and hone your skills.

Get to it. Write! Be like—

Poseidon’s Scribe

8 Rules for Writing Better

An article written by speaker, writer, and life coach Brad Stulberg caught my eye. It bore the grandiose title “8 Rules to do Everything Better.” Really? Everything?

Image from Pixabay.com

I’d love to do everything better. At the moment, I stink at mountain-climbing, neurosurgery, trombone-playing, the decathlon, and a couple of other activities. However, I’d settle for writing better, so I figured I’d see if the eight rules applied to fiction writing. What follows are Mr. Stulberg’s rules, and my assessment of how they apply to authors.

1. Stress + Rest = Growth

This one makes sense. Writers can overdo things, typing until late at night, going without sleep. Everyone needs recharging time. Besides, the unconscious mind often mulls over problems and finds solutions.

2. Focus on the Process, Not Results

I might have stated it a different way, but I agree with the intent. Writers shouldn’t compare themselves to famous authors, or anyone else. Rather than aiming for the best-seller list, seek to write as well as you can.

3. Stay Humble

This rings true. I imagine some best-selling authors lose some humility when they reach the pinnacle. They might imagine they’ve learned all they need to learn. If they step past confidence to arrogance, they risk going stale.

4. Build Your Tribe

Readers might think this couldn’t apply to writing—a solitary activity. It does, in some measure. Even the most introverted writers benefit from surrounding themselves with like-minded supporters. These take the form of critique group partners, beta readers, and eventually reader-fans.

5. Take Small, Consistent Steps to Achieve Big Gains

Any big job, like writing a novel, seems daunting before you start. Beginning with a small step helps in at least two ways. First, you’re less likely to abandon an effort you’ve started. Second, what you found difficult today, you’ll find easier tomorrow. That’s a corollary to the adage about eating an elephant. Thanks to the learning curve, you can take bigger bites each day.

6. Be a Minimalist to Be a Maximalist

Though I’d quibble with the phrasing, I agree with the meaning. If you say yes to fiction writing, you need to say no to some other fun activities of life. Focus on learning to write better. Put in the time.

7. Make the Hard Thing Easier

By this, Mr. Stulberg means to design your life around doing what you value, and make the tempting disruption thing harder. Don’t count on your willpower to avoid distractions or to prevent falling back into bad habits—remove the lures. Engineers call it the poka-yoke concept, or mistake-proofing. Example: if you tend to plunge into the rabbit-hole of fun research while writing, then write with a device disconnected from the internet.

8. Remember to Experience Joy

Like all people doing what they love, writers can turn into workaholics. Take time to celebrate the achievements, to delight in the other aspects of life. This goes beyond the rest and recharging of point 1 above. It means to allow a happy pause for reveling in small victories and to be fully present for the others you love.

Summing Up

Overall, Brad Stulberg has provided eight helpful pieces of advice, as applicable to writers as to anyone else. Though the rules may seem trite and obvious, don’t we all need a reminder every now and then? Among the writers who needed this refresher, I’d count—

Poseidon’s Scribe

Did You See Me at Half Price Books?

Thank you to Michaela Huff and the rest of the staff at the Half Price Books store near Ridgmar Mall in Fort Worth, Texas. I enjoyed a wonderful book signing event there on Saturday.

Staff member Jesse set up my table and chair in a commanding position just inside the front door. Incoming customers couldn’t help seeing me there. I focused on my new book, The Seastead Chronicles, but also offered several others, too.

I enjoyed talking to all the patrons who came in and stopped to chat. Friends I’d invited also arrived and kept me company.

If you missed that signing and wish to attend one, please click the Appearances tab on my site for a list of future events.

Again, a big thank-you to the staff at Half Price Books for the delightful book signing event last Saturday. They’ve earned the sincere gratitude of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

Advice from a Writing Cowboy

If you’re an accomplished author, folks might ask you to speak to groups every now and then. I’ve heard plenty of such talks, but none like a recent one from Michael Johnson.

Blue and Michael Johnson

Bio

A true cowboy, Michael Johnson lives on a Texas horse farm. Unlike many cowboys, he earned a doctorate at East Texas State University. He’s authored several award-winning books, has performed hundreds of stage shows, writes a nationally syndicated magazine column, and hosts a weekly radio broadcast.

How to Give a Talk

I didn’t know him before listening to his talk. I just showed up and took a seat among the dozen attendees. While I chatted with others, waiting for the talk to begin, a guy walked up and waited for a gap in the conversation. He introduced himself as Michael Johnson and shook my hand.

Later, upon starting his talk, Mr. Johnson expressed how happy he was to be there, and nodded to each of us in turn and said our first names. He’d just met a dozen people who’d entered a room in haphazard order and sat where they pleased, and he’d memorized all our names in seated order. Wow.

