NORMA O. HINES
- Writer, Painter & Educator -
G'day folks,
Welcome to an interview conducted with a writer, painter and educator from Canada. Norma O. Hines is an educator and artist who has been teaching art, training teacher-candidates, painting pictures and writing award-winning literary pieces in Jamaica for the past fifteen years.
Welcome, Norma ...
1.
TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT
YOURSELF AND YOUR WRITING JOURNEY.
I recently retired from my job as an educator. For the
last fourteen years before I retired I taught Visual Arts and trained teacher-candidates.
I am also a painter and some of my works may be viewed on
www.normahinesart.com. I wrote ‘To Hurt and To Hold’ seven years ago but did
not decide to publish it until five years later. The book was personal; it was
for my own catharsis and so it took me a while to get to a point where I was
willing to share that story.
2.
WHEN AND HOW DID YOU
BECOME A WRITER?
It depends on your definition of ‘writer.’ I loved
writing as a child because of the attention it brought me at school. This
pattern followed me all the way to university. My writing would be read to my
peers as an example of how the particular topic should be handled. I liked it
when I was small but it made me self-conscious at university and so I stopped
trying to write well. It was not until fifteen years ago that I started
entering my writing in the Literary Arts Competition of Jamaica Cultural
Development Commission. I have been fortunate to receive awards for essays,
short story, poetry and a novel.
3.
WHAT TYPE OF PREPARATION DO YOU DO FOR A MANUSCRIPT?
DO YOU PLAN EVERYTHING FIRST OR JUST SHOOT FROM THE HIP?
All my work so far has been based on true life accounts.
I still make an outline because I never write without one. I then fill out the
script, just writing as I remember, whether I was told or it was personal
experience. After that I begin the difficult process of really writing and
re-writing until I get to whatever deadline I have to meet. But I never come to
a point where it is for me complete
4.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST
ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
I enjoy how the process consumes me. When I write I feel
as if someone else is putting those words together and I am only a vehicle
through which they flow and so I have to write down the thoughts quickly or
else I lose them. Even if it is a story I know well, the way it flows when I
write sometimes feel strange to me.
5.
WHAT IS THE HARDEST
THING ABOUT BEING A WRITER?
The uncertainty of not knowing whether I can make a
career of it.
6.
WHAT WERE YOU IN A
PAST LIFE, BEFORE YOU BECAME A WRITER?
A teacher, a banker, I dabbled in real estate; I was a
wife, mother and home maker. Then I became an educator and an artist.
7.
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST
WRITING ACHIEVEMENT?
Publishing my first
book, ‘To Hurt and To Hold.’ When it won an award under another title in 2007
and toured all the libraries of Jamaica I felt a sense of achievement but on
Sunday (Aug. 3, 2014) when it was recommended in Jamaica as a summer read in The Observer magazine Bookends (not on line) I again felt a
sense of achievement.
8.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING
ON AT THE MOMENT?
I am trying to market my book. The sequel is about ready
for publication but I will hold it for a while then take another look at it,
and work on it some more before I publish it.
9.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Suffering caused by humans and the need to expose it and
alleviate it. I am also inspired by both the beauty and the upheavals of
nature.
10. WHAT GENRE DO YOU WRITE?
I am just embarking
on a career in writing and so am still undecided at present. The first two
books fall under memoirs, but I have also written an art text which is still
being edited. I have a number of short stories essays and poems which I need to
collect together with a view to publishing. My long term goal is to write and
illustrate children’s books.
11. DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS FOR NEW
WRITERS?
I am a new writer. My tip would be for them to write for
the joy of writing. Make writing be its own reward and if success of fame
follows, view those as bonuses.
12. DO YOU SUFFER FROM WRITER’S BLOCK?
Not yet.
13. DO YOU HAVE A PREFERRED WRITING
SCHEDULE?
Yes. Late nights, between ten and two.
14. DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE WRITING
PLACE?
Yes. Currently I have abandoned my desk for an easy chair
by my bedroom window which allows for a peaceful view.
15. WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST JOY IN
WRITING?
That I can awaken various emotions in my readers. Some
say that at one minute they feel like crying and the next minute they are
laughing hilariously.
16. WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND
WHY?
W. Somerset Maugham. Years after I read his stories and
long after I forget the names of the stories themselves or of his characters I
am still able to remember episodes from his writing that make me want to find
the books and read about them all over again.
17. WHAT’S THE GREATEST COMPLIMENT YOU
EVER RECEIVED FROM A READER?
