Where are you from? What have you read? How does this impact upon your writing life?

Where you are from is a contributing factor as to what makes you who you are. It defines the origins and the culture that you have indulged in. I constantly have the argument about where I am from. You see, I have a British passport, I was born in Wales, and I spent a good three quarters of my life in Spain. I speak both English and Spanish fluently, and have adapted to the way of the Spanish folk. So, am I English? Welsh? Spanish?

I look at it like this.

I am a lady who comes from Europe. I am a tree, and I’ve three branches stemming from each one of these nationalities. They are just three branches out of my many hundreds that make me who I am.  The rest of the branches twist and turn throughout memories, relationships and DNA. 

Without these branches, there would be the trunk – and what good is a tree without any branches or leaves? It’s exactly the same with writing. How could I possibly write without any of my personal experiences and memories?

There are things that one cannot do or speak about in certain cultures. Emily Dickinson wrote under a male name for a reason. Where she was from, and the year of eighteen hundreds impacted her writing so much that she was published under a different name. Gender was obviously problematic to her. It’s reflected in many of her poems; how gender was portrayed in society. Her dark times throughout the war, throughout her parents’ death – it’s bound to have had an effect on her writing.

And consider John Cheever, and the aspect of memories which effects the way he wrote. His father’s business collapsed, turning him to alcoholism – something Cheever himself indulged in later on in life. Alcohol plays a major theme in so many of his short stories, including ‘The Swimmer’ and ‘The Country Husband’.

When I was a child, my mother began to read Alice in Wonderland to me and since then? I’ve had this complete fascination with fairy tales. There are many hidden messages in Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, Cinderella. They’ve shaped me as a writer. Not limited, but outlined the type of writing I enjoy.