Author Interview

Check out a recent blogger interview with StoryForce author Meghan Nuttall Sayres on Books and Movies' Literary Road Trip.

Interview submitted by Carrie Kitzmiller

Can you tell us a little bit about your journey as a writer? Was it something you always wanted to do?

Meghan: “Writing was not something I went to school for or even thought about until after graduate school. However, while taking courses in political science my papers tended to morph toward qualitative essays. The first piece I ever published was about a rock art restoration project in Castle Dale, Utah. The article was so long, and unedited, that the newspaper there had to publish it in two parts. But, that project led to a children’s book on rock art, which was bought by the press that published my picture book The Shape of Betts Meadow: A Wetland’s Story.”

Where do you get the ideas for your writing?

Meghan: “From all the exploring and stumbling around I do in life. My ideas might come from people I meet, a far away place or time, even an unusual artifact that seems to find me.”

Read more at: http://booksandmovies.colvilleblogger.com/2009/08/27/literary-road-trip-author-meghan-nuttall-sayres/

Upcoming Events

Monday Aug 24rth, 10:30am, Clear Water Institute Books in the Park, Moscow, Idaho. I will read from my book The Shape of Betts Meadow: A Wetlands Story.

Tuesday Aug 25th, 7pm, Moscow Library (sponsored also by Book People, an independent bookstore in Moscow, Idaho), Iran: A Weaver's Perspective about my recent trip to Iran to weave on a World Peace Carpet and discussion on Anahita's Woven Riddle, my novel about a nomadic carpet weaver.

Monday September 14th, 6:30-9pm, University of Utah Life Long Learning Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. Iran Experiential Class.

---Meghan Nuttall Sayres

Contest at Eye Feathers

I'm on the verge of finishing a major revision of my MG novel. Despite temperatures in the high 90's for the last week, I have persevered at my keyboard with no air conditioning. I've been writing seven-days a week since the beginning of July and making great progress. However, this morning the procrastination bug bite me.

That's how I stumbled upon this contest over at Tara McClendon's blog Eye Feathers. Tara is a freelance writer currently working on a young adult novel about fairies. She also works as an editor for InspirationForWriters.com. Here's what she says about her first contest: "I’m giving away a 10,000 word edit, which equates to a $300 value. I’m going to host this for an entire month, so I’ll draw a winner on September 1, 2009."

I will have my revision complete by September 1st. Just in time to win an edit from Tara! See, procrastination isn't so bad after all.

Writing Fiction About the Prophet Muhammad, continued...

Here is a view into one of my personal hurdles while working on this collection. I had initially set out to write a story about how the Prophet Muhammad’s wife Khadijeh supported him both financially and spiritually. I found the makings of the plot in one of the hadith’s (an historic account of the Prophet’s life), which explained how difficult of a time Muhammad had when he was receiving his revelations. He lost sleep and questioned himself. From this premise, I wrote a story full of detail and tension. Months slipped by as I worked hard at pulling quotes of the Prophet from the Qur’an and using them for his dialogue. When finished I sent my draft to our Muslim proof readers with much anticipation. Their response was less enthusiastic than I had hoped for. “You cannot not describe the Prophet as having ‘walnut brown hair,’” my consultant said. “You should not imply that Muhammad suffered any strife, and, it is disrespectful to put words into the Prophet’s mouth.”

Hmm, I thought, dropping my pen. Now what? How do I write a story without the conflict that is needed to move a story as well as keep it appealing for the reader? And how am I to write a story about a couple, if I cannot let one of them speak? There has been much written and said in the news, Publishers Weekly and the blogs about recent books and cartoons that have insulted Islam. The debates rage for and against the notion that the world deserves free expression. In my case, I chose to withhold my particular interpretation of this event in Muslim history and scrap my story out of respect. I then set out to write another one. In my view, the point of pulling this collection together was to remind those of the monotheistic faiths that we have common stories we can build upon, which can help bring our people in a closer communion of spirit. Why thwart that possibility by publishing something that might likely offend?

I learned much from the stories of my co-writers Claire Rudolph Murphy, Mary Cronk Farrell, Sarah Conover and Betsy Wharton. This project continues to feed and inform my spiritual life and creative impulses. To my delight, I have since discovered on my travels to the Middle East and Central Asia that women (more so than men) throughout history have been weaving their own interpretations of scriptural stories into carpets, long before they knew how to read and write. I have literally found new and actual threads of these ancient parables to explore. Perhaps a nonfiction story of the richness of monotheistic and other spiritual cultures is on my horizon---illustrated, of course, with rugs.

