The Writer's View: Alana Cash

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Alana will be awarding the winner's choice of a Screenprinted Camisole - "What Happens in the Bedroom Stays in the Bedroom" or a Brass Nuts T-Shirt - screenprinted "Brass" with 2 brass hex-nuts sewn to collar, to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour. (US ONLY) Click on the banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The Writer's View by Alana Cash

I have always tended to hand-write my work. First of all, it’s a more sensuous experience. I like to write on newsprint because it absorbs ink so well. My writing implement varies from gel pen, to pencil, to fountain pen depending on how much juice I feel I’ve got that day (using a pencil or fountain pen allows me to slow down). Gel pens come in various colors so that I can choose a different color depending on my mood. The color stimulates my creative mind which helps if I’m feeling blocked or lazy. Second, hand-writing is more creatively stimulating to me than typing on a keyboard. I am connected to the words – their letters and shapes as well as their meanings.

Because I hand-write, I can write anywhere if I have even a scrap of paper and anything to write with. I prefer coffeeshops – the music and conversation distract the area of my mind that likes to be distracted and the creative part takes over.

I’m a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to entering my writing into the computer. Sometimes days go by as it piles up. But while I am entering my work into the computer, I can edit a bit. As for my computer workspace, it faces the front window of my apartment and I have a little enclosed patio with plants and flowers and a hummingbird feeder (this is my favorite place to read other people’s books and stories). The hummingbirds come and go all day long and spend quite a lot of time perched on the leaf of an aloe vera plant. Down below is a swimming pool and occasionally, when they are migrating, we get ducks in the pool.

After I have entered my hand-written work into the computer, I print it out and edit it by hand. My most popular place for doing this is on my couch, although I sometimes take the work to a coffeeshop as well. Of course, this means that I have to enter the edits into the computer at some point, and there is a downside to editing this way. Sometimes I edit out a sentence in a paragraph and leave a word or the extra period. This is a problem for me and others to catch in proofreading.

About the Author:Alana Cash is an award-winning author and filmmaker who used to spend summers on her grandparents farm at the foot of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. When she was ten, a red-headed stranger rode up on horseback asking her grandfather if there were horses needing to be broken. The cowboy wore spurs and a cowboy hat and was pretty exciting. Decades later, Alana wondered if any of the women living in that farming community got a crush on that wandering cowboy, and intending to write a short story about that romantic day, Alana ended up writing the novel TOM’S WIFE.

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It’s the Great Depression and 19-year-old Annie Huckaby is almost resigned to marriage with Tom. He works at a coal mine during the week, leaving Annie to take care of the house and their infant son. Tom’s Native American friend Jim takes care of the farm. Her best friend, Twila, visits every day and helps Annie make a little money selling eggs to the café on the highway. And there’s church on Sunday. Annie’s not always alone, but most times she feels like it…until one afternoon a peddler named Jake Stern steps onto the porch, tips his hat, and starts a world of trouble.

Buy the book at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.