Featured Author - Lynne Rees

[Michelle]

Lynne Rees

Website

 

Lynne Rees came to attention when I reviewed Messages, which she wrote with Sarah Salway. I then went on to read The Oven House, another book that impressed me.

 

She also writes poetry, and teaches creative writing courses.

[Michelle]

I'd like to welcome Lynne to the forum. Although I'm aware that most of you haven't read any of her books, I'm sure she will be an interesting person to have here.

 

Lynne, could you start by telling us a little more about yourself, your books etc?

[Inver]

Hello and welcome. Where do you get your ideas/insipiration for your books?

[Lynne Rees]

Thanks Michelle - and thanks so much for the invite to take part.

 

I was born in South Wales, but lived mainly in Jersey and Kent from 1978 until this year and I'm now based in Antibes, South of France. I'm the author of a novel, The Oven House (2004 & 2007), a collection of poetry, Learning How to Fall (2005) ,and co-author with Sarah Salway, of Messages (2006 & 2008), a volume of short, experimental prose. I was a creative writing tutor until the move to France (University degree modules, WEA, adult education, schools, and my own AppleHouse Poetry Workshops from my home in Kent) and I still run a poetry workshop blog which aims to encourage and celebrate both apprentice and more experienced poets: http://applehousepoetryworkshop.blogspot.com/

 

In 2006, as a result of taking part in a writer's exchange between England, France, Belgium and Ireland, I started to explore haiku writing, which includes not just the familar form of short, three line poems, but also 'the haibun' - a genre that merges the haiku with prose, in the form of a journal, or a memoir, or, and this is still at its experimental stage, a short story. I love working with my two favourite forms - poetry and short prose and some of my recently published work can be seen at: http://anopenfield.blogspot.com/

 

Looking forward to meeting your forum members and having a chat.

Edited October 13, 2008 by Lynne Rees

[bev]

Hello Lynne

[Lynne Rees]

Hello and welcome. Where do you get your ideas/insipiration for your books?

 

Hi Diane - ideas and inspirations, regardless of the genre I'm writing in, come from everywhere: memories, overheard conversations, other people's writing, published authors and my students, things I see on a day to day basis, my family and relationships, even dreams... though the genre then determines how I treat that 'idea'.

 

For example, a poem needs a more concentrated approach than a short story or an excerpt from a novel and my poems tend to explore moments of insight, or one particular person's response to something in particular. Fiction (and memoir too) has the space to explore character, flesh out a story, move about in time.

 

I ran my own second-hand bookshop for 12 years in Kent and tried many times to write poems about it but there was too much 'story' to be contained in any single poem. It was The Oven House that allowed me to write about the bookshop... and the novel's sub-plot of theft is pretty close to what really happened!

[Inver]

Do you have a favourite place/time of day you like to do your writing?

[knitnat]

Hi there

 

I heard someone (a reviewer I think) lamenting the fact that here in Australia, none of the large publishing houses will publish poetry. Is this a world-wide pheonomena? If so, what do you see as the future of poetry?

[Kate]

Of all your work, which is your favourite piece?

[Lynne Rees]

Do you have a favourite place/time of day you like to do your writing?

 

Good morning.

 

I've had my own writing space for some time now - before that, for years, I shifted a desk around different corners of the house and/or had to put everything away at the end of a writing session. In 1996 my partner built me a 'writing house' in the garden as a present when I finished my MA, though also, I suspect, because I came home from B&Q armed with shed brochures and he was horrified at my choices! I christened the building 'The Pen' and that's where I wrote The Oven House and started on Messages with Sarah Salway.

 

When we moved. I had my own writing room, again, but in the house, and that was big enough to run small creative writing seminars in too. Now I've re-located to France, I have a wonderful study that looks out on palm trees. Yes, palm trees! I can hardly believe it myself...

 

It does feel like a luxury, having a dedicated place to write in, and I do believe that if we really want to write we'll do it anywhere. But Virginia Woolf was right about 'a room of one's own'. It's as if the place gathers atmosphere through the concentration that takes place there.

