Meet Miriam E. Waters

Many of our writers prefer to publish under a pseudonym. Such a one is our colleague Miriam, who many of you know by sight if you have attended any of the writers group meetings this year. She's a regular there, and has become a great help to your blog host/editor in the past several months. We're proud to feature her as September writer of the month. Here is Miriam's story in her own words:

Once again I find that sleep is eluding me. What better time than now to share some thoughts on how I came to be at this point in my writing career?

I fell asleep one night while reading a passage from The Golem and the Jinni (Helene Wecker) through no fault of the book’s author. The story is extremely well written. It is rich with descriptive text and a unique narrative. I’m especially fond of her handling of the dream sequences in the story. Achieving the caliber of her writing in my own works is something I hope to accomplish.

Ms. Wecker’s writing on dreams prompted me to begin the interesting exercise of transcribing my stained, torn, and mildewed journals and printing them onto fresh paper. I completed four journals. These journals contain my earliest attempts at writing. Some of the material holds promise for jumping-off points for new pieces. The most recent example of this recycling of ideas was the naming my eclectic blog, “Gillowbugs & Daisy Tales” http://gillowbugs.blogspot.com .

A sampler from her Gillowbugs & Daisy Tales Blog

The title was taken from a dream noted in the journals. The exercise helped me to slip back in time to bear witness to my life. Even though the material is over an unbelievable 40-years-old, it still evoked memories of the events that sparked the journal entries. Some of the writing exhumed painful memories as I tended to write when I was disturbed by events in my life.

The descriptions are of my emotional intelligence at the time of writing as opposed to a literal description of my surroundings and the events that shaped my early life. The writing is cryptic and disjointed and reflects the manner in which thoughts occur to me and are captured for future reflection. Dreams, colors, fears, joys, and life spent dancing gaily on the edge of the world are examined in those pages.

My current writing style continues to be influenced by those early journal entries. These more recent examples of my rambling style can be found on “Last Darn Rites” http://lastdarnrites.blogspot.com and the constellation of the “Whitesboro Writers’ Group’s” blogs. A recent foray into a collaborative round-robin exercise produced “Underweb Chronicles”, at this link http://plottersink.blogspot.com/p/underweb-chronicles-table-of-contents.html .

Life, “Gillowbugs & Daisy Tales,” and what-have-you remain works in progress.

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Miriam will also soon be a published author, with stories appearing in several anthologies of fiction from Horrified Press.