Conversations with Writers

Zimbabwean screenwriter and author, Julius Masimba Musodza was born in 1976 and attended Avondale Primary School in Harare, and St Mary Magdalene’s High School in Nyanga. Some of his early work appeared in school magazines as well as in the young people's newspaper, The New Generation . After high school, Musodza majored in Screenwriting and Directing at the Vision Valley Film Video & Television Institute. He also studied with Edgar Langeveldt’s Nexus Talent Agency; the African Script Development Fund; the Zimbabwe International Film Festival and the Raindance Institute. He sold his first screenplay in 2002 and is now working to put some of his own writing to screen as a producer/director. In this interview, Masimba Musodza talks about his writing. When did you start writing? I seem to have taught myself to read and write before I started school and that scared the hell out of my folks! I tried to get a novel published in the Pacesetters series, but that was when

Filmmaker and author, Michael Jodoin lives in South Central Kentucky. His first book, Holy Hell was released from sonar4 publications in March 2009. Jodoin's work includes a screenplay adaptation of Holy Hell ; a vampire story, Love Sucks ; and a werewolf tale, The Wolf with the Red Rose . In this interview, he talks about his concerns as a writer. When did you start writing? I suppose I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I wrote short stories as a teenager, but the realities of life and parents who thought writing made a good hobby as long as I pursued a real career first pushed me off the path. I continued to write periodically, placing each completed piece in a drawer for posterity’s sake. My wife stumbled upon my work about five or six years ago and encouraged me to seriously pursue my dream. Time to write was still at a premium until the day my wife suggested that we were in a position financially that would allow me to stop working full time and devote myself to my

In 2006, Christian Ward published The Grammarian and Other Poems ( PDF ) (Lily Press, 2006). This was followed by five more poetry chapbooks, among them, Goddess & Other Poems ( PDF ) (Scars Publications, 2007), The Sea ( PDF ) (Scars Publications, 2007) and Dark Matter Lullabies (Why Vandalism?, 2008). His latest chapbook, Bone Transmissions was released from Maverick Duck Press in 2009. His work has also been featured in journals that include Sage Trail , Grasslimb , Sein Und Werden , Envoi and The Emerson Review . When did you start writing? I first started writing when I was a child and stopped for a while when I started secondary school, resuming at 24, when I was at university. Being a writer was a childhood ambition. I remember reading an illustrated version of Robinson Crusoe when I was a boy and wanting to write the same kind of wonderful stories as [Daniel] Defoe did. It wasn’t until I reached my mid-twenties that I started to make it happen. I sent

In 2006, Carol Denbow self-published her first book, Are You Ready to be Your Own Boss? She followed this up with Stress Relief for the Working Stiff (Publish America, 2008), A Book Inside: How to Write, Publish, and Sell Your Story (Plain & Simple Books, LLC., 2008), How to Organize a Virtual Book Tour (eBook through Plain & Simple Books, LLC., 2008) and The Writer Within (Plain & Simple Books, LLC., 2008). In this interview, Carol Denbow talks about her writing: What are your main concerns as a writer? The same as every other published author out there -- selling books. Secondly, is my writing good enough? How I deal with these issues? For one, I spend three or four hours everyday on the Internet marketing my books and sleepless nights trying to dream up new ways to do that successfully. As far as further developing my writing skills to perfection, I’m just doing the dreaming part of it. Mostly I read good work and try to pull the lessons from it as best