Breakfast with Lisa

This week in our Friday series, “Breakfast” (where we get to know an inspiring, creative mother from the blogosphere and peek into her creative space) we break virtual bread with Lisa Damian, writer, literary critic, blogger, and mother of two young girls. Lisa is so dynamic that her personality leaps off the page, whether you’re reading her blog or the interview below. And that red hair? Oh…yeah. If only I had the guts.

CC: Tell us about who you are, what you do, and your family parameters.
LD: Who am I? Good question. Still trying to figure that one out, but the evidence suggests that I am a writer and a mother (and a whole slew of other things too numerous to get into here). I have two daughters — the oldest will be five in a couple of months, and my youngest will be two in July.

I spent most of my adult life pursuing a successful career in the field of higher education administration. I’ve been employed by and consulted for colleges and universities across the country. However, after becoming a mother, I realized that the demands of an intense yet traditional career were not as rewarding as they once were, and I took some time off to focus on my family and pursue more creative interests.

CC: Tell us about your writing life and creative projects.
LD: My nonfiction local history book, Trout Valley, the Hertz Estate, and Curtiss Farm, will be released at the end of July 2008. I enjoy doing book, art, movie, and culture reviews for my blog, the Damian Daily, and for Blogcritics Magazine, and I also publish articles for various other magazines and newspapers from time to time. I’ve dabbled in poetry, but my real passion is writing fiction. I’m currently about a third of the way through a novel.

As for other creative pursuits, I’ve been writing and dancing since I was a little girl. While working on my bachelor’s degree at UC Irvine, I crammed in as many electives as possible with courses in creative writing, art history, and film history, as well as numerous dance classes. I choreographed and performed all through high school and college. (As you can see by the photos, another way that I express my creativity is to change my look every few months.)

CC: What inspired you to launch a blog?
LD: The answer to that would be a ‘who’ rather than a ‘what.’ Lisa Guidarini, of Bluestalking Reader, founded the writers’ critique group in which I participate, and she has been instrumental in encouraging me along the way. One day, she said, “Lisa, you should start your own blog.” So I did.

CC: Where do you do your creative work?
LD: I have a beautiful office space at home with a gorgeous desk and a fantastic view. Every morning and evening, eight or nine deer can be seen grazing in the yard outside my office window. I hardly ever get anything done there.

I usually smuggle my laptop up to my bedroom and close and lock the door, hiding from my husband and kids so that I can concentrate on my writing. My laptop and I can often be found at any number of nearby libraries. I hardly go anywhere without a book, a journal, and my laptop, in the hope that I will be able to sneak in even the smallest snippet of time to read, write, or frantically jot down a story or character idea when inspiration strikes.

CC: What do you struggle with most?
LD: Finding the time to write is my biggest struggle. It’s always difficult to prioritize creativity when so many other daily demands beckon. Thankfully, my husband has been hugely supportive in that realm, sometimes pushing me out the door with my laptop, knowing that I will come home a happier woman after having spent a few hours writing.

I also find it challenging to transition from one project to the next. Maintaining a fluid consistency for a paranormal fiction story, for example, while juggling reviews and journalism projects or writing nonfiction can sometimes be like trying to play different roles on the same stage. My voice and writing style vary when I am writing in different genres, and sometimes juggling multiple projects can be a distraction.

CC: How much does guilt factor in your life?
LD: Guilt used to be a major constraint for me. I felt like my career, my family, my friends, every volunteer project, the household chores, and everything else on the planet should come first, to the point where there was nothing at all left for me. I felt like my creative outlets were just that — “outlets.” What an awful word, really, when you think about it. Creative expression isn’t an outlet. It is an essential part of who we are. When I don’t make time for my creative pursuits, I am miserable, and that translates to everyone and everything around me.

CC: Where do you find inspiration?
LD: My biggest source for inspiration can be found in my own dreams, or rather my nightmares. I keep a dream journal on the nightstand near my bed, so that when I wake, I can quickly scribble down story or character ideas that emerged during my REM sleep. Some of my most spooky and intriguing concepts are taken directly from my frequent and relentless nightmares. I used to consider them a source of torment, but now I see them as my muse.

CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs?
LD: My favorite blogs are difficult to narrow down. I have favorite authors’ blogs, such as Neil Gaiman’s, and then I often visit blogs of other aspiring writers, sometimes political blogs, and frequently the blogs of friends and acquaintances. A few of the links on my Damian Daily blogroll include the Algonquin Area Writers Group (the writers group that I attend regularly), Bluestalking Reader, My Other Car is a Tardis, and of course Creative Construction.

CC: What are you reading right now?
LD: I’m always juggling multiple books at a time. I like to keep one in my laptop bag, one in the car, one by my bedside, and one in the living room, so that if I ever find myself with five free minutes, I can grab a book and read. I’m currently reading Abhorsen by Garth Nix, the third in a trilogy sent to me by Harper Collins for review. I’m also reading How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card, Club Dead by Charlaine Harris, and a friend’s screenplay. I have a huge pile of review books to work my way through. They’re a joy, and I always get a little thrill when books arrive in the mail, but the stack grows at a pretty rapid rate.

CC: What is your greatest indulgence?
LD: My greatest indulgence is time set aside specifically to work on my fiction. A writing retreat off somewhere all by myself in a place with no distractions is my idea of sanctuary. An occasional bubble bath is a decadent pleasure now and then as well, especially when my girls don’t discover that I’m in the bath and try to jump in with me, splashing water and bubbles all over the bathroom floor.

CC: If you were having coffee with a mother of young children who wanted desperately to fit more creativity into her life, what advice would you offer?
LD: I would have to quote that old Nike slogan, “Just do it.” There will never be some magic sign telling you to “Be creative now, between the hours of 10:00-2:00.” Life is never going to slow down and give you permission. You have to give yourself permission to make creativity a priority.

Sometimes writing for me is more of a compulsion. I find myself up at 3:00 am writing, or unable to sleep if a story idea is churning in my head. Sometimes I think it might be easier to schedule inspiration at a more convenient time, but it doesn’t work that way. Whether it’s foregoing sleep, working around the kids’ nap times or school schedules, arranging a deal with another caregiver to watch the kids, or whatever else you can work out, you have to make the time. If you’re truly a creative person, you won’t be happy unless you make your creativity a priority.

CC: Thank you, Lisa!

Breakfast with Kate

Enjoy this next installment in our weekly series, “Breakfast,” where we get to meet an inspiring, creative mother from the blogosphere, and enjoy a peek into her creative space. This week we have breakfast with Kate Hopper, a Minneapolis-based writer, teacher, blogger, and mother of two young girls. I stumbled upon Kate’s blog several months ago, and was delighted when she joined us here at Creative Construction. Fire up the cappuccino machine!

CC: Please introduce yourself.
KH: I’m a mother and writer, and I teach “Mother Words” at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. I’m married with two daughters—Stella is 4 ½ and Zoe is 3 months old. Mothering consumes most of my energy right now, and because Zoe refuses to take a bottle, I do almost everything with her latched on to my breast. I never knew how much I could accomplish while I nursed, but my back and neck are killing me.

CC: Tell us about your writing life and creative projects.
KH: I’ve written a memoir currently titled Ready for Air, about the premature birth of my older daughter, Stella. It’s an account of the final weeks of my pregnancy, the “this-was-not-part-of-the-plan” first weeks of my daughter’s life in the hospital, and the isolated, post-NICU world we inhabited after we took her home. It’s a story about the different ways men and women deal with crisis and the unexpected. It’s about the dark side of pregnancy and motherhood—the fear, the irrationality, and the psychic disruption. And finally, it is a story of faith and resolve and of learning to let go of my fear long enough to love my daughter.

I write mostly nonfiction, and have a few essays bouncing around in my head right now, but my next big project is going to be fiction (I think). It will be a series of linked stories set in a small village in Costa Rica, where I lived for a couple of years in the mid-90s. While I was down there, I recorded the life stories of three generations of women, and these stories and their voices will be the backbone of the book. (When I’m going to have time to begin this project, I’ve no idea.)

