A gifted book, a quest to fulfill and a mystery to unravel in a snow-covered city!
On the eve of his Winter Solstice wedding, Jonas is gifted a book of gods and goddesses and a note with a curious poem, leading to insights he never imagined...
Eve Morton is the author of The Bridegroom's Verse, a short story coming out soon in Winter Enchantment. Not only does she write speculative fiction, she has published a collection of poetry and teaches literature and media studies. Get an insight into the writing life and get flowing with an exercise at the end.
What inspires your writing?
Everything and anything; right now, my partner has a fish tank and that's fueling a lot of thinking and reflecting in front of the tank. Who knows what that will lead to later on!
How does teaching influence or inspire your writing?
The same way general living does; I have an experience and I want to talk about it, either through teaching or writing. Anything goes in many ways. :)
How do you balance writing and motherhood?
I leave most expectations behind. It's hard, though. My "role models" tend to be older souls, like Susan Sontag, Adrienne Rich, and Angela Carter. Yet I find myself very compelled by my contemporary Gretchen Rubin. She does not speak about motherhood ostensibly, yet she folds in details of her life with her daughters so well, I'm stunned. She's not a parenting guru, yet I've learned so much about how to be--or delight in--daily activities and habits, which writing and babies are ruled by.
What's your ideal way to spend the winter?
Inside. Or walking. I either do well if I'm sitting or walking very fast. :)
Chione, Greek goddess of snow and daughter of Boreas, the North Wind, plays a role in The Bridegroom's Verse
What's your next writing project?
A lot of things! I'm "cleaning out" some of my older material, and a book of essays about media and my experiences in the LGBTQ experiences will hopefully become the fruit of that mission. If I can get it together in the next month, it should come out this year.
Can you give us a writing exercise?
In my many of my classes, I get students to write about five objects they have on their desks. They have to write about senses alone: what they can hear, see, touch, smell, or taste about the objects. I find it's an excellent first exercise to both contextualize someone's space as an individual (it's not just a phone next to you; it's your phone, what makes it yours is its colour, shape, software, background, etc) but also draws us together as a community because we have so many similar objects and reasons for having them around.
What's on your writing desk? Do your objects have a story to tell? Feel free to reply in the comments!
Eve Morton is a writer living in Ontario, Canada. She teaches university and college classes on media studies, academic writing, and genre literature, among other topics. Her speculative work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Star*Lines, and Eye to the Telescope. Her poetry book, Karma Machine, was released in late 2020. Find more info on authormorton.wordpress.com.
Read The Bridegroom's Verse in Winter Enchantment, now up for preorder and coming out February 13th!