After the Fairy Tale, a chapbook of poems by Maureen Sherbondy, published by Main Street Rag (under "New Releases").

I’m starting to really like this interview format.  I get to meet new people, renew old friendships (in this case), relax and enjoy blogging without worrying about dry spells (I’m coming out of it.  Three easy pages for morning pages this a.m.  That’s a first in about a week).

Maureen Sherbondy and I met in an on-line poetry class in the late 90s.  We had both signed up for a class with Patty Seyburn – who is the world’s best on-line poetry teacher and, who, alas, doesn’t teach on-line anymore.  Maureen was a star pupil.  Her poetry sang.  It was obvious to me that publication wasn’t far off – and she certainly has a string of poetry publications to her name.  That not being enough, off she went into prose.  Some folks get all the talent. 

Several years back I was going to her town because it happened to be where longest friend comes to visit her brother (longest friend lives in California for 25 years or so now).  To make it short, after various emails back and forth it turns out Maureen lives 3 doors down from longest friend’s brother.  We were destined to meet.  It has been a delightful friendship.  Even though I quit writing poetry a while back (I did get Shift out of it, self-published), Maureen reminds me regularly of what vision and purpose can do.

How long have you been writing?

I have been writing since I was eight.  Even at that age I wanted to have my name on the cover of a book. 

Who are your writing influences?

My writing influences are diverse, including:  Robert Bly, Carolyn Kizer, Denise Duhamel, Albert Goldbarth, Maxine Kumin, Rita Dove, Li Young Li for poetry.  For fiction:  F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nathan Englander, T.C. Boyle, Franz Kafka, and too many more to name.

Do you write just poetry?

I write poetry, flash fiction, short stories, and am working on a novel right now.  Poetry is closest to my heart though, like an old friend.

What do you do to help yourself keep writing?

I have no trouble writing; my struggle is how I can manage daily life (which includes my three teenage sons and a husband, running a household, etc.) and my writing time.  I try to write for three hours in the mornings.  then I revise in the afternoons.  This is the plan; sometimes life gets in the way and I have to give in.  This week, for example, my kids are on break and finding time to write is a challenge.  But, as soon as I sit down, I write.  If I get stuck on a poem, I read work by other poets, then I get unstuck.  It is more about finding the rhythm of the poem.

Where can one find your work?

My new chapbook, After the Fairy Tale,  is available from Main Street Rag.  Their site is www.mainstreetrag.com; just go to the site and look under "new releases."  I just had work published in 13th Moon, Confrontation, and Calyx.  Other work is forthcoming in the Southeast Review, the North Carolina Literary Review and Sierra Nevada College Review.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

My advice to other writers is:  study other writer’s work, revise, revise, revise, join a writer’s group where you are all at the same level, and most of all:  do not give up.

Anything else you’d like to say?

Don’t expect to make money from this type of art.  If it happens, it happens, but do it because you can’t not do it.

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Here’s another treat for you, dear readers:  a muvee of a walk through downtown Asheville.  Took a while but here it is.

thought for the day:  We are not all meant to produce a movie or lead a movement, but each of us can look deeply within our hearts and listen for the voice of clarity and compassion that directs us in the daily acts of kindness and encouragement that comprise our essential spiritual path.   Joan Borysenko, A Woman’s Book of Life