Judith Victoria Douglas
Eastern part of Texas
Good morning, Judith, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the Place for Art and Authors. Tell us a little about yourself.
What have you written?
Ariel’s Cottage; One Unicorn Wish; Within the
Sacred Circle, A Native American Connection; Painted Tree, Two Novellas; Where the
Horses Run, Book I, Mass Extinction, and Book II, Sacred Hills; Twisted Vine,
An Anthology, with Miracle Belle, A Horse with a Secret published separately, and two booklets of 4
of the short stories each, one of the romances and one of the fantasies; Tree & Sky, The Secrets of Meshyah’s World, with each of the three stories
published separately; Little Duke and the
Rat Princess in Kindle only; There’s
a Tree on My House; and The Carousel Pony. I have two-thirds of Where the Horses Run, Book
III, Ciphers and most of Realms of the Earth, the series’ prequel, completed, but stopped working on them
a few months ago. I reached a point of
total burn out and the pressure I felt to keeping going just died. Maybe it will start up again if there is
interest. I’ve had a few of the second
book sell lately. We’ll see.
Don't give up. Take a little break. You'll know when you are ready to get back to writing.
What is your favorite
genre to write?
As you can see, I like
to dabble in all of them, but my goal is to complete a true Sci Fi adventure
someday. I have a title and idea, but
each time I work on it the whole thing starts changing, so it’s going be to
hard work to keep within the theme. It
is harder and harder to find good Sci-fi.
Few have visions of a positive future for man. It’s all war, apocalyptic, and/or social
upheaval. And most is dark and
horror. That’s not my kind of Sci-fi as
you’ll find with the description of some of my books.
Favorite food.
Eggplant Parmesan
Tea or coffee?
Both
Pizza or ice cream?
Both
Where would you like to
visit?
New Zealand, but in
this country the Black Hills Horse Sanctuary and the Lakhota Reservations.
Favorite musical
artist.
Hard to say, I majored
in music my first year of college and love classical music, but I have diverse
tastes. I like Rock and Roll, Rhythm and
Blues, Ethnic like Celtic, Scottich and Native American, and Piano Mood music, or
almost anything except Rap.
Do you listen to music
when you write?
Sometimes
What?
Whatever I think will
put me in the mood for the scene I writing.
What makes you laugh?
Satire
How old were you when
you started writing?
I’m not sure during
childhood, or school, but I had an interest enough to want to pursue it in
college. In my early twenties I started reading
books on writing and still have my notes.
I started a lot of stories, but didn’t know how to end them. I don’t think I wanted them to end. I kept practicing off and on until my late
50s when I wrote several stories. I
finally decided I had to get serious and took some of those stories and
published them.
Describe your perfect
evening.
Quiet, reading or
watching a movie in a reclining position, with a glass of wine, which I rarely
allow myself to indulge in.
Favorite work of art or sculpture.
I like John William Waterhouse’s painting (pictured at the right), and use one for an avatar, The Crystal Ball. And I like any art, sculpture or artistic photo, especially of horses.
Where do you get your
inspiration?
Sometime it comes to me
after I’ve decided I’d like to try a certain type of story, or get an idea from
another story where it wasn’t explored.
My extensive knowledge of horses and possible future events spurred me
to start Where the Horses Run, but
few are interested, so I haven’t continued it.
However, I have found recent scientific information that matches what I
predicted in the book. The cover photo
and one inside for One Unicorn Wish
inspired that whole story.
What do you do when you
get a writer's block?
I’ve never had a
writer’s block, though I have a block of wood on my bookshelf that I got from
my dad (he did some woodwork) and call it my writer’s block. Even now, not writing, I have ideas and
always think about how a story could go, or how a movie I’m watching could be
better. I think I’ve always done that, but I no longer follow up or jot down
notes. I have so many of those I
couldn’t finish them all in my lifetime… wait, I think Neil Gaiman said that,
also.
Who is your favorite
author?
I enjoy any author who
has written a good story in fine style.
I am not so much a fan of an author as I am of one of their books.
Best book you ever
read.
Surprisingly, a
non-fiction titled Spiritwalker, by
Hank Wesselman, Ph.D. Part of it comes
across as fiction, which I love, but it was the author’s true experience. I think I like it most because it’s the only
source I have found where the author had an experience similar to one I had
when I was between 4-5 years old, which has stayed with me.
Last book you read.
Visionseeker, the third of
Wesselman’s Spiritwalker trilogy.
What would you do for a
living if you weren’t a writer?
Teach at a junior
college.
Who is the one person
who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
My dad. I miss him very much. He was one of only two males in my life I
could carry on an intelligent conversation with. The other is my son, but he’s very busy these
days. My dad and I talked about things I
can only read about now, and some of that is so inadequate. Many of his beliefs have become mine, and
though he’s gone, as I get older I have come to understand why he discussed
some things with. I think I was the only
one he found he could discuss these things with, also. He was the one to introduce me to science
fiction when I was in high school.
If you could sit down
and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who
would it be and why?
My dad. See above.
What advice would you
give someone who aspires to be a writer?
Just keep writing. Publishing is nice, but if you’re writing to
enjoy a type of story you like and want to share it, you can publish it
yourself and give it away free to friends and family who will always have it as
part of a memory of you. That is what
writing is really about, creating
something to share with others. Many
classic authors started out self-published.
Do you have any links for us to follow you?
Facebook, www.facebook.com/authorjudithvictoriadouglas and www.facebook.com/jvdbooks for my novels page
Twitter - @booksbyjvd
Tumblr - Menagerie, jvdbooks.tumblr.com
And I can also be found on
LinkedIn, LibraryThing, Shelfari, and Goodreads.
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