In this edition of Writer’s Block, R.H. Slansky lets us in on her own favourite books, what she’s working on now, and why her cat isn’t mean, just misunderstood. R.H. Slansky is the winner of the 3-Day Novel Contest for her book, Moss-Haired Girl: The Confessions of a Circus Performer by Zara Zalinzi annotated by Joshua Chapman Green, out now from Anvil Press.*****Is there one stand-out moment or experience you had that helped you realize you wanted to become a writer?From a very young age, I was sure I was going to be a movie star. I was an only child, so I spent a lot of time in my own head, swanning about and pretending to be someone else, drawing, reading, and writing. I pursued acting into adulthood, when I had an epiphany that posed a serious problem for an actor; I loved playing pretend, but I hated having people watch me while I did it. I had always liked to draw and write, so while I backed off from acting I took some classes to take my mind off the fact that I had dedicated my life to something I now knew I didn’t have the stomach for. In a screenwriting workshop, I realized for the first time that writing was playing pretend, but all by myself, plus I got to be all of the characters.
The author.Do you have a book that you’ve gone back and read several times?I go through periods in my life where certain books seem to resonate enough for multiple re-readings, but aside from everything Lynda Barry has ever written, the only one thing I can think of that I still go back to is Tales from Moominvalley by Tove Janssen. Even as a kid I didn’t like books written for children, but the Moomin books felt like adult fiction that kids can read. They’re gentle but potent, funny, sharply observant stories about the complexity of human nature; particularly the push/pull of solitude vs. companionship. They spoke to me as a 7-year-old in the Children’s Library, and they still speak to me now. What’s the most surprising thing about being a writer?When a character I’ve created suddenly seems to become sentient. The first time this happened, I had written myself into a corner with the conflicting backstory of a secondary but critical character and pretty much thought I was going to have to throw the story out and start over. That’s when the character kind of whispered in my ear, “only part of what you know about me is true”, and then revealed what he had been hiding. Everything fell into place, and even other issues I had been bumping up against were resolved by this reveal. Then that secondary character kind of took over the story and started competing to be the main character, and I had another problem on my hands, but the feeling that I wasn’t even doing anything, just sitting back and recording as I watched things unfold, was magical. What are you working on now?I’m pinging back and forth between a couple of things. One is another 3-Day Novel that made the shortlist a few years back. It’s about a group of 19th-century Arctic explorers that find themselves in a very unlikely place after being separated from the rest of the expedition during a storm. The other project is a gothic romance set during the 1906 earthquake and fire of San Francisco. The former was inspired by a real Arctic expedition I’ve been researching for a long time, and I can’t seem to let those people go and stop writing about them in some form or another. I don’t know where that other one came from – I don’t think I’ve ever even read a gothic romance – but I’m having a great time with it.
R.H. Slansky on her little-used home workspace: “I usually wander until I find at a library or coffee shop when I write, but I even though I never use my workspace at home, I still managed to stain it with red wine”.Why do you write? First and foremost, for my sanity. I have a constantly churning mind and I’m always thinking of and about stories. Words just kind of build up in my brain, and writing is like a pressure valve release. It’s not just therapeutic, though, I really enjoy every aspect of it. I know some writers who can’t stand every moment of the actual writing, which… why are you doing it, then? The glory?Have you ever experienced writer’s block? What did you do about it?A former writing teacher once likened the creative process to a cycle. First, there’s the spark of idea, next the workflows, and then you find yourself tapped out and empty. That empty place isn’t just a part of the process, but it’s necessary, because when the spark comes again, and it always does, you’re going to be glad you got the rest. Thinking of it that way helped to let go of my anxiety when I felt stuck and focus my attention elsewhere, which is how I always find my way back – by relaxing my chokehold on myself. Now I don’t really believe in writer’s block. Which is not to say I never panic and think I have nothing left – I just don’t sit there and try to make it happen when I do. Instead, I go for a hike or a run, drive to the beach or a town or a neighbourhood I’ve never been to before, and just soak everything up. Even if I don’t come back with a solution or a fully formed story, there’s always a seed of something to keep me going. What’s the toughest part about being a writer?For me, a writer with a full-time day job, it’s finding the time and, perhaps more importantly, the place to write. I’m extremely productive once I get going, but it takes some time to get into the headspace I need to be to write, and if that time is unpredictable and I have to seek that space out every time, a lot of it is spent getting to that place.What advice would you give to other writers? (Be creative!)Photo credit: Aaron Conover***** I live in the San Francisco Bay Area but I’m from Portland, Oregon, which is basically the same place on a smaller scale. Growing up, my best friend was the daughter of the State Medical Examiner, and we whiled away many afternoons after school squinting at autopsy slides, speculating on exactly what we were looking at so we could discuss it over lunch at school the next day and horrify our classmates.After many years toiling as a barista, prep cook, waitress, pizza maker, bartender, baker, receptionist for a veterinary clinic, salesperson at a fine jewelry store, manuscript reader, and the Assistant to the President of the American Alliance of Aromatherapy, I have found myself with a great day job in the animation industry. If this writing thing never works out, there are much worse places to be. Believe me, I know.I share a birthday with Marsha Norman, H.G. Wells, Leonard Cohen, and Steven King, whose writing I discovered at around age 8, when I was fascinated by the supernatural, aliens, and monsters. My eighth grade English teacher, a widowed transplant from the southern states with a musical drawl and feathered bowl haircut, also read Stephen King, and not only encouraged me in writing horror stories, but loaned me books from his catalogue that I hadn’t read. Up until then, the most frequently used comments on my report card were; “Student does not use class time efficiently”, “Student spends too much class time visiting with neighbours”, and that old chestnut, “Student is capable of better work”. Things didn’t change much after that, at least in my other classes, but it was the first time someone outside of my family expressed belief in my potential as a writer, and her equal appreciation of classical literature and things pulp/pop culture made me think there might be a place in the world for the things I felt inspired to create. I have a sixteen-year-old cat named after a Lynda Barry character that doesn’t look a day over eight. Some people think she’s kind of a jerk. I’m the only one who understands her. Moss-Haired Girl is my first published… anything. Before winning the 3-Day Novel Contest, I short-listed in previous years with Icebound and Deadfall. You can find me on Twitter @RHSlansky.*****Many thanks to R.H. for sharing her story with us, and to Anvil Press, especially Shazia Hafiz Ramji, for helping us get in touch with R.H. R.H. Slansky’s book, Moss-Haired Girl: The Confessions of a Circus Performer by Zara Zalinzi annotated by Joshua Chapman Green, is available now.
