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Interviews » Fiction Interviews » V'yonne Interview

V'yonne Interview

Posted on 25 August 2009. © Copyright 2004-2012 WriteWords
A longer version of this interview is available to WriteWords Full and Community Members.
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WriteWords talks to Oonah V Joslin, aka WW member V'yonne

Where did it all begin?

In bed like most things. My sisters gave me a subject, and I'd come up with a story. I loved English homework: Write a story or poem about. My teacher put my poem, The Scarecrow, on the wall when I was 11 and that got me hooked. I've already told how I got started in EDF's blog if anybody wants to read that:
http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/sometimes-life-gives-you-a-kick-up-the-backside/#comments

I joined Writewords to find out whether anybody would want to read anything I wrote. I had no ambitions beyond that. Now I've over 150 stories and poems on line or in print. Colour me amazed!


Writers I like?

Asimov had the temerity to write Mars say yes. He can make you laugh and horrify you at the same time, be so tongue in cheek and so human. Everything he wrote lives.
Arthur C Clarke
Ray Bradbury
Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila - un-put-downable. Tolkien: Lord of the Rings and Leaf by Niggle.
Oscar Wilde: De Profundis in particular. The Happy Prince makes me cry.
C.S. Lewis - fellow Ulsterman. A Sunday school teacher gave me Prince Caspian and I read everything Lewis. I love his portrayal of the state of grace (or lack of it) in The Great Divorce and the thought that the whole of Hell can fit down within a crack of Heaven. I love his sense of the divine and the smallness of the human spirit without that.
Virginia Woolf: The Waves especially.
Jeannette Winterson: Art and Lies

Biography and non fiction.
Lytton Srachey: Eminent Victorians - try reading about Florence Nightingale without seeing Margaret Thatcher.
Vita by Victoria Glendinning
Wilfred Owen by Dominic Hibberd
Gilbert & Sullivan by Michael Ainger
Bill Bryson; Notes on a Small Island is perfect.
Michael Bywaters: Lost Worlds should be on everybodys coffee table. It's stuffed full of things that should not have been forgotten Baby's Bottom, Five Boys Chocolate. The Mumbles Train.
A.C. Grayling

Poets
Ben Johnson
Wilfred Owen
Gerard Manley Hopkins
T.S. Eliot,
Browning
Wordsworth
Auden
Baudelaire
Poe
Betjeman
Armitage
quite a few people on this site I won't embarrass them but most are in EDP somewhere already

What's your biggest influence?

My biggest influence has been Writewords.
Having people respond to what you write is crucial. I'd be the first to admit I don't like to be criticised but when I put up my first effort and got a Wow! It made a difference. And when someone told me my dialogue for, A Trip to Tangier sucked, I didn¡¦t like it but I rewrote it - and rewrote it - and rewrote it and now it's one of my favourite pieces. I've learned to listen - I might cry a bit, suck my thumb and pout - but I listen. And, when I get depressed and want to pack in, I hear Prospero's (John Ritchie's) voice in my head saying: Don't Diss Yourself Girl. I'd say, the most valuable lessons you can learn are to listen and keep trying. Never forget that child who wanted to be a poet/novelist/writer or what it took to get to where you are.



Breakthrough moments?

They are all breakthrough moments!
I had a most read story at EDF.
The Micro Horror Competition in 2007 - I'd never written a horror story before. Then I won! Then last year I won again! (Two wonderful prizes, by the way.)
I was incredibly honoured to be a judge in the 2008 Shine Journal Poetry Contest.
I've had work chosen by the editors of Bewildering Stories for their Reviews.
I'm in 3 anthologies and just got commissioned for a horror one.
One of my poems just got honoree at The Binnacle Ultra Shorts competition. Every time I get one of those e-mails
BwS has agreed to publish my Genie in Jam series (face aches)





A longer version of this interview is available to WriteWords Full and Community Members.
Click here to learn more about becoming a member.

