Adelaide Literary Magazine No. 48, May 2021

Revista Literária Adelaide

12.  How many books do you read annually and what are you reading now?
What is your favorite literary genre?

I read a great deal. I don’t really keep track of the number of books. Besides poetry, which I
devour every chance that I get, I have a wide range of interests. I enjoy philosophy, science,
humanism, and books dealing with mysticism. I also enjoy biographies and books with his-
torical and theological perspectives. I just finished The Future of Humanity, by Michio Kaku.
I am also rereading, probably for the 20th time, Mary Oliver’s poetry collection Devotions.

Poetry is, of course, my “go to” always. I find great satisfaction delving into poems about
nature, theology, the human condition, love, existential angst, and the joys of living in this
world.

13.  What do you deem the most relevant about your writing?
What is the most important to be remembered by readers?

If I had to choose an element in my work that would stand out as the most relevant, I would
have to say it is the search for meaning and authentic being, along the lines of Victor Frankl’s
Man’s Search for Meaning. This element is metaphorically, thematically, and imagistically
in so many of my poems about nature, family, personal development, and the dynamics of
relationships. My poems are often a mixture of celebrating the wonders of this world, yet
with an undercurrent of escaping the sorrows of this world through that celebration–almost
as if singing exuberantly enough about the beauty of the rose, a sunset, or a seascape could
drown out mortality’s inexorable humming in the background.

What I hope that people will take away from my poems is the profound glory nature
freely offers us for the taking. I’d like people to gather as much beauty as their hearts, minds,
and souls can hold and to live in the joy of the present moment as if it were the only moment
they had left.

14.  What is your opinion about the publishing industry today and
about the ways authors can best fit into the new trends?

The publishing industry today remains fundamentally much like it has always been: compet-
itive market, editorial preference, bottom line production costs and issues, large supply of
submissions vs. limited demand for acceptances. Of course, with online and Indie publishing,
blog, and personal websites, there are more chances for publication today than in the past,
but the basic supply and demand still fundamentally holds true. There are always self-pub-
lishing services for those who choose to go that route. Vanity presses, though ever present,
are still anathema in most literary circles.

While there is a plethora of new literary magazines and journals online today, many are
charging reading fees to cover the costs of the efficient but expensive Submittable platform
for submissions. As a writer who has a running submission total of 50-100 submissions, I
cannot afford to pay a fee to have my poems read. Think about it: the typical fee is 3.00. Now
multiply that number by 70 or 100 times, and you can grasp my dilemma. So I only submit to

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journals that do not charge reading fees. I guess when the day comes that all journals charge
fees, that is the day I stop submitting my work.

As far as “fitting in” goes, this has never been my strong point. I have always been more of
an outlier. So I do not feel particularly well suited to offer advice about fitting in. I would just
say that all writers, novice or seasoned, should follow the guidelines offered by each journal
or publisher to which they are submitting and go from there. I would also advise that you
should always believe in yourself as a writer and your written word as art. Don’t be afraid of
rejection or threatened by revision. When your piece is ready, submit, submit, submit.

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LYNN GREGORY

Author of THE OTHER SIDE
OF TAPESTRY, a Novel

1. T ell us a bit about yourself—something that we will not find in the official author’s bio?
I’ve recently remembered that when I was a college student studying to be an anthropologist, I
had ambitions to write popular fiction that would reach a wide variety of people and help them
to think about social issues I cared about in a gentle way. I think that may be what I have at-
tempted with The Other Side of a Tapestry all these years later. Although this was not planned,
it seems like it confirms the truth of the old saying that what goes around, comes around.

2.  Do you remember what was your first story
(article, essay or poem) about and when did you write it?

In my prior life, I wrote many non-fiction pieces. The first of these to be published was a
study of prehistoric rock art found in an uninhabited island in the Palau Islands of Microne-
sia. The article was published as an appendix (Appendix 4) of Douglas Osborne’s Archaeolog-
ical Test Excavations Palau Islands 1968-1969. Micronesica Journal of the University of Guam.

3. What is the title of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Other Side of a Tapestry was inspired by events in my own early life, specifically a mem-
ory of my mother telling me that I did not love Evita as our family was flying over the Andes
Mountains when we left Argentina in 1953. It started me thinking about how being abruptly
removed from the only life I had known affected my later years. While the rest of the story
is primarily fiction, writing the book gave me a fun and fanciful way to explain how it could
have gone down. The title refers to the basic truth in life that much of what we know, even
about our own lives, is often much more complicated by decisions made by other people.

4. How long did it take you to write your latest work and how fast do you write?
I drafted this 325 page novel in about six months; then took another year or so to share with
friends and revise. Ultimately, the process took around two years. I am a fast writer, but
that’s probably because I don’t dwell on awkwardness. I spent my entire career writing long
reports and found it easiest to get it all down, then revising more carefully. This is my first

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attempt at writing fiction, and because it was primarily a product of my imagination, I found
myself waking up in the morning with new dialog and scenes in my head. When I went back
to revise, it was usually to change things to make them feel more authentic and in tune with
the characters as they evolved.

5. Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I believe I do my best thinking when I’m asleep, when I allow my subconscious mind to do
the work, so when I get stuck in my writing, I close my eyes and try to make my last thoughts
focus on the question I need to solve. It often works. Also, I’m not sure this is unusual, but
the more I got into it, the more the characters took over the story. Sometimes they moved
forward faster than me, but I came to respect their viewpoints and changed things to make
their actions feel more authentic.

6. I s writing the only form of artistic expression you utilize, or is
there more to your creativity than just writing?

I like to think I have a creative mind and I’m open to inspiration from all art, but I suppose
if there is another art form, in addition to literature that influences my writing, it would be
music. Music has the power to take me places I can’t put into words but I do find myself
trying to provide this experience to my characters.

7. Authors and books that have influenced your writings?
I have always been an avid reader, of both fiction and nonfiction, and there are a huge num-
ber of authors, both current and classical, I read and admire, whose work has undoubtedly, at
least, aspirationally, affected how I write. Jane Austen’s ability to describe the nuances of hu-
man communication has always been an inspiration. I know I value readability above all else,
and of course, recall some books I could not put down. Off the top of my head, I remember
having this experience with The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Quincunx, by
Charles Palliser, Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, but I know there have been many more.
But I was not thinking about any of them specifically when I wrote this book.

8.  What are you working on right now?
Anything new cooking in the wordsmith’s kitchen?

I am currently working on two novels. One of these is a sequel/prequel to The Other Side of
a Tapestry that will hopefully tie up some of its loose ends. The other is a very different story
that seems to be taking priority at the moment. While both have working titles, Rocco and
Sybil, and Ofelia’s Story, it’s very unlikely they will be the final titles.

9.  Did you ever think about the profile of your readers?
What do you think—who reads and who should read your books?

Good question—I think about the profile of my reader all the time. While I would love for it
to be interesting to everyone, the most likely fan is a person (probably female) who grew up

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in the 1950s and 1960s and experienced some of the events that affect the characters and
perhaps recognize something of themselves in the main characters. Feedback so far indi-
cates that people like and relate to the characters, and find the connection with 20th Century
Argentine (and American) history intriguing. I think it would be great if younger people read
it because it could help them to understand what was going on in the world during the sec-
ond half of the 20th century, through the eyes of everyday people who lived it.

10. Do you have any advice for new writers/authors?

My advice for new writers—just sit down and write. Don’t expect anything to gel at first and
don’t judge yourself negatively because it doesn’t necessarily flow from your pen brilliantly.
And read read read. If this isn’t fun, don’t do it. I do believe the reader can tell if you had to
suffer too much. But then again, I am a new author who wrote this first novel in my early
70s. I’m not sure I would’ve chosen writing fiction as a career when I was young. As a retiree,
I was able to do this with no pressure, which definitely contributed to my enjoyment. I had
the time to think about everything I was writing.

11. What is the best advice (about writing) you have ever heard?

Just do it—and don’t share drafts with too many people.

12.  How many books do you read annually and what are you reading now?
What is your favorite literary genre?

I read all the time and usually have four or five books going at once so it’s hard to count. I
am currently reading a book about the search for ardipithecus fossils some believe to be our
earliest hominid ancestor called Fossil Men by Kermit Patterson, and at the same time, The
Labryinth of the Spirits, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, a thriller, fourth in a series called the Cemetery
of Forgotten Books that takes place in 1930s Barcelona. I just love to read both for learning
and getting caught up in stories and characters. Lately I’ve been binging on nonfiction books
about human evolution that are catching me up on a passion I developed in college but
have neglected while the field blossomed exponentially. But I always read the latest books
by some of my favorite authors. In fiction, to name a few: Walter Mosley, Louise Penny,
Tana French, Caryl Ferey, Kate Atkinson, Donna Tartt, Joseph Kanon, Martin Cruz Smith, Ann
Patchett, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Peter Hoeg, Barbara Kingsolver, Jonathan Frantzen, Elena
Ferrante, and Stephen Carter. In fiction, I think my favorite books are peopled with interest-
ing characters and include some kind of mystery.

13.  What do you deem the most relevant about your writing? What
is the most important to be remembered by readers?

Coming from an academic background, I can’t help wanting my readers to learn from my
writing. The Other Side of a Tapestry includes an attempt to gently make people aware of the
third culture child phenomena and how it can impact a person’s life, how decisions made by
adults can impact the lives of their children, the history and culture of Argentina and how it

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fits into 20th Century world history, and the role spiritual beliefs (both real and potential) can
play in helping us to respect commonalities we all share.
14.  What is your opinion about the publishing industry today and

about the ways authors can best fit into the new trends?
I honestly don’t know much about the publishing industry today except that I am very happy
there are independent publishing houses like Adelaide Books that are willing to consider
works by unknown authors. It is my impression that much of the publishing world is closed
to anything that isn’t an established financial winner. I might add that I’m intrigued by the
various formats one can read but so far find navigating them a little confusing. The good
news for me is that I still enjoy holding a book in my hands and turning its pages.

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