I am a dreamy and nerdy bookworm pretending to be a tough adult, hoping that no one rumbles me. I was ill as a child and often had a touch of the Elizabeth Barrett Brownings: blanket and sleeping dog on my lap. It helped to have pen, paper and a vast world of created characters. What power! But those things you are scolded about as a child – daydreaming – you get to secretly keep and use to good effect when older. I won a poetry competition when very young and stood on the platform reading my poem, with shaky legs and pink National Health glasses, in front of two adoring old ladies sucking peppermints.
Getting my writing into shape meant getting tough. If you work completely in isolation, you develop bad habits. Finding a professional online critique group, then called The Workhouse, made me sit up straight and work. So many things to learn – that’s what makes writing an exciting trade.
In 2006, I won the Woman and Home Short Story competition. The next year I won the Decibel/Penguin Prize and was published in their non-fiction anthology The Map of Me with my story ‘Asian Invisible’. Although I have no formal training, I found journalism relatively easy – just not as much fun as creative writing. I set myself bizarre challenges – such a winning the Telegraph’s eco-tourism article competition. Every hit, even the inevitable failures of a writer’s life – made me realise that writing was the only thing I wanted to do.
The Interview
So where did the book begin for you, how did the book come to be written?
‘Ink Eyes’, the title story, was an angry little tale written in response to a very challenging set of writing prompts, set by my online writing group. We were given only one hour to write. I love pressure, can’t stand flapping around. As soon as it was written, something clicked into place, particularly the title. Only then was there a possibility of a book that might pull together, rather than a scattered collection of stories. Seeing The Scott Prize was the best incentive to then do something about it. Writers need goals.
What was going on in your life while you were writing it?
It had been a completely catastrophic year in personal terms – so disappearing into the fictional lives of others, others that I could manipulate, was very much a comfort, an escape. Keeping the brain busy is the best medicine. I was also working as assistant editor, proofreader and writer for a wolf conservation magazine. I got to meet amazing people in the wolf world to interview – people with passion, intellect and knowledge. I also spent time up at the UK Wolf Conservation Trust with the wolves and the volunteers – which is always a joy.
What do you think were the real driving elements within the book — the things that moved it all forward for you?
It is a cliché but a cliché for a reason – being unhappy does indeed make any artist more productive. When you are happy, you just skip along ‘doing’ life. So fury, loss and a desire to express emotion pushed me hard to understand lives that were less than perfect, even damaged. When the writing was going well it felt like swimming: everything painful is forgotten and it is all about the strokes, the rhythm, the moving forward with just enough resistance. When it is going really well, you are actually under the water – not drowning and certainly not waving…simply in glorious silence, completely involved and blissfully happy. I also love editing, so stitching the stories together was another joy.
How long did it take to bring it all together?
I already had a number of completed short stories. Some had been published, some had won prizes and others simply needed a polish. I was quite surprised just how many I had written. Writing has an element of necessary amnesia about it…once written, stories should be put to one side to marinate in their own juices. Most writers need that distance, as it then seems like someone else’s work and can be ruthlessly edited with a level of detachment. So drawing it together took less than a month.
Who was important to you in developing your writing life?
My mother initially gave me titles for stories to keep me occupied when I too weak to be active. Later, all my wonderful colleagues at The Fiction Forge helped me to feel like a writer, as do my local critique group at Reading Writers, friend and sweet soul Heidi Gihooly and my dear friend and talented writer, Vanessa Gebbie. It is better to have people you admire to critique your work, so that you toughen up and make your work better, stronger and less self-indulgent. ‘It’s lovely, dear,’ may be kind but it certainly isn’t useful. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to impress. It may also sound odd but animals have always been central to my writing life – they make me feel calm and connected to the natural world. Cleaning out chickens is the most humbling thing; they are comic and primitive in their relationships, sometimes even brutal. Many stories have come while I have been outside with them, looking up into the trees and dreaming.
Where do you think you’ll go to next in your writing — what are you working on now?
I have several ideas for novels that keep pestering me. At night, in the bath, when I supposed to be functioning in the real world. The loudest one will win, of course. But the short story will always be a passion…it’s a world in a snow globe and when you do it properly, it should leave an ache but nevertheless feel finished.
Ink Eyes (extract)
‘…when I see her, even though I didn’t want to look her in the face, I always get caught by those eyes. Those strange dark eyes are sometimes sexy, the only sexy thing about her. They are the colour of ink trapped in a bottle – a dark blue and in a certain light, they even trick you into thinking they are black. Yet sometimes, they are blank, tired, full of pain.’
Discover more about Julia Bohanna
Twitter
Blog
Woman and Home Short Story Competition – winning entry
Guardian/Virgin Trains flash fiction competition – Runner-up
The Map of Me anthology
Discover Julia’s Stories Online
http://ukwct.org.uk/wp/issue45.pdf
www.ukwolf.org
