Christy Stillwell
Author Interview - Christy Stillwell
Author I draw inspiration from: I’m inspired by the honesty, courage, and beauty of Elizabeth Strout’s fiction.
Author Interview - Christy Stillwell
Favorite place to read a book: In a hammock on a warm day, or a chilly day if I have a blanket.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Holden Caulfield. Except can you imagine the awkward silence? I’d work hard to get him talking and then neither of us would shut up.
Author Interview - Christy Stillwell
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: I was in fifth grade and we were given a series of photos cut from magazines. The assignment was to write the story of the picture. I loved this. I couldn’t stop. I was told that writers did this for a living and I knew.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: I do it all.
The last book I read: Hungry Ghost Theater, by Sarah Stone, about siblings from a family beset by addiction, mental illness and the acting bug. These characters became very dear to me.
Author Interview - Christy Stillwell
Pen & paper or computer: I write all my first drafts by hand. In fact, several drafts after that first one are written with a pen and paper. Once I enter the material into the computer, the decisions are still serious and hard, but much different. Typing uses different brain space, so the work changes at this point.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Olive Kitteridge. Many readers didn’t find her likeable, but I’m friends with a lot of women that others don’t find entirely “likeable.” What Olive and I have in common is that neither of us can lie. This is not always a likeable trait.
Author Interview - Christy Stillwell
If I wasn’t an author, I’d be a: Pastry chef. I love early mornings and I love dough.
Favorite decade in fashion history: I love 1920s flapper dresses.
Place I’d most like to travel: England! I want to see Dartmoor in Devon, Cornwall and West Yorkshire, so it won’t be a quick trip. While there, I may as well head north to the Shetland Islands, another place on my list.
My signature drink: I love chai lattes best.
Favorite artist: Edd Enders, from Livingston, Montana, who granted me permission to use his work on the cover of my novel, The Wolf Tone.
Number one on my bucket list: Wake up warm in southern France.
Anything else you'd like to add: Christy Stillwell is the author of THE WOLF TONE (January 8, 2019; Elixir Press) and the poetry chapbook AMNESIA (2008; Finishing Line Press). She is the winner of the Elixir Press Fiction Prize, a finalist in the Glimmer Train Short Story Contest and the recipient of a Puschart Prize nomination, a residency at Vermont Studio Center and a Wyoming Arts Council Literary Fellowship. Her stories and essays have appeared in journals such as Pearl, River City, Sonora Review, Sou’wester, The Massachusetts Review, literarymama.com, and The Tishman Review. You can visit her online at ChristyStillwell.com.
Author Interview - Christy Stillwell
Find more from Christy, here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christy.stillwell.7
Twitter: @ChristyStillwe1
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christy-stillwell-60592032/
