12 or 20 (second series) questions with Judith Pond

Judith Pond [photo credit: Gerald Mills] has published fiction and poetry in a widevariety of literary journals. She is the author of four poetry collections,including A Shape of Breath . The Signs of No is her debut novel.

1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recentwork compare to your previous? How does it feel different?  

My first book was published a very long time ago.I guess the main way it changed my life was that it astonished me by getting published.I remember thinking, Now I can be as eccentric as I want! I guess I assumed orhoped that all writers were weird like me. In more a more serious sense, myfirst book was poetry, as were my subsequent three, and coming to prose throughpoetry was for me the best way to learn my craft, as poetry is all aboutrhythm, subtlety, word play, and economy, which are fantastic tools for prosewriting.

There’s not a lot of comparison between mycurrent writing (novel form) and my previous work other than the economy that Ilearned as a poet. I am very glad that I trained in that form.

2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry ornon-fiction?  

I started out attempting to write short stories,and then turned to poetry, I think because I fell in love with someone Iprobably shouldn’t have. Nothing like stolen love to make a person write poems.I never expected to be a novel writer, but at some point it seemed like a goodthing to attempt a longer project.

3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Doesyour writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first draftsappear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out ofcopious notes?

I think that a writing project is sort of alreadythere, and then when the time is right, starts nudging me to get at it. Theyseem to line up like airplanes waiting to take off. For me, writing is a slowprocess because I’m a perfectionist and a bit of a coward. The next sentence isholy terror for me. So I dawdle and polish. Drafts appear looking polished butit’s only because I want them to be done, and they never are. Three drafts is aminimum for me. I don’t take notes very much. It’s more a kind of groping, andI let the words lead to some extent. I don’t outline, which (outlining) seems abit artificial, and ultimately not very useful. I’m more organic at it, ormaybe stubborn, and that can get me in trouble. Thank God for my tiny writers’group of three. Those other two guys have no trouble pointing out where I’m offthe rails.  

4 - Where does a poem or work of prose usually begin for you? Are you anauthor of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are youworking on a "book" from the very beginning?  

For me a poem comes from an image that I buildwords around. With a novel, I assume that’s what it is (a novel) from the verybeginning.

5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Areyou the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?  

I haven’t done a reading for a good while, andthey do stress me a bit, but I have a background in teaching, and that helps.

6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds ofquestions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think thecurrent questions are?  

I confess that I don’t care much about currentquestions, though of course they find their way into my work. For example, I’ma big ally of trans and queer people, having a child who has transitioned, andthat process definitely informed The Signs of No. Other than the ‘current’things I happen to bump into, if I have theoretical concerns, they’re mainly aroundnot hurting other people. The question I’m trying to answer in my currentproject is about how far it is possible to go in the service of love (filial,erotic, parental, patriotic, etc.). To what extremity in other words, is itpossible to push a situation or a conviction in that service, however onedefines it.

7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture?Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?  

I know it’s been said, but I still think that thewriter’s role is in some sense to show us ourselves. To show us the worldthrough a particular lens: love, for example, or duration, or loss.

I haven’t done much work with an editor, but Ihave found it both essential and illuminating to work with an outside editor.No way can I see everything I need to see about what I’ve put on paper. I lovebeing shown what a scene, for example, could be, if pushed a little farther,thanks to an intelligent reader’s POV. 

9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given toyou directly)?  

Richard Ford said in an interview that youshouldn’t think that all you’re going to have to do in a rewrite is ‘go throughand change the pronouns.’ He says that you are going to rip and tear andrummage in a draft (I now call that nice, pretty, seemingly-all-finished draftmy ‘grab bag’) and keep only what you can use. He says it isn’tnecessarily going to be the same book at all, once you’re done with it, andthat comment has given me more courage and freedom than pretty much any otheradvice I’ve received. You don’t just write The End and think you’re done.

10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to shortstories)? What do you see as the appeal?

Short stories from poetry wasn’t too bad, butnovel from short stories has been quite a jump, and yet I am finding it suitsme as a form. I like that big oversized messy overcoat that I can button up andkeep warm  in( if I’m lucky) for a goodlong while.  Like other writers I’vefollowed, I find that I’m quite lost when a big project is over.

11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even haveone? How does a typical day (for you) begin?

I write every day, though not in set hours. Ikind of live writing, so it’s always on my mind. On weekdays and Sundays I swimfirst thing in the morning (I do a lot of prewriting in the pool), and thenbrew up the coffee and get going. I don’t always get a lot done in a day but ifI have some significant contact—even if it’s just deciding that a scene shouldbe moved and where I could put it—with my work in a day, I’m happy.

12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (forlack of a better word) inspiration?  

I read people I admire for inspiration.Invariably I come away thinking, I’m going to try that! I don’t get stalled alot. I can’t tolerate it. I never (unless something’s really wrong) let myselfup from the desk until I feel like I’ve pushed the work to a place it’s notscary to start up from the next day.

13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?  

I guess it depends which home. Nova Scotia wouldbe the air, I guess. It’s lush and soft and shocking when you get off theplane. Calgary is my husband’s housecleaning products. ;)

14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are thereany other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science orvisual art?  

I totally agree about books coming from books,but I love dance, and I do find strong inspiration in visual art. Among otherthings, I studied Art History, and I worked for a decade in a university ArtHistory department categorizing and filing images; that work gave me my firstcollection of poems, and still informs my work constantly.

15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simplyyour life outside of your work?  

I once had a therapist accuse me of ‘being inlove with a dead woman’ (Virginia Woolf). I devoured every word by and abouther and about the Bloomsbury group when I was young, and Woolf still gives me wondrousshivers. She taught me how to write letters that are daring and fun anddefamiliarized, for example—or at least to enjoy trying. To mention Ford again,though I don’t write like him at all and couldn’t, he is a major ‘lamp unto myfeet,’ to quote another great book. I’m reading Atwood again right now after along hiatus (Old Babes in the Wood) and really loving it. I’m glad I wasearly exposed to the Bible, and should mention that, since I see I’veinadvertently referenced it above. I can’t think of a better preparation for awriting career than a foundation in the King James Version and an education inArt History. Other than those books, I’m in Mexico right now, and I can’t stopthinking about Under the Volcano (Malcolm Lowry).

16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?

I would like to dance more. By that I mean learnmore kinds of dance. And I would like to be friends with a horse.

17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be?Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you notbeen a writer?  

If I hadn’t been a writer, I think I’d have donea PhD and been a prof somewhere. I’d have liked that, maybe. The other thingwould be that I would have loved to have been a singin’ chick in a band.I’m pretty wistful about that.

18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?  

Life is infinitely puzzling to me. I write tofigure stuff out.  

19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?  

I just finished The Sportswriter for thesecond time. I’ll never know how Ford achieves so much with so muchunderstatement and apparent humility and gentle anarchy. As for films, I reallyenjoyed Saltburn. Great acting, beautiful cinematography, gorgeouslycreepy.

20 - What are you currently working on?  

Right now, I’m about to start edits on acollection of linked stories that will come out in the fall of ‘25 withFreehand Press of Calgary, and I’m working on a next novel. What I want toexplore, as touched on above, is how far a person might be willing to ‘go’ inthe service of what they perceive to be love. A secondary thread in that novelwill be (I think so far) a consideration of the ways in which our originalwoundings operate subliminally and significantly in our lives.

12 or 20 (second series) questions;