View V'yonne's WriteWords profile







Comments by other Members


Posted by :  optimist at 11:41 on 26 August 2009
Great interview Oonah - you are an inspiration!

Sarah
Posted by :  V`yonne at 12:01 on 26 August 2009
The poems Sarah - send the poems!
Read the WriteWords interview with Oonah Joslin (V`yonne)
Posted by :  Prospero at 12:12 on 26 August 2009
I'm not going to say I told you so, (G'wan, g'wan) all right then. I TOLD YOU SO!

But apart from you and yours, I can't believe anybody is happier about your sucess.

Very well done.

Best

Sean
Posted by :  V`yonne at 12:33 on 26 August 2009
Thank you Sean
Read the WriteWords interview with Oonah Joslin (V`yonne)
Posted by :  crowspark at 12:57 on 26 August 2009
Excellent interview, Oonah! Yes, you are an inspiration.

Bill
Posted by :  Beanie Baby at 14:26 on 26 August 2009
Brilliant Oonah. I love reading these interviews because they seem to bring us more together as real people rather than just names on a screen. You really ARE an inspiration and I wish you all the luck in the world.
Beanie.
Posted by :  V`yonne at 14:31 on 26 August 2009
Bill and Jillian, thank you both. Moat kind.
Read the WriteWords interview with Oonah Joslin (V`yonne)
Posted by :  Findy at 16:51 on 26 August 2009
Oonah great going

Agree with the others, you are an inspiration.

findy
Posted by :  Bunbry at 17:58 on 26 August 2009
Hi Oonah, what a nice thing to say about Write Words being an influence. I agree it's tough hearing less than fulsome praise for your work, but it's how we grow and get better!

Great interview - keep up the good work.

Nick
Posted by :  tiger_bright at 18:48 on 26 August 2009
Excellent interview, Oonah!

Tiger
Posted by :  V`yonne at 20:32 on 26 August 2009
Thank you Findy, Nick, Sarah. I only said it like it is, Nick.
Read the WriteWords interview with Oonah Joslin (V`yonne)
Posted by :  Indira at 06:27 on 27 August 2009
Congratulations Oonah. Well done!
Sorry you aren't doing short stories anymore - at least not on the WW-SS group.
Indira
Posted by :  V`yonne at 10:01 on 27 August 2009
Thanks Indira,
I still do flash fiction but I never got those women's fiction taken by anybody so thay can't be that good. Never mind!
Read the WriteWords interview with Oonah Joslin (V`yonne)
Posted by :  Nella at 12:32 on 27 August 2009
Excellent, Oonah. I so much agree with what you say about WriteWords. I was happy to hear that your Jam Genie stories will be in BWS. Good luck with the publishing! I'm looking forward to seeing your collection of poems in a bookstore one of these days.
Robin
Posted by :  V`yonne at 16:02 on 27 August 2009
Me too Robin - let's not hold our breath eh?
Read the WriteWords interview with Oonah Joslin (V`yonne)
Posted by :  joanie at 15:59 on 29 August 2009
Great interview, Oonah!

joanie
Posted by :  V`yonne at 17:15 on 29 August 2009
Thanks Joanie.
Read the WriteWords interview with Oonah Joslin (V`yonne)
Posted by :  titania177 at 09:21 on 01 September 2009
Wonderful interview, Oonah, wishing you enormous success with EDP and looking forward to seeing your collection in print soon!

Tania x
Read the WriteWords interview with Tania Hershman (titania177)
Posted by :  V`yonne at 14:24 on 01 September 2009
I have to send it somewhere first tnen, I suppose Tania. Congrats on your best seller status in Salt and 1st birthday of the book.
Read the WriteWords interview with Oonah Joslin (V`yonne)
Posted by :  purpletandem at 13:14 on 22 September 2009
I too am a fan of The Great Divorce. I didn't know anyone else had read it!!


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