What, Why, How: Gay Walley

What: What, Why, How: Gay Walley

I write novels, plays and have even written two films.  This expansion of forms started in the last 6 years which keeps it moving, so to speak. It’s a way of staying fresh.  I am inspired by the challenge of getting the truth of a story on paper.  I have always been interested in form – and tend not to be conventional. I have played with time frames, telling a story through aphorisms, and following how lives change over time. I like shapes in writing. A triangle (love) and so on.

Why:

What a great question.  Because I have to live more than one life – the one I am living and then the intensity of the ones in my mind. I like creating something. I like taking my feelings and what is going on in my life and making something OTHER of it.  Marge Piercy wrote that a woman writes because she feels too much, and I couldn’t agree more.

How:

A little bit at a time. As a New Yorker and having to make money, I am always doing many things – teaching, editing, writing books for people. So my own writing does not get long stretches. I just make sure I do SOME every day and the pages add up. I’ve taken to doing a little bit of in a coffeeshop every morning that I am able  – one without wireless!

Bio:

I have been publishing short stories since 1988 and published my first novel in 1999, STRINGS ATTACHED, with U Press of Mississippi (1999), was a Finalist for the Pirates Alley/Faulkner Award and earned a Writer’s Voice Capricorn Award and Paris Book Festival. Then THE EROTIC FIRE OF THE UNATTAINABLE, published by IML Publications, came out in 2007 and was reissued by Skyhorse Publishing 2015. This book was a finalist for Paris Book Festival Award. I wrote a film, THE UNATTAINABLE STORY, based on my second book. This came out in May of 2016 with Harry Hamlin and premiered at Mostra in Sao Paolo in Brazil. LOST IN MONTREAL, a novel, came out in 2013 from INCANTO PRESS.  I also have e-books on Bookboon: HOW TO WRITE A FIRST NOVEL; HOW TO SAVE YOUR ONE PERSON BUSINESS FROM EXTINCTION and HOW TO WRITE FOR BUSINESS.  My play LOVE, GENIUS AND A WALK, opened in the Midtown Festival in New York 2013, and was nominated for 6 awards including best playwright. It also played in 3 pub theatres and Etc Theatre in London in 2018.

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