Tell us about yourself and what inspired you to start writing.
As a baby boomer, I grew up at a time when girls were still being conditioned to ‘make nice’, and the catchphrase was ‘Children should be seen and not heard’. (The original form of this proverb was directed at females.) That’s punishing for a girl who’s spirited and thinks outside the square.
And what made it even harder for me was that I often had the urge to laugh at the most inappropriate times. Still do. But I didn’t realise what was driving me until I started writing.
I have an obscene muse!
It took me a while to accept this. But the more I do, the more my creativity flows, unobstructed. And I’m having so much fun now with the things that got me into a lot of shit as a child!
I think I started writing because I needed to find an intimate space—somewhere where I felt safe. I feel that way when I write; it’s the one place I can always be all of me.
Full interview available at this link:
Interview with Paula Houseman, Author of Odyssey in a Teacup and Apoca[hot]lips
