how writers do what they do: Alethea Kontis

On March 25, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In writing

Today we have the fourth in my author interviews on creative process. Alethea Kontis has published in a variety of venues such as poetry, children’s picture books, essays, the editing of a short story compilation, and, coming soon, her first novel, Sunday. I’ve pretty much only written novels, with only a few side trips into short stories. Oh, and a blog. So I’m intrigued by this gal who is churning out words in all manner of forms.

Maya: Alethea, can you describe your writing process?

Alethea: I’m one of those people who’s always writing. I’ve been writing since I was eight. I’ll write on anything, anywhere, at any time. I try to keep a pen and paper on me at all times, but sometimes you’re just stuck on a train in the middle of Europe with nothing and THEN what do you do? No receipt, flyer, bookmark, pamphlet, manuscript, comic book, or magazine lap-flap is safe around me if there’s any amount of blank space on it at all. Post Its are a godsend.

Amusingly, since I quit my dayjob and now have a block of time to sit each day while the fairy goddaughters are at school and the fairy godboyfriend is at work, I’ve found it very difficult to focus and write on command. Every day is a learning curve, and every day I resist the urge to book a Eurail ticket and leave with nothing in my pockets but a green crayon and a stack of blank postcards.

Maya: With so many possible projects cooking, how do you decide what you are going to work on next?

Alethea: I like to have a plan. The main goal is always having enough contracts in the queue to qualify as a dayjob. But I still like having other crazy projects on the side I can work on when the mood strikes…like podcasting fairy tales or painting or video blogging. Neil Gaiman once said to me, “The next thing I do will be the next thing I do.” Words to live by. Just never stop “doing.”

Maya: Have you ever had writer’s block, or given up writing for a while? How or why did you come back to it?

Alethea: I tell people that I don’t believe in writer’s block, because so many use it as an excuse for being lazy. But yeah, I’ve had it. When I was nineteen, I started taking this horrid birth control shot called Depo Provera. (It’s not horrid for everyone, but they use it in prisons to sterilize people, so what does that tell you?) I swear I didn’t feel anything during that time. I was just…numb. Subsequently, I didn’t write anything but gibberish for about six years. I finally wised up and got off the medication, hoping I hadn’t damaged my brain beyond repair. Slowly, happily, my creativity came back.

About six months later I attended Orson Scott Card’s literary bootcamp. Scott said some exceptionally flattering things about my abilities. It stunned me, woke me up, and got me serious. I realized the only thing standing between me and publication was simply putting my butt in the chair and working. So here I am. But I still wish I had that six years back.

Maya: That’s interesting. I experienced some radical writing and personality changes throughout pregnancy and nursing, very hormonal events. We don’t like to think of our hormonal balance as having so much to do with our creativity or our personalities, but it really does.

But tell us about your upcoming novel, it sounds great.

Alethea: Sunday, my very first novel, will be released next spring by Harcourt Children’s books. Sunday Woodcutter is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter (her mother’s name is Seven; can you guess who her sisters are?) and the stories she writes in her journal come true. Sunday meets an enchanted frog in the woods one day. She shares her stories, and they becomes friends. But then Sunday’s Aunt Joy comes to train her in magic, and the frog turns up missing, and the elusive Prince Rumbold returns to Arilland and decides to host three balls for all the eligible ladies in the land…

It’s too early to have cover art yet, but “Sunday” was originally published as a novelette in Realms of Fantasy in 2006. The artist they paired me with was Scott Grimando. I literally cried when I saw what he’d done. It’s still one of my favorite pieces of all time. I suggested they use it for the book’s cover. We’ll see how that goes.