Feature: Donna Gagnon Day 5

Virginia Woolf was Frickin’ Dreaming
('a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction')

don’t give me one of those tiny little buttoned things
with the predictive text capability
I need a real keyboard, elbow room,
space where my fingers can fly
in a room of my own where
nobody can keep up with 120 words per minute
when I’m on a roll and the house is quiet and
nobody needs my ear or advice or food on the table
it’s just me and the screen and the clickety clack
of letters and words and all the screams
that I have not been given permission to let out
of my lungs or release from my heart
since I was old enough to do laundry, have sex, give birth,
type memos for old men and scrub dried pee off the bathroom floor

today
I
typed
a word
and then
the dog puked

poetic license I may have
but the personal liberty’s lacking

(who moved the bleach, dammit?)

© Donna Gagnon

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Q&A

9. What next? More plays? More poetry? More dead voices?

Ever since my play 'Deception' was chosen for production next spring in Port Perry, ON, I've been thinking it's way past time to get another written. I've still got editing work to be done on 'Imagine', a story I wrote last fall and more bits to write for 'Various Dead Voices' ... if I didn't have to work for a living, they'd all get done a lot faster.

10. The forum you run -- The Write Idea -- does that inspire any of your work? What do you hope to achieve with it?

The Write Idea has been an online writers' haven for me since 2005. It has inspired me on many occasions and through it, I've become friends with quite a few of the other writers. We moan, we celebrate, we create, we argue, we share ... it's a great place. Since its founder, Helen Whittaker, asked Doug and I to take over the site in the spring of 2008, I've found myself stepping further and further away from my writer-persona and have become more of an administrator. It's a job I like. We run a number of writing competitions throughout the year which allows me to organize a lot of stuff and then wield my editor muscles while compiling anthologies.

We're hoping for growth over the next year. More members, more activities, a better web site.

11. Thorntons Dark Gingers? Why those? I have heard that their Cappucino Truffles are wayyy better ...

Yeah, those truffles are yummy. I wouldn't pass if you were offering a few. Those Gingers, though ... oooo, spicy, rich and complicated. Ya know, they kinda put me in mind of Leonard Cohen ...

12. And just for a giggle ... sum up your past, present and future in three stanzas of fibonnaci poetry ... (there, that'll keep her occupied for a while).

The 99-Year Fib

black
spots
on my
soul, so said
Mother Gabriel

too many sins for a small child

look --
laugh,
life full,
love-wrapped
chocolate happy

dark only comes when you choose it

swing
on
porch, glass
raised high
singing to the sun

it's been another lovely day

© Donna Gagnon