#ThisorThatAuthorInterview with Belinda Betker
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I’d like to welcome Belinda Betker to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!
A few of your favorite things: poetry books, original artworks, and almost all genres of music
Things you need to throw out: I recycle, repurpose, reuse as much as possible, but I do need to reduce the amount of paper I keep, and random other things I keep ‘just in case’ they might be useful some day
Things you need for your writing sessions: my favorite refillable blue ink pens; journals, preferably with ruled lines and built-in ribbon page marker; and really great music (especially CBC’s “After Dark” programming hosted by Odario Williams)
Things that hamper your writing: getting in my own way by getting caught up in distractions rather than just getting straight to my office and journals and PC
Things you love about writing: the constant surprise of starting off with a specific poem idea in mind to write about, but having something else emerge that I like
Things you hate about writing: nothing! I love writing, and everything about it, including exploring topics, getting details right, revising, editing, etc.
Hardest thing about being a writer: dedicating the amount of time to writing that I want to
Easiest thing about being a writer: just sitting down to do it
Favorite foods: potatoes in any form – baked, fried, mashed, roasted, etc.; popcorn; rye toast; home-made soups; all kinds of cheese
Things that make you want to gag: raw bananas (baked is fine), hot chilies, hot peppers
Favorite smell: star-gazer lilies
Something that makes you hold your nose: any burnt food
Something you like to do: read; write; word puzzles; listen to good music; attend concerts, live theatre, musicals, and dance performances; explore art galleries and museums
Something you wish you’d never done: wasted time by procrastinating
Last best thing you ate: home-made tomato soup from my own garden-fresh tomatoes
Last thing you regret eating: that too-sweet icing on a friend’s birthday cake
Things you’d walk a mile for: a visit with a good friend; a bento box lunch at my favourite Japanese restaurant; a trip to an outdoor pool in warm weather
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: meaningless or inane conversations; racist, homophobic, and other discriminatory behaviours and language
Things you always put in your books: poems about lived experiences; connections to inner and outer worlds
Things you never put in your books: gratuitous violence; hatred
Things to say to an author: I loved your poem(s)/book because …(be specific)
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: what do/does your poem(s) mean?
Favorite places you’ve been: boreal forest in autumn northern Saskatchewan; shoreline of any ocean; anywhere in Australia
Places you never want to go to again: any place where I got lost and felt afraid