Photo: I found this image on an Iranian rug of Moses in the reed basket in the Tehran Carpet Bazaar.

---Meghan Nuttall Sayres

Writing Fiction About the Prophet Muhammad

President Barack Hossein Obama’s recent speech on Cairo was an inspiration on a great many of levels, including its literary aspects in which he quoted from the Qur’an, the Talmud and the Bible. Obama called for a need to educate America about Middle Eastern cultures and Islam. As an author of a novel set in Iran, which celebrates the beauty of Islam, the depth of Sufi poetry, and the splendor of hand woven and naturally-dyed carpets from that region, I have long been on the path of offering young readers a window into the Muslim world that delights rather than fosters fear.

In 2003, I joined four other children’s authors at Aunties Bookstore in Spokane, Washington, to launch our collection of short stories Daughters of the Desert: Tales of Remarkable Women From the Christian, Jewish and Muslim Traditions. We introduced our visions of women such as the Judeao-Persian Queen Esther who saved her people; the Jewish prophetess and older sister of Moses, Miriam, who danced with women in praise of God; the unnamed, Christian Canaanite women Eleni, who pleaded with Jesus to heal non Jews; Lydia the purple dye master who supported St. Paul during his stay in Philippi and was his first Christian convert on the continent of Europe; Khadijeh, the Prophet Muhammad’s first wife, employer, and convert to Islam.

As a community of writers we nudged, challenged and supported one another while drafting these stories. We worried that we might not represent these women in the best possible light, particularly the Muslim women since we were all writing out of our own faith traditions. Differences of opinion arose within our group as well as without, such as with our respective Christian, Muslim and Jewish consultants and even our copy editors who felt the need to inject their religious points of views just before going to press. Everyone’s input and interpretations pushed us beyond our assumptions and biases.

Next week I will share one of my personal hurdles while working on this collection.

---Meghan Nuttall Sayres

Eliot Rosewater Award

Anahita's Woven Riddle was among 20 books considered for the 2008-2009 Eliot Rosewater Award, named after the fictional character in books by the Indiana-born author, Kurt Vonnegut, including probably the best known, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The Award was established to honor Vonnegut and other Hoosier writers while at the same encouraging Indiana high school to read for fun and enjoyment.

High School students (grades 9-12) throughout Indiana vote each year on approximately 20 nominated books for the book they enjoy the most. Congratulations to Laurie Halse Anderson who won first place for her novel Twisted.

For more information and the nominee list:

http://www.ilfonline.org/Programs/eliotrosewaterprogram.htm

---Meghan Nuttall Sayres

Weaving Peace In Tehran

Easter Sunday I awoke to Tehran traffic outside my hotel window. Some wrestled the tangle of cars and pedestrians on their way to mass at the nearby Orthodox Church. I prepared for my own spiritual journey, the reason I had traveled through eleven time zones and half way around the world: to weave a knot on Iran’s World Peace Carpet, a project sponsored by UNESCO and the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicraft Organization of Iran. For a tapestry weaver and author (my first novel was inspired by an Afshar tribal rug), tying a goodwill knot on this carpet, along with 700 others from 89 nations, seemed every bit as reverent as attending Easter Mass.

My desire to participate in the Peace Carpet stemmed from a long-held appreciation for Iranian culture, in particular its carpets and poetry, which are often literately woven together. On a visit to the carpet dealers’ bazaar in Tehran I discovered several carpets with phrases of Hafez, Ferdowsi and Sa’adi or pictorial images of these poets incorporated into the design.

I have always admired, if not romanticized, the lives of nomadic peoples and, like Iranian nomads, I learned to raise sheep, spin and dye wool with natural materials, and weave tapestries that are much like Persian gelims. I discovered that colors have meanings and rugs contain amulets against the evil eye. Themes such as these inspired my novel about a young nomadic carpet weaver, which in turn led to an invitation in 2005 to participate in Iran’s First International Children’s Book Festival. I remember how elated I had felt that February morning when my plane touched down on Iranian soil. In love with Iranian culture, I could hardly wait to meet its people, with whom I bonded readily during that trip, often more easily than with people of my own culture.

Thus, when I heard about this UNESCO peace project, I couldn’t think of a more perfect excuse to revisit these friends. It was also a way to release my long-held frustrations over the poor foreign relations between our countries and the palpable mistrust of Iranians among many Americans. I wanted to weave peace in Tehran.

Read more at: www.MeghanNuttallSayres.com