I could not put down your book. I have already finished
it, underlined parts and made notes and have started reading it again, slowly
this time.
18. WHAT WAS THE WORST COMMENT FROM A
READER?
I got the impression you were hurt and just had a need to
spew.
19. WRITERS ARE SOMETIMES INFLUENCED BY
THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN THEIR OWN LIVES. ARE YOU?
Yes.
20. OTHER THAN WRITING, WHAT ELSE DO YOU
LOVE?
Painting, teaching and fashion designing.
21. DID YOU HAVE YOUR BOOK / BOOKS
PROFESSIONALLY EDITED BEFORE PUBLICATION?
No, but I had an editorial evaluation. It was also
adjudicated by more than one panel.
22. DESCRIBE YOUR PERFECT DAY.
My perfect day is
when I am productive and I can see or reflect with satisfaction, on what I
accomplished over the past hours.
23. IF YOU WERE STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND
WITH ONE PERSON, WHO WOULD IT BE? WHY?
My son. At last,
maybe, he would be able to tell me all the fascinating things he has read about
since he discovered books and the internet as a kid and he would have the time
to finish all the IT lessons he has been trying to cement in my head. We would
be able to edit all the pictures of me and my art which are on his computer instead
of up on my website where they belong. We never seem to have enough time.
24. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IF YOU HAD THE
CHANCE TO SPEAK TO WORLD LEADERS?
I know that some of
you have good intentions. But as long as poverty coexists alongside riches, as
long as each nation is looking out for itself first, as long as each has to
protect its sovereignty, there can be no justice. And without justice there can
be no peace, therefore in order for mankind’s problems to be solved, there must
come a world government to which all yield sovereignty. And I think there is no
one that is willing to give more than lip service to a new world order so we
are all going to die and leave a legacy of a larger mess than the one we
inherited as a world leader.
25. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?
To make writing a
career.
26. WHAT FIVE BOOKS WOULD YOU TAKE TO
HEAVEN?
I have no intention
of leaving earth. I am not going to heaven.
27. DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN ANY OF YOUR
CHARACTERS?
Yes.
28. DOES THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY
FRUSTRATE YOU?
Yes. My book was with
a publisher for 18 months before I retrieved it and took a different route.
29. DID YOU EVER THINK OF QUITTING?
No.
30. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE MANUSCRIPT
TO WRITE? WHY?
An essay on Jamaica
Independence Day 1962. I enjoyed leaving most of the political history out and
I focussed on what was happening in a typical rural village at the time.
31. HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE ‘SUCCESS’ AS A
WRITER.
Success is not
measured in dollars but in getting readers to look at things in a new way;
getting them to ponder over fresh ideas and come to new conclusions. Dollars
are nice too.
32. WHAT SHOULD READERS WALK AWAY FROM
YOUR BOOKS KNOWING? HOW SHOULD THEY FEEL?
Never surrender your
power. You can overcome any obstacle if you set your mind to it.
33. HOW MUCH THOUGHT GOES INTO DESIGNING
A BOOK COVER?
Much. Because I am an
artist I know what I want and I choose my own picture. I paint it and control
where it is cropped, and where texts are placed.
34. WHAT’S YOUR ULTIMATE DREAM?
To be happy.
35. WRITING IS ONE THING. WHAT ABOUT MARKETING YOU,
YOUR BOOKS AND YOUR BRAND? ANY THOUGHTS?
Had I known how
difficult it would be I would have left it with the first publisher who was
going to do all that work. I have to see marketing as just another of life’s
challenges that has to be overcome. I am grateful that no one alerted me to how
difficult it would be. Now that I have fallen into the deep end I guess I will
just have to learn how to swim because I have no intention to drown.
36. ARE YOUR BOOKS SELF-PUBLISHED?
Yes.
37. DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN FIVE WORDS.
Determined, strong,
courageous, honest, loyal
38. WHAT PISSES YOU OFF MOST?
Ingrattitude
39. WHAT IS THE TITLE OF THE LAST BOOK
YOU READ? GOOD ONE?
A New Earth by Tolle (umpteenth re-reading Does that tell
you something?)
40. WHAT WOULD BE THE VERY LAST SENTENCE
YOU’D WRITE?
It is finished.
41. WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU HAPPIER THAN YOU ARE NOW? CARE
TO SHARE?
Do not care to share
because I am really not sure.
42. ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO ADD?
I
went on your blog. I like your work, Clancy.
Clancy's comment: Well done, Norma. Yes, being a serious writer is an all-consuming business. Good luck. Keep going.
I'm ...
Think about this!
