Interview with Linda Little, Part I

As promised, here is the interview with Linda Little, author of the recent award-winning Scotch River and her award-winning first novel, Strong Hollow.

Linda generously shared her journey to publication as well as the realities of being a published author as she was gearing up for the River John Literary Festival. I hope you find her story as fascinating and helpful as I did.


What brought you from Hawkesbury, Ontario to River John, NS?

The story isn’t in what brought me from Hawkesbury to River John, but what brought me from St. John’s to River John. Remember that assumption we used to have that after high school you’d leave home -- instead of living in your parent’s basement until you were 35 like now? After high school, I went to university in Kingston [Ontario] and then to university in Newfoundland for my second degree. Both in history. I waited five years for spring to arrive and when it didn’t I went looking for it. Newfoundland is an amazing place, but the weather? Holey moley.

When and how did you discover you were a writer?

Don’t really know. It’s part of the mystery of writing. About ten years after I left school and was in recovery from reading, I read a memoir by Timothy Findlay called Inside Memory and discovered that I wanted the bits between the chapters. As soon as I’d start to get interested in something, he’d change topics. I realized that you could make the bits between chapters up and I started to write as a hobby.

What path did your writing take on the way to writing your first novel?

In 1998 or 97, the Canada Council had a grant program you could apply for without having any thing published. A friend who was a writer said we should apply so I did with no expectations whatsoever. When I got it, I was able to take time away from contract work and wrote what I thought were short stories. I had to come to terms with the fact that I was writing a novel. I wrote full-time for six months and part time for twelve. Strong Hollow was published in 2001 by Goose Lane.

When I began writing, I wrote a short story, Manhandling, that was published in an English magazine out of Montreal called Matrix. I had thought that getting something published would be evidence of whether I could write. As it turns out – you don’t think it. You wonder whether you can write the next thing. Like anything else that ever happens in life you never know if you’re doing the right thing. You don’t think: ‘Oh, I’ve written six books, I don’t have to worry, I know how to write. But, you haven’t written the seventh.’

After the first story, I wrote a little as a hobby. I’d write and send, write and send, and only get the tiniest little thing published in the tiniest little publications. I find it amazing that I was able to keep going, but it was enough – I think because I loved it and would do it anyway. I was doing it for itself.

As writers, we don’t know if our writing’s any good and we just want something, someone to tell us we are. You need to keep at it when the prospect of stopping looks worse than the prospect of keeping on. When the prospect of stopping looks better then you have to stop.

So, you advise writing short stories for publication?

It’s nice if you can get a little something so you can tell a publisher that somebody somewhere – not your mother – chose your work over a stack of others. Keep track of what you’ve sent where. I have a column that tells me what date I sent something and what date I got it back. Always have stuff out there so you’re in the game.

It’ good to remember that literary magazines publish only between three and four percent of what they receive so, statistically, it is extremely unlikely that anything you send them will be published. That means that when you get a story returned, it’s not a big deal. But when you get one published? That’s a big deal. That’s when you inflate balloons, and dance, and get a cake and eat the whole thing. Lap it up. Roll in it.

Always have something out and always watch the mail. When a story is returned, take it out of one envelope and stick it into the next. After I’ve sent a story out fifteen times and three years have gone by, I’ll have a look at it and think, ‘Oh, this sucks. No wonder it isn’t getting published.’ It’s an indication of where you’re at, of how your writing has grown. I don’t know how writing gets better over time, but it does.

I think I would have saved time had I taken advantage of workshops and mentorship programs earlier. I would have gotten better faster. But there is a danger in workshops. You’ll run into many writers who only write at workshops. You’ll see them at one and then at another months later and they haven’t written anything. If you are attending six workshops a year, that’s probably a bad idea, but a few well-placed workshops are very helpful.

Keep any eye out for little anthologies. It’ll shrink the amount of time it takes you to get better.

Do you read your books after they’ve been printed?

I don’t. There are so many other great books to read. But sometimes, when I’m looking for something for a class, I’ll read something from one of my books and I think: ‘You wrote that? How did that happen? Where did that come from?’

It’s only when the golden acorn is left in your palm that you can say, ‘I did that.’ It illuminates the mystery of the creation.

____________________

Stay tuned for part II of the interview tomorrow as Linda discusses getting published and getting an agent.

Cheers!
Colleen