 

As far as times to write go ... not really... though I'm not an early morning person. If I'm thoroughly involved in a project I can write at anytime, and lose track of the hours completely.

[Lynne Rees]

Hi there

 

I heard someone (a reviewer I think) lamenting the fact that here in Australia, none of the large publishing houses will publish poetry. Is this a world-wide pheonomena? If so, what do you see as the future of poetry?

 

Hello - I can't really answer as far as 'world-wide' goes, but there are a few major publishing houses in the UK that publish poetry - Faber being one of them, though I imagine that their amazing back list allows them to publish books that don't actually make any money! There are some specialised poetry publishers - Bloodaxe among them - and lots of smaller presses who have a regular output of poetry books, some of which get Arts Council money, but that seems to be diminishing. I imagine in most cases that the publishing is a labour of love rather than a money spinner, and maybe poetry will always be the 'poor cousin' in the literary world because there just isn't the reading market for the books.

 

I was just going to write it is difficult to get a collection published, but actually, it's difficult to get any MSS accepted and published, isn't it?

 

As far as the future is concerned... I think every now and then a book of poetry, or a poem, or a poet, will come along and encourage a larger general readership, but for the most part, poetry will probably remain less popular. Maybe it asks more from a reader than prose does? A different kind of attention, approach. A different way of reading? That's definitely something I address when I teach poetry.

[Lynne Rees]

Of all your work, which is your favourite piece?

 

Hello Katie - hmmm... difficult question because I have attachments to each book for different reasons.

 

The Oven House was my first book and I can remember the feeling when I opened the box of author's copies and held one in my hand for the first time - overwhelmed, proud to bursting, frightened... a mixture of every emotion! The photos of the book launch show me grinning from ear to ear in every shot though so I think 'bliss' was the over-riding one! Although relief also, because I don't feel I'm a natural long-story teller and I really struggled with expanding the plot and sub-plot of The Oven House, so to have completed a novel, albeit a short one, and to see it published, felt like a real achievement.

 

Learning How to Fall was my second book, and because it was through poetry that I found a deep connection to writing, and to myself, this was very special. The poems in there were written over 10 years so they represent a long period of my life - events, changes, people. I still feel very close to a lot of poems in the book, and pleased that at readings people have come up to me and said, 'I don't usually like poetry, but I could understand yours and enjoyed it'. That's one of the best responses I can ever hope for to anything I've written.

 

And Messages. What a phenomenal experience that was, writing it and watching it develop into a book. It was originally a private writing project between me and Sarah Salway - bouncing 300 word emails off each other to stimulate creativity and keep in touch with the joy of writing - but within a few weeks we both felt the energy that was building, how we were both so engaged and excited by what we were doing, what we were discovering about ourselves as writers. When we completed the project - 300 pieces of 300 words - we gave a couple of conference papers on collaboration and the writer's voice and then subsequently the book was published. And from what we've heard, readers seem to enjoy the book as much as we enjoyed writing it.

 

My writing now has taken a different turn. I'm much more involved with writing on the internet, and I'm an editor at Simply Haiku - www.simplyhaiku.com - a journal that celebrates the writing of japanese forms in english, one of which - the haibun - is my latest obsession. The form combines prose and poetry (haiku) and I'm currently using it to write a journal of my new life here in Antibes, and two excerpts can be read at:

http://haibuntoday.blogspot.com/2008/05/lynne-rees-across-pond.html

http://haibuntoday.blogspot.com/2008/08/lynne-rees-across-pond.html

 

All of which doesn't answer your question, does it?!!

[Michelle]

Learning How to Fall was my second book, and because it was through poetry that I found a deep connection to writing, and to myself, this was very special. The poems in there were written over 10 years so they represent a long period of my life - events, changes, people. I still feel very close to a lot of poems in the book, and pleased that at readings people have come up to me and said, 'I don't usually like poetry, but I could understand yours and enjoyed it'. That's one of the best responses I can ever hope for to anything I've written.

 

Lynne, with that paragraph, you may have persuaded me to buy it! I'm one of those people who will say that I don't like poetry. However, because i know I enjoy your voice, it may well be a good introduction.

