I'm working on a novel about a girl who grows up in the circus and her relationship with her father, who grew up in Hungary when it was under Soviet control and left during the 1956 revolution. It is told from both of their perspectives, and has been a joy (and very frustrating) to research and write. Needless to say, I am very excited about my next project!
I tend to only write productively for one to two hours per day, so there is plenty of time left over for me to work a day job!
I find that time constraints actually make me more productive, and "real world" experiences provide a lot of inspiration to write.
I am currently in nursing school, so one day I will be both a nurse and a writer.
Publishing requires a lot of persistence and a fair amount of luck.
Finally, I found a wonderful agent who wanted to work with me, and she sent it to one billion publishers and received one billion rejections, until I was fortunate enough to be matched up with the Permanent Press.
When I finished the book [The Dissemblers], I sent it to one billion agents, and got one billion rejections.
I hope to work through disappointment and frustration with as much grace as [Georgia] O'Keeffe did, and I hope to have the same confidence in my own vision.
Yet [Georgia O'Keeffe ] always stayed true to her vision, and was at times uncompromising in following the path she saw for herself.
One thing that was inspiring to me in my research about [Georgia] O'Keeffe was to learn that in addition to her success she had very hard times, and times when she was frustrated and uninspired.
The book [The Dissemblers] officially came out two weeks after my thirtieth birthday...am I still young?
I did make several trips to the very wonderful [Georgia] O'Keeffe museum. Besides the art (my favorite paintings are from her Pelvis series) my favorite thing about the museum is the architecture. I love how enormously tall the doors are - it is like going into a church. There is also something home-like about the layout of the museum. I wish I could live there!
I read letters and journal entries by [Georgia] O'Keeffe (which were infinitely more useful than any critical analysis of her work).
I did take one drawing class in school, but for this book I spent a lot of time talking to painters and asking them silly questions.
I am a tragically bad artist.
I've spent many a day worrying that I will never be able to write again!
The motivation to paint seems more pure, or at least more personal, when the artist is doing it for herself.
Because Ivy [Wilkes] is just starting out as an artist, I wanted to focus on [Georgia] O'Keeffe's experiences when she was just starting out. I suspect there is a difference between being an unknown artist and being a celebrated artist. When nobody knows your work, nobody except you really cares whether or not you paint.
Does art play a role in the greater good of society, or does it just promote the satisfaction of the artist? I go back and forth on that question.
I do think that it is one of the eternal questions about art, though - is all art intrinsically selfish?
I was loosely aware that most of my characters were fundamentally selfish people, but I didn't intentionally make that a theme.
Ivy [Wilkes] does exhibit a certain impatience at the beginning of the book [The Dissemblers]. She doesn't want to wait through years of hard work and insignificance to make her mark on the art world. Part of her growth is in realizing - even embracing - that the process of art is more important than the product or the recognition.
When Ivy [Wilkes] begins her work in forgery, she doesn't yet know the toll that it will take on her own original work. She even thinks it might be a way to find inspiration. By the time she realizes that she has lost her own voice, she is thoroughly entangled in the forgery mess.
At the beginning of the book [The Dissemblers], Ivy [Wilkes] has a long way to go in order to achieve self-sufficiency. Although she is very independent, even somewhat of a loner, she is very affected by other peoples' opinions. At the opening of the book, her ideas of success and achievement are largely defined by the approval of others; over the arc of the story, I think that begins to change a little.
This was my first novel [The Dissemblers ]. I've never seriously written short stories, and actually find short stories much more intimidating as an art form than novels.
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Barry Webster Writer