Even if he’d said nothing of consequence after that, I still would have listened with complete attention. He’d memorized my name, and the names of everyone there. By contrast, I often forget a single person’s name a few seconds after an introduction. If I could learn to do what he did, I could command attention too.

How to Sell Books

Mr. Johnson went on to provide valuable information. He knew a group of writers might wish to know how to sell more books, and that’s what he talked about.

He used anecdotes from his life to illustrate his points. With humor to lighten things up, he offered advice from hard-earned experience. Mr. Johnson also recommended the book 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, by John Kremer. I haven’t read it, but am considering it.

Two of Mr. Johnson’s major points impressed me most of all.

  1. Write what you want to write. Steer clear of the temptation to follow trends or copy favorite authors.
  2. You’ll sell more books by making personal connections with potential readers. It’s not your book they’re buying—it’s you.

The Effect on Me

That second bit of advice ejected me way out of my comfort zone. I consider myself a writer, not a salesman. I lack a sales personality and the sales skills.

Still, I guess I’m not too old a dog to learn a new trick. Personal connections. Okay, I can give them a try.

Mr. Johnson signed a copy of his book, The Trials of Joe Ben Black—Confessions of a Rope Horse, for me. From what I gather about it so far, humans can learn a fair bit about positive thinking from horses. Talk about a personal connection!

Just think—all this time I’ve been working to sell my books, and I should’ve been working to sell—

Poseidon’s Scribe

Author Interview—Amanda Russell

Words can heal, and inspire others. Today let’s meet a writer who crafted poems to help her through a terrible experience, and whose words might lift you from a bad place, or just help you understand life through her insights. I met Amanda Russell at an Afternoon with Authors event at a local bookstore. In her responses to my questions, you’ll learn about travel, grief, book covers, gardening, and more. Here’s her bio:

Bio

Amanda Russell is an editor for The Comstock Review and webmaster for the Fort Worth Poetry Society. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in The Shore, Gulf Stream Magazine, Pirene’s Fountain and elsewhere. Her poem “The Blizzard of 1888” was a finalist for the 2024 Kowit Poetry Prize, selected by Ellen Bass. Amanda has two poetry chapbooks available.

Interview

Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing poetry?

Amanda Russell: I don’t know how young I was, but I wrote poems as a young child. Mostly to deal with the changes in family that result from divorce and remarriages. I continually felt lost and out of place as a child, both in the context of my own family and the communities I was nurtured in. I had trouble saying my thoughts out loud and writing came more naturally for me. I kept my poems to myself, but by the age of 14, I knew poetry would be a constant in my life.

P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books or poems? 

A.R.: In 9th grade, my theater teacher gave me a copy of “Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer Maria Rilke. There, I found my forever writing prompt. Rilke says to put into your poems the images and themes you find in your life and dreams, to approach the world as if seeing it for the first time every time. This is something I go back to anytime I feel like I don’t know what to write. It’s like Jane Hirschfield, Mary Oliver and Ocean Vuong all talk about, paying or investing attention. And I find myself drawn to writing like this.

The first poetry book I bought was Mary Oliver’s Dream Work. Then, Louise Gluck’s The Wild Iris and Stanley Kunitz’s The Wild Braid. My influences continue to broaden the more I read. There’s Jim Harrison and Marie Howe and Li-Young Lee who I love to read. A few of the poetry collections on my top shelf are Ellen Bass’s “The Human Line,” Ocean Vuong’s “Time is a Mother” and Ruth Stone’s “Simplicity.” And I just discovered Blas Falconer, who I am excited to read more from.

I love listening to YouTube poetry readings as well. In fact, that is how I usually discover new poets. One poet will mention another poet, and I go look them up. The journey is delightfully endless.

P.S.: You’ve lived, I believe, in Nebraska, New York, Florida, New Hampshire, and now Texas. Did your poems change character as you moved around? Was one state more conducive to writing poetry than another?

A.R.: I have never actually lived in Florida. But, I did connect with some poets from there during the pandemic through Zoom open mics while I was living in New York. I have lived in all those other places though. I grew up in East Texas, and if I had never moved away, I would not be the person I am and therefore would not be writing the poems I am writing.

Yes, the poems changed with each place! In addition to the changes occurring within me, each new place has different immediate surroundings, sounds, plants and animals. One poem from NH references the blue spruce I saw outside my window each morning on Mill Street, another mentions the neighbor’s dog barking. For east Texas, the red dirt, the pines. For NY, maples and snow. After moving to NH, I remember telling a friend from NY that I met a family of hooded skunks on one of my afternoon walks. He said that proves you are in a different ecosystem, and we got a good laugh. Oh yeah, and basements! That’s a NH reference for me since our rental had one. I experienced seasonal depression up north for so many years that I just thought it was normal. But I don’t get it as much in Texas. In Fort Worth, I find myself referencing trains and mosquitoes.