 

And Messages. What a phenomenal experience that was, writing it and watching it develop into a book. It was originally a private writing project between me and Sarah Salway - bouncing 300 word emails off each other to stimulate creativity and keep in touch with the joy of writing - but within a few weeks we both felt the energy that was building, how we were both so engaged and excited by what we were doing, what we were discovering about ourselves as writers. When we completed the project - 300 pieces of 300 words - we gave a couple of conference papers on collaboration and the writer's voice and then subsequently the book was published. And from what we've heard, readers seem to enjoy the book as much as we enjoyed writing it.

 

As you know, I loved Messages (my review)! Which one of you came up with the original idea?

[knitnat]

"I was just going to write it is difficult to get a collection published, but actually, it's difficult to get any MSS accepted and published, isn't it?"

 

Exceedingly difficult! It seems to be a vicious circle, you can't get published until you have been published. At least there are a few of the smaller houses that are prepared to take risks with the unknown.

 

(Sorry, haven''t learned on ANY forum how to do the quote thing...maybe here I will learn!)

[Lynne Rees]

As you know, I loved Messages (my review)! Which one of you came up with the original idea?

 

I'd read about a collaboration between some Australian writers who were using email and I thought I'd like to be involved in something similar, so at a writing group I'd only just joined I mentioned it to the other 4 women but it was only Sarah who immediately said 'Yes! I'd love to do that.' And I knew, with that kind of immediate enthusiasm, I'd found the ideal writing partner. We then agreed the 300 words length between us - not too long for me, as principally a poet, and not too short for her, as principally a prose writer at that time. And 300 pieces seemed a nice tidy number to aim for. We also had another constraint - we had to respond to each other within 3 days or we'd lose our turn. I hope all that doesn't make us sound rather obsessive/compulsive! But, in fact, these constraints gave us tremendous freedom: the boundaries were set but the playing field was wide open as far as form and content.

[Lynne Rees]

"I was just going to write it is difficult to get a collection published, but actually, it's difficult to get any MSS accepted and published, isn't it?"

 

Exceedingly difficult! It seems to be a vicious circle, you can't get published until you have been published. At least there are a few of the smaller houses that are prepared to take risks with the unknown.

 

(Sorry, haven''t learned on ANY forum how to do the quote thing...maybe here I will learn!)

 

With poetry, at least in the UK, it seems essential to get a reasonable body of work published in some reputable journals before a publisher will take a look at a MSS. I think that shows a committment to the contemporary poetry scene too. It is much easier to get work published online, though it's probably wise to be a little selective about the sites.

 

Re 'the quote' thing - I've just been clicking on the 'Quote' box that appears at the bottom of the post I'm responding to, and that seems to work!

[Michelle]

Lynne, did either of you miss a turn, or are the pieces strictly in turn? Who wrote the first one?

[Inver]

Have you toured on any book signings and if so anywhere you would like to visit to promote your books?

[knitnat]

With poetry, at least in the UK, it seems essential to get a reasonable body of work published in some reputable journals before a publisher will take a look at a MSS. I think that shows a committment to the contemporary poetry scene too. It is much easier to get work published online, though it's probably wise to be a little selective about the sites.

 

Re 'the quote' thing - I've just been clicking on the 'Quote' box that appears at the bottom of the post I'm responding to, and that seems to work!

 

It only seems to give the whole thing and...oh just occurred I probably could deleted the bit I want...I'm usually typing with one of the children on my lap, so concentration is

[Lynne Rees]

Lynne, did either of you miss a turn, or are the pieces strictly in turn? Who wrote the first one?

 

Sorry, Michelle, that's classified information! Because Sarah and I felt that Messages was more than just a sum of its individual pieces, that we were both, in a sense, responsible for each piece, we decided that we wouldn't tell anyone who wrote what, who started, if either of us missed a turn etc, and that the whole book would be identified as written by Lynne Rees & Sarah Salway.

 

I think we both felt that we'd explored territory that we wouldn't have done without the other one's stimulus so it felt important not to publicly claim individual ownership of the pieces.

