One of the interesting things about writing is that you get to choose a whole lot of details to fit into the context that you are creating. I chose to use was a journal format for many of the segments, but then I had to figure out what to do about dating these journal entries. I decided not to include the year for a few reasons. The most obvious one was that I didn't want to date the story, out of concern that it may be perceived as less relevant say in 10 years. It may or may not be the case, but why take a chance.
Also for those who are into looking at these details, Oct. 2nd (the date of the first journal entry) fell on a Tuesday in 2001, which happened to be the year when I was setting the final format of the book. Well as we all know, the autumn of 2001 was an interesting season for most of Western civilization -- coming to terms as we were with 9/11. Although Starla often refers to what might be going on in the world around her, I didn't want to use 9/11 as a metaphor, or a backdrop for any part of the book and so I chose to ignore it all together by simply never referring to the year.
It does make one feel quite omnipotent, having all this choice at one's disposal.
Copyright 2007
June 6, 2007
June 4, 2007
"ALL JOURNEYS HAVE SECRET DESTINATIONS OF WHICH THE TRAVELER IS UNAWARE." Martin Buber
I never set out to write a novel.
In the '80's when we lived on Vancouver Island, in the heart of aging Hippie-land, we knew this lovely young girl, Heidi -- she was about 13 at the time -- who was completely exasperated by her parents' need to cling to their "back to the land" ways. She would roll her eyes and say: "I mean, just for Christmas, can we not have real shortbread cookies. Does my Mom have to make them with whole wheat flour, sunflower seeds and honey?"
I actually set out to write a cute little short story about a girl like Heidi. I figured that it would end up being about 3 pages and funny. I sarted writing. After 4 months, I had 100 pages and the essence of Starla's story, and I realized that this thing had taken on a life of its own.
One of the things about my personality is that I really hate to waste things: time, food, energy, bits of paper...Well it seemed after all that work, I couldn't waste it, but I also realized that what I had was just a framework which didn't stand by itself. Had I realized that the project would consume a mojor part of the next 2 1/2 years of my life, I may have thought it through a bit more. Sometimes it's a good thing that we don't know what lies ahead.
Copyright 2007
In the '80's when we lived on Vancouver Island, in the heart of aging Hippie-land, we knew this lovely young girl, Heidi -- she was about 13 at the time -- who was completely exasperated by her parents' need to cling to their "back to the land" ways. She would roll her eyes and say: "I mean, just for Christmas, can we not have real shortbread cookies. Does my Mom have to make them with whole wheat flour, sunflower seeds and honey?"
I actually set out to write a cute little short story about a girl like Heidi. I figured that it would end up being about 3 pages and funny. I sarted writing. After 4 months, I had 100 pages and the essence of Starla's story, and I realized that this thing had taken on a life of its own.
One of the things about my personality is that I really hate to waste things: time, food, energy, bits of paper...Well it seemed after all that work, I couldn't waste it, but I also realized that what I had was just a framework which didn't stand by itself. Had I realized that the project would consume a mojor part of the next 2 1/2 years of my life, I may have thought it through a bit more. Sometimes it's a good thing that we don't know what lies ahead.
Copyright 2007
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