Balloonhat
Note: My timing is either brilliant or ridiculous. I'm not sure which. But it seems that as soon as I snag a writer to feature, they're winning one of the contests!
Here I go again! You're about to be subjected to serious FLAME-EVANGELISM ... brace yourself. Over the past nineteen months, I have had the pleasure of meeting the world's most original amateur writers! How many remember tangledwood 's "I am Mr. Olaf, and I am dead!" Or kayden_eidyak 's "Bull in the China Shop" meeting with his therapist? Bask in the glow, my darlings, bask in the glow!
Today's featured writer stands out for me because her style is reminiscent of fairy tales of old, yet manages to be so breathtakingly original I'm in awe every time I read one of her entries. She was kind enough to allow me to subject her to an interview via AIM today, and after numerous questions, she was even gracious enough to let me prompt some drabble out of her!
Give a round of applause my darlings, for Balloonhat!
Kathy: I'll start with asking how you chose your username :D
Balloonhat: When I was trying to decide upon a name for my writing LJ, I saw balloonhat.com, in which a couple of balloon-twisters travel the world making balloonhats for people and photograph them, It was a surreal idea (their photos are delightful!) so I chose it for my username.
Kathy: *giggles* I knew you would have a great explanation!
Balloonhat: Ha! Yeah, my primary icon is from one of their old photos.
Kathy: Tell me a little about your writing background and what brought you to the FLAME.
Balloonhat: I hadn't written for a while before I joined BF. I had taken some Creative Writing classes - like two years before that! It was always something I wanted to do more often. One day I noticed that BF was spotlighted and I joined. I think that was in '08, their first spotlight.
Kathy: What's the first book that you remember making a serious impact - that perhaps inspired you try writing?
Balloonhat: It was in third grade. We'd just read Banks' book, The Indian in the Cupboard, and the teacher gave us an assignment to write a short, short story with a similar premise - one of our toys coming to life. Most people averaged 2 pages, maybe 3. I wrote closer to 10, (about one of my porcelain cats coming to life, and he was constantly worried that he would break). I would have written more if I hadn't had to turn it in. Up until that point I had NEVER considered "writer" as a dream profession. But afterward, I knew I wanted to do it ... whenever teachers asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, instead of telling them "go to clown college", I said, "AUTHOR".
Kathy: From that age onward, is there a particular author that stands out as your favorite? And do you think their style influenced your favorite genre to write?
Balloonhat: I don't know if people notice, but I'm influenced HEAVILY by fairy tales and folklore. Not just Grimms or Hans Christian Andersen, or Oscar Wilde ... As a reader I prefer the fantasy genre, but as a writer, I like a mix of fairy tale and fantasy. There's a short story by Frank R. Stockton called, The Griffin and the Minor Canon that I read when I was young. I think it's influenced my opinion on how to write "monstrous" characters.
Kathy: I'll have to look that up! What have you read this year that you enjoyed? Also, what's your favorite piece that you've written this year?
Balloonhat: I haven't been reading as much this year as I did last year. I did like Theodora Goss's short story collection, In the Forest of Forgetting, and Kelly Link's short story collection, Magic for Beginners. I read them both this year and I have a reminder to find more of their fiction. As for my own writing, I think my favorite piece for BF was the one I did for "Luminary"(about the sun as a vampire).
Kathy: LUMINARY! *ahem* Do you mind telling us about your educational and professional pursuits?
Balloonhat: Currently, my plans are to go to SCAD in January. I was accepted as a Writing major, but I'm thinking of adding Sequential Art as a second major or a minor. I want to get more serious and consistent with my writing - to do it more often at a regular pace, and to submit for publication.
Kathy: Have you submitted anything this year?
Balloonhat: I did take one of my mini-contest entries and turn it into something I submitted for a scholarship at SCAD. It was quite a process - completely switching styles, doubling its length, then getting several people to edit (love them all!). After considering each editor's comments (they didn't always agree) and deciding how to interpret those into positive changes, I think the process was over six months long - counting when I first tackled the old story to re-write. In the end, I did get the scholarship!
Also, about two years ago I was asked by my old Creative Writing prof if I'd read some of my work in a bookstore - for variety. I was terrified, but finally went, and thought it didn't go over too well (for me). I'm glad I did it. After all, I didn't die or anything! I did it again this year. This time it was a smaller reading (25 readers with an audience of 30; my first one had something like 30 readers and almost 75 people in the audience). Both times I thought I would disintegrate in front of of everybody! Writers reading their work in front of others seems to be a dying event, which is why I like to go! Nowadays, everybody talks about using platforms online, meeting your readership and networks online, etc. But there's something very different about doing readings, about doing book-signings. I don't want to see this part of the living a writer's life disappear.
Kathy: I agree, and I'm very proud of you for doing it! Congrats on the scholarship, by the way!
Balloonhat: Thanks! The reward for reading was, "I did it and proved that I wouldn't turn into dust" rather than "people congratulated me on my writing".
Kathy: The first piece I read of yours was about dragons! Is that what you're going to let me feature?
Balloonhat: http://balloonhat.livejournal.com/22609.html I actually intend to flesh it out and rewrite it someday, maybe turn it into something I can submit for publication.
Kathy: How about some drabble?! Prompt: The kid with yellow boots.
Balloonhat: Sure!
*just a few minutes later!*
Abigail with yellow boots could bounce high enough to reach the top monkey bars. The boots were the exact shade as rubber duckies with devil's horns; of cheese on grilled cheese sandwiches, crust cut off; of her favorite shade of crayon that always wore out the quickest. From above, their openings gaped open like mouths, their toe tips like the curve of a fin-less tail. She imagined they were giant goldfish, that she wore fish on her feet. With fish on her feet, she bounced up and up, higher than swings could go, higher than her dad could throw her, higher than the top bunk bed or the roof! Who needed red dancing shoes? Abigail, she could jump up into space to compare the yellow of her boots to the yellow of the stars.
I'd like to thank balloonhat for the interview, and apologize in advance if there are any mistakes in the transfer I made of our conversation from the AIM text to here. There was major laptop-to-desktop fail so copy/paste wasn't an option.
August 16 will mark one year of the Showcase! Over the next few weeks, I'll be experimenting with different formats, so please let me know what you like, darlings!
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