Author Spotlight: Maureen Morrissey

Aarika and Jayna sent Maureen some questions to get to know her better. They are included here for your entertainment and in hopes that you will be further encouraged to check out Maureen's book Woven. The Two Bluestockings' review for that book can be found here! 

Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

I think writing is an art, and so I try to be true to myself when I write.

I learned a lot about writing when working on Woven, my first novel. I learned about the difference between commercial fiction and literary fiction, after some well-meaning people tried to rework my book to make it fit a formula: intro characters, intro a problem, try to solve the problem and fail several times in spectacular fashion, solve the problem and live happily ever after. That did not work for this book and for a while I thought maybe I could not write a novel after all. But then I started to think about art and how an art dealer might have said to Picasso, “You know this painting would sell better if the eyes were next to each other and it looked more like a real human.”

And I just wrote from the heart. Of course, I do hope people like the book. I am not sure Picasso ever really cared.


What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?

I love Watercolor Women/ Opaque Men by Ana Castillo, a novel written in verse about a single mother of Mexican descent, and how she navigates through life. I love reading a novel that teaches me something I did not know, whether it is culture, history or a peek into how other people think. I had never read a novel written in verse before, and it opened me up to reading other novels with very unique styling, like Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, which I also loved.


What advice do you have for writers?

This is not earth-shattering nor particularly original advice. Write, write, write, and then write some more. Not everything you write will go to the next level, but you absolutely never know. I wrote a short story in the 1980’s that I loved, forgot about it for thirty years and brought it back to life for a publication in a writing workshop journal.

You can find inspiration for writing absolutely anywhere, so be open to it. Work through blocks by putting aside the piece you are stuck in, and writing something else: a journal entry, a poem, a short story, anything else.

I go for daily runs and walks somewhere quiet, no music or audiobook or podcast (sorry), and do my best pre-writing in my head then.

Also, read, read, read, and then read some more. But train yourself to read like a writer, looking for idea gems or a turn of phrase you love, or a style you want to try.


Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice?

I never thought it about it that way, but yes, absolutely. It’s just me, my thoughts and a blank piece of paper. What could be more spiritual?



What is your favorite childhood book?

So many, but I will name two that come immediately to mind. Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E.L. Konisburg. Strong girl characters with mixed up social ideas. Guess I connected with that 😊


Where do you get your ideas?

My life, a news story, other books, a person I met once, the squirrel outside my window, you get the idea. Ideas are absolutely everywhere, all the time. It keeps me up at night, sometimes.


What does literary success look like to you?

My work usually has a goal for the reader, beyond (hopefully) enjoying the story. I want to make readers think, be inspired, become curious; or at the very least I want to evoke some reaction. I feel successful when people get something out of my work. I am marketing this novel to get as many people to read it as possible; but “success” to me is not becoming a commercial hit (although if that happens, I would be okay with it).


Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?

Interesting question…I think every book I read changes my ideas and thoughts about fiction. Even the books I do not enjoy give me something to think about. I enjoyed your podcast on Lolita, especially when you admired the way Vladimir Nabakov was able to make you feel sympathy for Humbert Humbert, in spite of yourselves. It taught me that a really good writer can get inside your head, even when the subject is a personally repugnant one.

Thanks, Aarika, Jayna, and Chad for the opportunity!

**It's been such an amazing adventure, reading about and talking to authors of all kinds. The views expressed by the authors are their own and in no way represent the views of the Two Bluestockings.**

Aarika, Jayna, and Chad are three friends who get together to talk about books. Chad doesn't read much, but he finds the girls' fascination with literature amusing. Aarika reads everything from horror to bodice rippers to classics--though she fights Jayna a little on the classics. Jayna hoards the works of Kurt Vonnegut and currently has a strange fascination with Milan Kundera.