Karen A Little Winner!

Eve Arroyo Editor

Today I welcome back someone who has a very personal connection to this blog. Karen Little responded to Eve Arroyo ‘s post and won it. She got a free professional edit and…guess what? It is now in the hands of a publisher and will be released on 20th December.  So well done to Karen and a huge thank-you to Eve. I’m just helping Karen off the magic carpet, she’s a funny colour so I think this might be a new experience for her.

First off – what would you like to drink?

Oh wine every time! A nice red…mmm thankyou.

I have all kinds of home made cake, jam, bikkies etc – choice?

I am a savoury kind of woman. Have you any mini pizzas? ..or potatoes in pesto? Sorry to be picky..and greedy..both at the same time.

Here comes Cameron in his fanciest chef”s outfit, so let’s start with your books – do you write under just one name or several? How many genres do you cover? How much have you had published including anthologies etc?

I have only written under one name. I am trained as a dancer and danced under various guises. And then trained as a sculptor and painter..and exhibited under various guises. It has not occurred to me to write under different guises..even though the writing sees me at my most exposed. Hmmm. This is my first novella. I have had about forty poems published recently in magazines and anthologies., and several short stories.

How long have you been writing professionally? I imagine that, like all of us, you wrote all your life before “turning pro”.

I didn’t start writing as my main expression until I moved to Manchester about 5 years ago. In part this was because I left everything, possessions, art works, art materials etc behind when I was ‘escorted’ back from Spain, where I had lived the previous 6 years. Writing is beautiful in that for a couple of quid you can get hold of a notebook and pen, and squeeze onto the corner of someone’s couch, and write. The second reason the writing took off was that, compared to London where I lived for twenty something years, and Spain, art is quite skinny in Manchester, whereas writing is well-fed, diverse, interesting, non-discriminating etc. ..The medical profession have been undecided re my ‘diagnosis’ throughout my life, but I am glad to say it hasn’t stopped me making work, One of the characters in my novella, ‘Filled with Ghosts’ is subject to some of my own experiences with psychosis and hallucination.

Psychosis and hallucination? Ooo sounds familiar! What was your first published work? Short story, magazine article, poem?

My first published work was a poem, but actually when I am writing I don’t sit down and decide I am writing poem, short story, personal essay, novel. I free-write, and then craft it later. There are overlaps.

I understand. I do that – literary patchwork! What are your ambitions / hopes for your writing career?

To continue to have time to do it, and be able to work from home, so I make enough money to feed my rescue dogs..and lavish my company on them! I really enjoy the challenge of writing novels/ novellas, but I am brutal when it comes to chopping them back. That is the sculptor in me I think.

Now on to you, the author. Where do you live and with whom? Describe a perfect day at home for me. (Where else have you lived?)

I ran away from OOP NORTH to London as a teenager, and lived in London for many years. I have since lived in Brighton, Spain, and now Manchester (Back Oop North in fact) I live with 2 rescue dogs and a gecko. They can cope with me. A perfect day involves dogs, wine, a lot of food, and writing or painting. I still paint, and am thrilled that my novella has my drawings on cover, and as character definers throughout the book. That was what I hoped for, didn’t push for, but ended up getting.

Thanks so much for coming back to chat today. I’m so jealous of your artistic abilities. My drawings are stick men and lollipop trees and as for sculpture? Erm, no I think I’ll leave that to you. Before you hop back on the carpet, remembering to slip this bottle of local red in your bad and .. oh look, a doggy bag! Just give us your essential info please.

Bio and links

Karen Little trained as a dancer and sculptor, and has performed and exhibited internationally.

She regularly reads her work at literary events, and has recently been published in over forty magazines and anthologies, including Petals in the Pan Anthology, Deep water Literary Journal, and Southern Pacific Review. She has won prizes for poetry, flash fiction and essays, and her first novella Filled with Ghosts has recently been published and will be available in paperback on Amazon in late December.

https://www.facebook.com/karen.little.9889

https://kazvina.wordpress.com/

FEATURED ARTWORK IS KAREN’S ORIGINALS AND COPYRIGHT