Saturday Spotlight for March 2nd, 2013

Daily Literature Deviations is proud to feature this special recognition article!
You can show your support by ing this News Article. We hope this gives you some insight into
the person behind the art.
Please comment and the features and congratulate the artist!


 Artists will be featured in a special news article every Saturday. Major points to SilverInkblot and LionesseRampant
for doing the hard work and research that goes into these articles!  

Today's featured deviant is:
 SurrealCachinnation!


 

Questions

 

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your writing.

I've been writing for literally as long as I can remember, but started taking it seriously around age thirteen.  I had read Ursula K. LeGuin's The Earthsea Trilogy and discovered Edgar Allan Poe and was inspired by their incredible storytelling.  Since then, I've taken a few classes between high school and college and attended a seminar.  Somewhere along the way I started writing <s>very bland and angsty</s> poetry, and at some point I started finding it easier than prose (which is totally backwards, so I know I still have much to learn).  Sometimes I write poems in my journal (my journal is disorganized and made for anything I feel like writing down, be it thoughts, dreams, goals, poems or fiction), other times I turn to word processors, writeordie.com, or, most recently, a writing app on my phone (on which I'm writing my response to raspil 's latest prompt).  I think it's important to be able to write anywhere at any time inspiration strikes, so I always carry something with me onto which I can copy my thoughts and ideas.

2. How do you feel about dA as a literature community?

The dA literature community is truly the one constant source of support and criticism I've had.  I discovered dA around six years ago, but I didn't become a permanent resident until roughly two years ago.  Something that frustrated me at first was just how difficult it was to get noticed here, but that was because I wasn't being proactive enough.  I started really talking to people, leaving decent comments on their work, and, once I summoned up the courage, started joining a few groups.  The first group I joined, lacoterie, really intimidated me at first.  I saw the work of some of the members and admins of the group and thought, "they won't look twice at my application."  But I was accepted, and I started tackling their monthly prompts, and eventually I became an admin as well.  I think what is so great about the lit community here is how encouraging and supportive everyone generally is--if you ask for help, someone will help you, and if people see that you are genuinely interested in becoming a better writer, opportunities will come up.  It just takes patience and hard work, and the end result is incredible.

3. You received your first DD recently - what was that like for you?

It was a huge and wonderful surprise!  I had a couple new comments on it and as I was scrolling down, I saw that it had like a hundred views that day.  I was wondering where all the views came from, since it had been a couple weeks since it was added to any groups, and then I saw the notice.  It couldn't have been timed better, because I was having a really rough week.  Knowing that someone whose job is to select what they think are the best pieces submitted to them, knowing that someone even thought to submit something I'd written, and seeing the positive response that came with the recognition was an incredible feeling.  I'd always read the comments from people who have received DDs and saw how surprised they were, and I thought "oh, come on, that was a beautiful piece, of COURSE you got a DD!"  Now I know how they felt.

4. You're worked on many collaborations in the past; how does working with someone change the writing process?

I love collaboration for two reasons--you have a partner to bounce ideas off of, but you're also forced to look at your own ideas from their perspective.  I've had collaborations that went pretty much how I expected them to, but I've also done collaborations that went in a totally different direction than any of of us imagined.  It's really fun to see a piece evolve as each person adds to it.  In most of the collaborations I've contributed to, one person would write a line, a stanza or a paragraph, and it'd be passed back and forth until it felt done.  There's usually very little editing involved, though I think knowing whatever you submit will be used by the next person can force you to write only your absolute best work.  I've done other collaborations where we'd talk about what we wanted to write about--start with a theme, image or end goal--and have a vague structure to work with.  It all depends on who all is collaborating; it's a totally different experience with each other writer.

5. What's the best advice you ever been given as a writer?

"Your first million words don't count."  There are a number of writers who people cite for that idea, the most well known of whom is probably Ray Bradbury.  The idea is that you have to practice.  Write every single day.  Write as much as you can.  Put your thoughts on paper.  It'll get easier as you keep going, you'll get better as you keep going, and nobody's first attempt ever ends up being their best.  I think back to the stories and poems I was writing around thirteen and I realize there are none that are really memorable, or original, or beautiful.  My poems were dry and so very full of teen angst.  My stories were rushed, had one-dimensional "pet" characters, and worst of all were painfully pretentious.  I can't wait to see where I'll be ten, twenty, thirty years down the road, when I can look at the stuff from twenty year old me and say the same about it.  I'm happy with the rate at which my writing is improving, but I still have a long way to go.

Poetry

LingerieEvery woman owns one garment
that remains tucked away,
saved for special occasions
when it will be seen.
It is almost always midnight
black, or blood red, and
covered in lace, or made
of mesh, soft and delicate
as the skin it covers.
Such things should be hidden,
lest the owner be labeled
as something other than "lady."
It has a power we can't
control, one that transforms
denim and cotton clad
ragdolls into Barbies,
perfectly proportioned plastic,
smooth and flawless hourglasses
that turn on command.
We groan and flinch
as satin strings pull us
apart and together,
and heartstrings are plucked
as we scrutinize our reflection;
we are not diamonds
with perfect exteriors--
we are fractured, as we
realize hourglasses can be exchanged
for quartz watches that are
faster, more convenient,
incapable of failure
made by the obsolete.
"Lingerie" by SurrealCachinnation


Dandelion's Lamentthe warm spring wind
gives me life
no one desires to defend;
they call me Weed,
stomping me down
to the level of Crabgrass
and Poison Oak,
although I harm none
with my meager
existence.
I can grant your wishes
as your cold breath
sends shivers down my
stem; I can
thrive on the dream-fields
of children, who still
call me Flower.
"Dandelion’s Lament" by SurrealCachinnation

Mature Content

“How to Make Wings Disappear” by SurrealCachinnation

Prose

A Modest Solution2088.

Year 2080
Birth month 7.
Letters J-L.
Mei looked up the records on the day the City Council announced the arrival of the Vending Machines and Microwaves: Day 12, Month 9, Year 2088.  It was a healthy curiosity.  Her parents never spoke of it, but she always wondered about the other children she might have grown up with.
“You are named after my mother,” Mei’s mother had told her once.  “You have her eyes.  Deep and brown like the earth.  Your grandmother passed away while I was pregnant with you.  It seemed right for you to inherit her name.”
“What was Mr. Lee’s firstborn’s name?” Mei asked.
Her mother only pursed her lips and ordered Mei to peel the potatoes for supper.
Mei had been six at the time and didn’t understand the concept of death.  Mr. Lee, their neighbor, had a son the same year that Mei was born.  There were baby pictures of the boy
"A Modest Solution" by SurrealCachinnation




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~ The DailyLitDeviations Team ~


_{Prepared by:  SilverInkblot}