 

We don't even necessarily present our own pieces at readings either... and it's been rather fun when people try and guess who did write what. Of course, I could say that all the ones with swear words are Sarah's...

[Lynne Rees]

Have you toured on any book signings and if so anywhere you would like to visit to promote your books?

 

Hi there - I've read and signed books in different parts of Wales and England, did a short poetry tour of Portugal with my welsh publisher, Parthian, and took part in a writer's exchange between England, France, Belgium and Ireland in 2005/6 which was wonderful. There were 8 writers (2 from each country) and the visits to each country included official receptions, readings, school visits and cultural events. Reading my work in front of a peat fire in a thatched barn in Ireland is something I'll always remember.

 

As to where I'd love to visit/promote my books... hmmmm, New York and San Francisco come to mind because of the magical literary history associated with both cities... though because I've just moved to France (Antibes) I'd like to develop contacts with some french writers, possibly work on a bilingual project together and have some kind of event to celebrate that. I need to settle in more here first, and then I can focus on making that a reality.

 

Interesting question - thanks for making me concretise an idea.

[Inver]

How do you decide on your book titles and characater names?

[Michelle]

Having talked about Messages, could you tell us a little about 'Your Messages', and in particular what you have planned for this year? We have a few writers here who might find it interesting.

[Lynne Rees]

How do you decide on your book titles and characater names?

 

Sometimes I think that titles are the hardest part of writing - it's the first thing that readers respond to and can mean the difference between your work being read or not read - left on the shelf, or the page of a journal turned.

 

As far as poems are concerned, the titles tend to arrive last, and I prefer simple titles that can have more than one meaning or, hopefully, seduce the reader into finding out more, e.g. 'White', 'Building', 'How We Cry'.

 

The title for The Oven House came from a tiny holiday cottage I stayed in while I was working on the very early stages of the MSS. It had once been the communal 'bakehouse' for the village and the themes and ideas of the novel all seemed to be metaphorically contained in that single image: heat, compression, containment.

 

The title for my poetry collection. Learning How to Fall, comes from one of the poems, 'Falling' and that seems to be quite a common thing for poets to do. And the book is arranged in three sections that explore ideas of 1. falling from grace, or from the expectations of other people, 2. falling in and out of love, and 3. allowing yourself to 'fall' (or lose control) in order to rise higher, or grow. These ideas aren't explicitly stated in the collection though.

 

Messages was easy as the project was constructed around sending email messages to one another. But once again, the word 'message' can be interpreted in different ways too.

 

Character names can be tricky. Names can carry such strong references and can influence the reader. The main character in The Oven House doesn't have a name - only a nickname that her husband uses - and that was a deliberate choice as she does lose herself, loses touch with who she is/was, or who she thought she was. I decided on 'David' and 'Matthew' for the men because they felt rather quiet, not too intrusive, as I wanted the book to be her story, her journey.

[Lynne Rees]

Having talked about Messages, could you tell us a little about 'Your Messages', and in particular what you have planned for this year? We have a few writers here who might find it interesting.

 

Thanks for mentioning this, Michelle. Your Messages was a writing project, devised to co-incide with the new edition of Messages, that Sarah and I ran online in November last year. Each day we posted a 300 word prompt from the book and anyone could respond with their own original 300 word piece, before 8am GMT the next morning. At the end of the month we chose a selection of the strongest pieces and these were published in an anthology, Your Messages, which was launched at The Poetry Cafe in London in February this year.

 

We were stunned by the high quality of writing and by the enthusiasm of so many writers, some of whom responded every day of November, and by the support of so many of them at the launch - we had writers from Texas and Austria and from all over the UK too.

 

I don't think we'd really forseen how successful the project could be though, because at the end of the month we found ourselves reading through the equivalent of two copies of War and Peace to make our selections! But it was very much worth the time and effort because we met up with a wonderful community of writers and stayed in touch... so much so that the demand was still there for a similar project this year. You can check on either of the following links for details (they both take you through to the same page), and it would be great if any BCF member would like to take part. It'll start on 1st November but there'll be a few postings beforehand to get the project's wheels oiled:

 

www.yourmessages.org

http://writeyourmessages.blogspot.com/