Averil Dean's Blog, page 21

Small Expectations

We want you to ponder your best, and worst, expectations.

Okay, I’m pondering. There’s a lot of meat on the bone with this one, especially for a group of writers. Expectation is one of the tools of good storytelling—setting it up, knocking it back, dropping hints about what a reader may expect to find in later pages and then deciding whether they will or they won’t. Then there’s buyer expectation. What can a potential reader infer from the cover, or the publisher, or the author’s name, or the...

One Hand Clapping

How do you handle conflict? Boldly and directly? Or, do you prefer a more subtle approach.

I would like to say that I handle it boldly and directly, that I’m mature and articulate in my points of dispute, or the one at the front of the picket-line with a bullhorn and catchy slogan. Sadly, this is not the case. I usually handle conflict with silence.

I suppose silence is a cowardly modus operandi, but sometimes I think the other person only needs some space to hear herself, which she’s not going...

Birds

Are you a night owl or are you the early bird? What’s your most productive time of day? When do you do your best work?

I’m always up early, but it takes me a couple of hours to get the caffeine flowing and shake off the night. At the moment I’m curled up in my office with a cup of Peet’s on the hearth and Izzy the fur-person wedged into a corner of my armchair. This is where I spend most mornings, and quite a few evenings as well.

In fact, I spent almost the entire weekend in this very spot, f...

Carrots

Have you made your bucket list? Now’s the time — write about the things you want to do and see before you become dust in the wind.

I have never made a bucket list, but here goes:

Renovate a classic Airstream or Spartan trailer and travel around the States with my husband.
See my son perform on Broadway.
Foster a child.
Go to Australia.
Own a horse—a plodding, elderly sort of creature who will take me on rides through the forest in exchange for carrots and chunks of apple.
Learn to knit.
And play pok...

Grassy

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT! What’s your favorite way to spend Saturday night?

Photo by Camilla Akran

Dice

What’s the biggest chance you ever took? Did it work out? Do tell!

I have taken many big chances and my score card sucks. Most of my fuck-ups are related to money, which is probably why I fear and despise it as much as I do, and distrust any hint of optimism when it comes to promises of financial security. What money giveth, the absence of money taketh away.

This train of thought is depressing the hell out of me.

Let’s talk creative chances. We take those constantly, don’t we? Every small decisi...

Sprinkles

What’s your biggest junk food weakness? Tell us all about it in its sugary, salty, glory.

I’m not that big into junk food, actually. I do like a bowl of popcorn on movie night and a handful of chips with my sammie, and if there’s a Reese’s cup in my presence I could be persuaded to eat it, but I can’t say I’m really prowling the candy aisle or stealth-shopping the McDonald’s drive-thru. I’m vegetarian, for one thing. It’s a serious drag at the fast-food counter.

The only thing that really send...

Cross

Tell us all about the person you were when you were sixteen. If you haven’t yet hit sixteen yet, tell us about the person you want to be at sixteen.

Watercolor

Tell us all about your best confidence outfit. Don’t leave out the shoes or the perfect accessories.

We’ve got to figure out where we’re going in this outfit first, don’t we? Do we need confidence for a job interview, a TV appearance, a book reading, a date? If I could choose (and I will, because the only other ‘person’ here to help is Izzy, who’s fast asleep with her nose tucked into the crook of my knee), I would suggest we’re all meeting for the first time at a party. Summertime twinkle lig...

Drip

Tell us your funniest relationship disaster story.

I knew my first marriage was over when my husband raced to the ER because his nose dripped and he was convinced his brain fluids were leaking.

This is a high bar, friends.