CC: What inspired you to launch a blog?
KH: I started a blog because I wanted a place where I could discuss writing and reading and motherhood. I post about motherhood literature and craft issues, in addition to posting about my own experiences as a writer-mother. I’ve found that blogging has been a great way for me to think more in-depth about what I’m reading and why I think literature about motherhood is so important, and it also gives me an outlet to process the issues of craft the come up in my teaching. What I didn’t expect when I started to blog was how much I’d love it. I’m so inspired by the community of artists and mothers out there, and I often turn to their words when I’m feeling overwhelmed with life or frustrated that I’m not writing as much as I’d like to be.

CC: Where do you do your creative work?
KH: Before Zoe was born, I always wrote in coffee shops. I wrote most of Ready for Air at the Blue Moon and the Clicqout Club. If I get the little bugger to fall asleep in the stroller, I sometimes still get an hour of writing in at the coffee shop, but this doesn’t happen very often. It’s more difficult for me to focus on writing at home because there is always something else to do: laundry, loading the dishwasher, putting away Stella’s toys. But occasionally, I sit on the porch with my laptop, and I feel like a writer again. (But working at home means more clutter at home. Luckily, my husband is very tolerant of the piles of paper that cover our hutch and dining room table.)

CC: What do you struggle with most?
KH: Right now, time is the biggest challenge for me. I work part-time in communications in addition to everything else, and this takes up a couple of mornings a week. (These work mornings are only successful if Zoe remains asleep at the office, of course, and this only happens about 50% of the time.) I’m trying to reserve one morning a week for my own writing, but things always seem to come up. So I have three essay ideas floating around in my head, but I’ve done very little actual writing of any of them. This is tremendously frustrating for me.

CC: Where do you find inspiration?
KH: I always turn to literature when I need inspiration. Right now, I’m revisiting a decade of Best American Essays in an effort to find a structure that works for one of the essays in my head. I also love poetry, and often find myself anxious to get back to my own writing after I read one of my favorite poets. The other thing that both inspires me and seems to free space in my mind for writing is running. There is nothing like a long, slow run to make me feel alive and ready to write.

CC: What are your top 5 favorite blogs?
KH: It’s difficult for me to choose only five blogs that I love because there are so many. These are a few of the mother-writer blogs that inspire me:

• Beth Kephart’s blog: Her book A Slant of Sun was one of the first memoirs I read about being a mother. She is a gifted writer whose words never fail to move me.
• One Hand Typing: Mardougrrl is a mother who is working on a novel. She so often puts into words the frustrations and joys I’ve been feeling.
• From Here to There and Back: I love to read Kristen’s posts about mothering her son. She has opened her life and her words to us, and I’m so thankful.
• This Mom: No matter what she’s going through, Kyra’s writing always make me laugh and think.
• Speak Softly: Vicki is a writer and teacher, as well, and she’s about to get her first book published!

CC: What is your greatest indulgence?
KH: Chocolate, really good wine, and going out to a nice restaurant with my husband. The wine and the dates are not common these days, but I indulge in chocolate every day. (Hmmm, perhaps that’s why the pregnancy weight isn’t coming off very quickly?)

CC: If you were having coffee with a mother of young children who wanted desperately to fit more creativity into her life, what advice would you offer?
KH: It’s not realistic for me to try to write everyday right now, but know I’m a better mother when I have a little time each week to dedicate to my work. So I would tell this mother to dedicate one morning a week to her creative work. If her child(ren) still nap, set aside one day a week that she won’t do anything around the house during nap time. If they no longer nap, she should get someone to watch the kids for a couple of hours each week. (If she can’t afford a babysitter, maybe she could swap childcare with a neighbor or friend or ask for childcare money from relatives as a birthday present.) Motherhood can be all-consuming, but I start to feel desperate if I’ve gone more than a couple of weeks without writing, and that’s not good for me and it’s not good for my children.

CC: Thanks for sharing with us, Kate!