Also, with each new home, there are new poets. So, in Nebraska I discovered the work of Ted Kooser. In New York, I found a vibrant poetry community and attended their readings regularly. Moving to New Hampshire, I delved into the poetry of Jane Kenyon, even visiting Eagle Pond Farm and interviewing Mary Lyn Ray who knew Jane Kenyon and Donald Hall during their lives. That interview was published by South Florida Poetry Journal in February 2025. Moving back to Texas has been interesting. And I am still finding my way into the poetry community here. So, I hope no one place is better than any other for writing poems. I want to write poems regardless of where I am!

P.S.: I’m so sorry about your devastating miscarriage of twins. Your poetry collection Barren Years resulted from that. Yet others have described the book as consoling and even upbeat. Tell us about the process of writing the poems for that book.

A.R.: The oldest poem in that collection is “Sonogram” which came to me about 8 months after the miscarriage. I hadn’t been able to vocalize what had occurred. I had tried, but there would just be silence. When I wrote that poem, I slammed my notebook shut and threw it across the room. I never intended to share it. After moving to Nebraska, I was determined to gather my poems into some kind of collection. By the time I got to New York, I had whittled the group of 80 poems down to 25. I was still not sure if I would want to publish it. Then, I shared it with a friend. After reading it, she met me at a coffee shop and said, “I didn’t know we had this in common.” She said reading my poems helped her process her grief around the miscarriage she experienced years ago. She encouraged me to publish the poems so other people could read them and feel less alone. Maybe that is how it is consoling.

Miscarriage is not talked about as often or as openly as it needs to be. Because of that, many women go through years in silence thinking that they are alone. Every time I give a reading from Barren Years, people reach out to me afterwards to say, “This happened to me too.” And it’s like sharing a secret. There’s a deep and immediate understanding and healing energy that exchanges, strengthening both people. It’s life-changing to know you are not alone.

Barren Years covers a seven-year span of time and uses gardening as an external mirror for the process of healing though the writing of poetry. There’s many references to conversations. I’d say one of the themes— in addition to love, loss, grief— is communication. One thing about me is that I often get bored reading books, so variety is essential for my engagement. So, I think that’s how a book about a miscarriage can be also about many other things.

P.S.: What common attributes (settings, themes, etc.) tie your poetry together or are you a more eclectic poet?

A.R.: I am disinterested in being a “certain kind” of poet writing a “certain kind” of poem. I am inspired by writing that discovers something. So, in that regard, I am more eclectic and always exploring.

P.S.: Regarding your poetry book Processing, one reviewer described it as brave, resolute, mesmerizing, and miraculous. Another said the poems reflect “deeply aching, beautifully rendered pleasures and pains.” Please tell us your thoughts on the book, and what themes link the included poems together.

A.R.: Processing to me is a book about my experience as a stay-at-home mom. It offers a different perspective than the mainstream idea maybe. For me the experience was lonely and difficult. It was like my life was on halt while I surfed this constant learning curve. And I don’t know how to surf either. And I did not have some huge career ambitions before having kids. I was just a cashier and was trying to write poems every day.

The thing is, I lost my identity when I became a mother. At first it felt natural, even unnoticeable, to let it go. But then, years passed. And I’d forgotten what kind of music I liked to listen to. I wasn’t enjoying my life because I wasn’t living my life.

So, Processing is the collection in which I venture back into the country of myself and find footing. I am looking for and reconnecting with myself. In these poems, I find the courage to speak about both the love and loneliness of motherhood and marriage. In my poems, relationships are important, and there is this sense that I am reaching deeper into my own life to hopefully connect with others as well.

P.S.: I’m intrigued by the covers you’ve chosen for your books. The mostly barren trees and lonely road make sense for Barren Years. However, can you explain the symbolism, if any, in the cover to Processing, with the woman (you) peeking around a door, and a stuffed panda on the ground?

A.R.: Actually, I cut the poem that references the panda from the collection. Like others that didn’t make it, it just was not finished in time and the collection felt solid without it. But, I chose to keep the panda on the cover because I liked him there. My son named him Tao Tao and used to wrestle him after school.

But when I decided to collage part of the inside of the house on the left side of the book, I used a sliver of my son’s room. His lamp, window unit a/c, footstool and panda were all there. I did not stage it. I wanted things to appear as they were.

