Sponsor a Writer for Macmillan Cancer Support: https://www.justgiving.com/page/greeninksponsoredwrite2023
Dan Coxon
1) Hello! Tell us a bit about yourself, writing, and/or life outside writing?
I’m a dad first and foremost, then a writer, then an editor (and proofreader). Someone once compared editing anthologies to preparing a complicated dish in the kitchen, and most of my life is spent in that space – keeping half a dozen pans on the boil, finishing things in the oven, spinning plates. There’s kind of a thrill to that energy which propels me through my days.
2) Are you a ‘deadlines person’? Is that part of the attraction or the challenge?
I think I am, although I’ve never consciously thought of myself that way. When dealing with publishers there are always deadlines, though, and given the nature (and variety) of my work I often have several deadlines staggered throughout the month. It sometimes feels like an unwanted pressure, but actually it’s often what gets me out of bed in the morning. Without deadlines I doubt I’d get half as much done.
3) Many involved have personal connections with Macmillan Cancer Support. Do you want to share any experience of the charity’s work?
Thankfully I’ve never had any personal experience of their work, although I have fundraised for them before, hiking 26 miles in a day along the South Coast. They’ve always struck me as one of the most fundamental charities – not just a good cause, but an important and necessary one.
4) What do you make of Paul Tremblay’s theme for this year, A Well of Strength/The Strength of Will?
For some reason my brain fixates on the word ‘well’, so I’ll try to avoid a story about a literal well! It’s a great theme from Paul, though, and I think it’ll lead to some really interesting stories. I’ve always been fascinated by stories about characters who have run out of options, who have reached rock bottom – and where they go from there. My collection Only The Broken Remain was structured around that very idea. It’s often when people are at their lowest that they find reserves of courage and strength that they didn’t know they had – I’m hoping to see that in some of the stories.
5) Absolutely anything else you’d like to share! 🙂
Being a dad (and a freelance editor!), it’s very rare for me to write a story in a single day – so I’m intrigued to see how that works out!
Marianne Izen
1) Hello! Tell us a bit about yourself, writing, and/or life outside writing?
Writing was always a pleasure, even essays in high school. But I became a biologist and for that, my writing was factual and precise. Scientific thought has to be creative, otherwise nobody could have or present an original idea, but the creativity was expressed in a certain style. I came back to non-scientific writing only four years ago and after so long, it has been a great pleasure. I have had to discover, or perhaps rediscover, a different way of writing.
2) What’s it been like Sponsored Writing in the past? Are you a ‘deadlines person’?
The Sponsored Write is a fascinating process. I like observing the ideas a theme produces and then seeing which idea becomes the final piece. It’s interesting reading the many ways the same theme is interpreted by other people. I like the time limit for the intense focus it demands. But at other times, I am also happy to write without that, to allow a thought to develop and mature without the constraint.
3) Many involved have personal connections with Macmillan Cancer Support. Do you want to share any experience of the charity’s work?
There can hardly be a family that has not been touched by cancer. Like many people, I have been grateful to the Macmillan organisation and to the nurses I have met for their kindness and care when they have helped people close to me.
4) What do you make of Paul Tremblay’s theme for this year, A Well of Strength/The Strength of Will?
I like the way the theme plays with words. It stimulates all sorts of ideas and at some point, one of those will dominate and that will become the piece I shall write on 14 October.
5) Absolutely anything else you’d like to share! 🙂
The whole concept of the Sponsored Write is impressive and that it has run for so many years shows our sponsors appreciate the importance of the work it supports. I look forward to saying hallo to all the writers at the start, and I look forward to reading their interpretations of the theme soon after.