Interview with Marta Moran-Bishop

I recently was asked by my friend, Marta Moran-Bishop, author of "Wee Three", to talk about myself on her blog. I was very pleased to have her do that for me. I decided to return the favor. Marta is a marvelously talented woman and I'm proud to call her my friend.

Dellani Oakes: When did you start writing?

Marta Moran-Bishop: I began writing when I was six. I wrote, what was probably the worst stage play ever written. It was so bad that about 10 minutes into it my mother called a halt to the performance.

D: What gave you the idea for your first book?

M: Well my first book is still sitting waiting to finish the rewrite it is called “Keeping the Upper Paw: A Cat’s Guide to Training Your Human.”

Wee Three; began after my mother had passed. I felt compelled to put everything else down, take out the verses that my grandmother had written for her children. A few of these are in Wee Three without change. I took these verses, the stories my mother had shared with me of her childhood, added my own memories and Wee Three was born.

D: What do you do to keep yourself focused?

M: When I am writing it is difficult to stop, my husband says I am like a dog with a bone. I go somewhere inside the book/story and totally lose myself till what I need to put on paper is down. Later I can go back and edit it. Usually my problem isn’t staying focused it is letting it go.

D: Do you stay with one project until it's finished? Or do you work on multiple projects?

M: This depends on whether I have a deadline or not. If I do not have a deadline then I am usually working on multiple projects. One of them will be my main focus and the other’s are more of when the words need to come out I write those for a while.

D: What is your writing process?

M: My brain is always writing. I have been known to pull over when driving to jot down an idea or a stanza for a poem. However mainly I sit with my feet up computer on my lap and just go into the zone.

D: Do you hear from your readers and what do they say?

M: I have had a lot of feedback from both Wee Three and the two current tales I am working on. Usually when someone reads Wee Three, it sparks a story they remember from their own childhood. I am lucky so far I haven’t had anyone tell me that they didn’t love Wee Three.

D: How does the internet boost your career and writing?

M: The internet and Facebook have given me a sense of community in the world of the Arts that has been lacking in my life since childhood. It also helps give feedback on story lines and on sales/marketing tactics.

D: Do you have a mentor or mentoring group or community of writers or authors to support you and your writing?

M: Facebook has given me a sense of community and support that I never knew before. Most of my FB friends especially those I communicate with on a regular basis are full of support and have brought so much enrichment to my life that I feel truly blessed knowing them. Whether it be on personal, spiritual, political, or in the Arts I find that I grow continually from contact with them. I could list so many people that I have met that have been supportive of me and my writing that I could fill a page. I consider myself extremely lucky to know them.

D: Has your upbringing or environment influence your writing? How?

M: Absolutely growing up in a small mining town with nature, books, music and your imagination being the key to your entertainment it would have been extremely difficult not to have it influence one. My upbringing was one of music of all generations from the big bands and classical to the Backstreet Boys because of growing up in a family of nine.

The local Drama Teacher was an ex-Broadway director and would show up at 2 in the morning after having seen the latest play on his trip to NY. Nothing for it but we would all get up to listen to each and every scene he would describe and if a musical, sing. Our house was full of books on every subject known to man probably at any point at least 2000 books. We read to each other and by ourselves.