And, the central image of me looking out the door was my concept photo for the book when I was beginning to write this collection. That’s the front door of our townhouse in Cornwall, NY. I did not have anyone to hold the phone to take the picture, so I used the front camera to make a short video. It was raining. I sat the phone in a pot of spinach and pressed play. That black part in the lower right corner would be green if the cover were in color. It’s a spinach leaf.

So, what you see is a screenshot out of that video. There is a whole story of how we got the image to something usable for the cover.

Also, I debated whether to put my face on the cover of my book. I decided to do it because one of the poems in the book is written in response to an article on mothers and autism and the concept of blame; and the mother in the graphic paired with that article does not have a face. I wanted to in some way put a face on her. It’s not her face, but it’s the only one I have. I decided to put my face on myself in my role, to claim it. I am just wearing whatever I was wearing, the fleece vest is pink and I still wear it often, lol. So in that way, it’s all quite candid.

P.S.: Where do you get the ideas for your poems?

A.R.: I get them from the edges of sleep and what I see as I drive from the gym to work. I get them from whatever pops into my head when I’m in the shower or cooking dinner. From what my kids say and do. It comes from what I long for or need to dig into. I find them in the mailbox or growing in the garden. From what I read. I often write immediately after reading. If I am stuck, I ask my subconscious to work on that while I sleep. I use prompts sometimes with varying results. Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones introduced me to timed writing sessions which I use because I am often pressed for time as a working mother of two school-aged children. I use it all, even tarot cards. Anytime a line arrives, I try to catch it on paper (or audio or email) without judging its potential because that shuts it down.

P.S.: You list gardening as an interest and many of your poems involve plants and the nature of growth. Do you do your gardening when stuck for words and find the solution to writer’s block there, or does gardening provide the initial inspiration for fresh poetry?

A.R.: Yes. Anything to get the blood flowing is often great for generating ideas. I love my garden. I love to sit in it and pretend to be a little plant. I go there for energy and encouragement, for consolation when I am down or company when I am happy. I read a question from Stanley Kunitz’s “The Wild Braid” in which he asks if it is any easier to deal with loss and death in the garden than in the rest of our life. I have pondered that question. I still ponder it. I think we could add to that, transition and blooming, sprouting and thirsting.

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of poetry for you?

A.R.: The easiest part of poetry is reading other people’s poetry. Writing is difficult and full of hope and despair. I write because if I didn’t, I may entirely miss my life. Writing connects me more deeply to my life and the relationships that fill it.

P.S.: You’ve said some poems require little revision, and others take years. How many poems are you working on at any given time?

A.R.: LOL. Yes, I work on several at a time. Actually, I work on all the poems, all the time. There’s a saying that poems are never finished, just abandoned. I am not sure I completely agree with that, but if years later, I see an improvement I could make, I would consider it.

I strive to write poems which were not possible to put into words before they were written. As such, the process is often slow and iterative. Many times, I am trying to write something that I may not learn for several years. Andrea Gibson has a poem called “What do you think about this weather?” in which they use the metaphor of a mother knitting mittens for a child a size (or two) big so they can be worn longer. They say, “I feel that sometimes when I’m writing poems— like they don’t yet fit. Do you ever feel like the best of you is something you’re still hoping to grow into?” So, I approach the poem again and again. It’s not unusual for me to have 40 or even 60 plus revisions on a single poem. Some of those revisions are total rewrites.

I keep writing and rewriting until the poem speaks back to me. Once that happens, the process is that of listening, following, and trusting the poem itself more than “writing.”

Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring poets?

Amanda Russell:

  • Read widely. Write as much as you can.
  • Go to open mics in-person or online, listen to other poets, and share your work. Learn about revision.
  • Say Yes to any opportunities you are given.
  • Listen to constructive comments with the aim of learning more about crafting poems that work to their fullest potential.
  • Learn to listen to the poem when it asks you to go places and learn things that you did not anticipate.
  • Surround yourself with the people who encourage and inspire you.
  • Trust your voice. Trust your reader. Trust the process.

And I will end with one of my favorite quotes from Rainer Maria Rilke’s book Letters to a Young Poet, “[T]ry, like some first human being, to say what you see and experience and love and lose. … seek those themes which your own everyday life offers you; describe [them] with loving, quiet, humble sincerity … for to the creator, there is no poverty …” (Rilke Letters to a Young Poet).

Poseidon’s Scribe: Thank you, Amanda. That advice would work for prose writers, too!


Web Presence

Readers can find out more about Amanda Russell at her website, at the Fort Worth Poetry Society website, and on Instagram. A post by Brianne Alcala featured Amanda’s works, and Amanda read and discussed some of her poems on YouTube.