Welcome Berit Ellingsen to Decoding Static. I met Berit via twitter, where we began our friendship by discussing similarities in our writing regarding the sense of self and now support each other's writing. Berit's The Empty City has been on my wanted list since reading the chapters she posted on line, I enjoy the sense of space she creates. My interview with Berit discusses her influences, why she self published The Empty City and her current writing projects.
You describe yourself as a Norwegian writer, what do you mean by this description?
The majority of my fellow writers and readers come from the US, the UK or Canada. Since I grew up outside of the English speaking world, my background might be a little different in terms of upbringing, education, cultural references and literary traditions. For example has the Norwegian and Scandinavian landscape and nature influenced my writing a lot.
Does your job as a science journalist influence your writing?
Science in general, and biology, genetics and space science, which is what I mostly write about, has definitely influenced my fiction writing. Some stories are inspired by science or set in the world of scientists, it’s science in fiction. Other stories are science-fiction or take place in the future.
Do any particular experiences, philosophies, theories, writers influence your writing?
Any writer or writing one spends time with will influence one’s writing, I think. Through literary journals, the writer community Fictionaut and social media, I’ve come into contact with many writers whose writing has been very learning and inspiring.
When it comes to philosophy, the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi, as well as Bob Adamson, Douglas Harding, Harsh K. Luthar, Jerry Katz, and Scott Kiloby, amongst others, have influenced me a lot.
You describe your novel The Empty City as a story about silence, care to say more?
Many philosophies and contemplative traditions speak of a silence and an emptiness (or fullness) that relaxes the everyday worries and challenges that all of us encounter. Most of what is written about this silence is non-fiction or poetry. I wondered if it was possible to write a story about it, and that experiment became The Empty City.
Using words to describe silence may seem like a contradiction, but in reading or writing, the silence between the words are as important as the words themselves, or their perceived meaning.
What (if any) impression do you hope The Empty City will leave on the reader?
I hope that it will inspire the readers to listen to the silence in themselves, or that it is simply an enjoyable story. Reading is so subjective and the same story will look very different from reader to reader. I hope the readers will find something of value in the story, but what that consists of, is entirely up to the reader.
What led you to self publish The Empty City? How have you found self publishing?
When I finished The Empty City I only knew about one publisher that published similar books, but they had only released non-fiction and a few poetry volumes.
I also wanted The Empty City to be a charity project for World Wildlife Fund. As a former biologist, climate change and the reduction of biodiversity is a personal hobby horse. Thus, I wanted half of the sales for The Empty City to go to working for biodiversity. I didn’t believe any publisher would allow that, especially not in the current economic climate. But I have seen two recent novels that also were charity projects, so I might have been wrong about that.
I didn’t find self-publishing faster or easier than I imagine working with a publisher is. The work went through many rounds with a professional editor and me. I also hired a talented graphic designer, Tom Brierley, to make the cover and the website. The freedom to choose designer and cover design was the most fun in the process.
Editing, formatting and the rest of the publishing process took a lot of time and effort and I learned a lot about publishing by doing it. One has to do the marketing oneself and that is the part of self-publishing I like the least. Connecting with readers and other writers is the fun part of it.
The last two stories of yours I have read both occur within a museum. Are museums important to you? Is there a reason why they appear in your writing?
It’s interesting that the two museum stories were published at the same time, because they were written years apart. But I do enjoy museums and that’s where I usually go when I visit a new city, before or after the shopping round.
As a scientist it’s easy to imagine all the hard work that goes into finding the artifacts in even just a small exhibition, and how demanding it is to preserve it correctly. I also enjoy watching the craftsmanship from other ages and cultures, not to mention their stories. Museums are fascinating places.
How was your NaNoWriMo experience? Will there be a novel as a result of it?
I had written a long draft the month before. I signed up for NaNo to add more to that draft, but when NaNo started, work got so busy I had to take a break from writing and failed NaNo. However, I still have the draft from October which I can develop.
You appear in prolific form regarding your writing lately (i.e. the recent number of publications), what is behind this?
I started sending out stories to literary journals I knew about or I knew friends submitted to. Then I read more journals and was fascinated by how different they were and the variation in forms and style and how well the writers used language and narrative. It was a new world of writing that seemed more innovative and faster moving than published books, so I kept writing and submitting.
I also had several stories, some from years back, that I polished up and submitted. In the beginning it’s difficult because you don’t know where to submit or what rejections really mean. But it’s a process of becoming familiar with the field.
In Norway there are no MFA programs in creative writing, writers take MFAs in literature, languages, journalism or advertising. They submit their work directly to the publisher, no agents needed. Thus, seeing the US system of MFA programs, university publications and literary journals was both surprising and educating.
What are your future writing plans?
I’m currently seeking publisher for a collection of short stories and I’m writing more of them. Inspired by your work, I think that if I self-publish more, I would want it to be hand bound or hand written in some form.
Anything else you like to say?
Thank you very much for the interview exchange and for the interest in The Empty City!
There’s more info about The Empty City and several chapters online at The Empty City. I blog at Berit Ellingsen.
Thank you too Berit for your time and answers. I wish you well with The Empty City and your short story collection. I recommend you check Berit's writing out, she has a number of short stories currently available in some very interesting online writing journals.
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