"
Clare Latremouille is previously from parts unknown (mostly
Kamloops, BC, with a bit of Toronto, Vancouver, Chilliwack, Victoria, and just a dash of
Nanaimo thrown in for good measure. She has little or no recollection of her years in the town of
Alexandria in
Glengarry County, Ontario, although there is some sort of statuette in her honour in the park, or at least that's what the nice man told her...) Anyhoo, she is now a full time writer, which means she does anything and everything to avoid actually sitting downand writing, spending hours cleaning the litter box rather than picking up a pen, which would be much more sensible if she actually owned a cat... She presently has dreams of being a wildly successful writer and artist, but will in all likelihood only achieve her previous childhood dream of growing a really cool moustache. . ."
She is the author of the novel
The Desmond Road Book of the Dead (Chaudiere Books, 2006), the poetry chapbook
I will write a poem for you. Now: (above/ground press, 1995), and has had poetry and fiction appearing in a number of publications, including
ottawater,
graffito: the poetry poster,
paperplates: a magazine for fifty readers,
The Peter F. Yacht Club, and the anthologies
Written in the Skin (Insomniac Press, 1998),
Shadowy Technicians: New Ottawa Poets (Broken Jaw Press, 2000),
groundswell: the best of above/ground press, 1993-2003 (
Broken Jaw Press, 2003) and
Decalogue 2: ten Ottawa fiction writers (
Chaudiere Books, 2007).
My first book changed my life in that I can no longer go home for the holidays.
2 - How long have you lived in Ottawa, and how does geography, if at all, impact on your writing? Does race or gender make any impact on your work?
I have lived in Ottawa for a long long long longloooooong time ... over a fifth of my life so far ...(now I am afraid, and just a little depressed). Geography impacts my writing in as much as I am trapped in house all “Freezing-Rain Season (October to May-ish) and am forced to write out of sheer desperation. And although I myself rarely race anymore, I am very fond of gender.
3 - Where does a poem or piece of fiction usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning? A poem generally sneaks up on me, and whacks me on the side of the head when I am not paying attention. Fiction is even more devious, and appears and disappears without warning whenever I am as far from a pencil or computer as humanly possible, usually in the midst of something inappropriate, or sometimes vaguely illegal. I spend a lot of writing time coercing these magical ideas back from the magical nether-worlds into my head and onto the paper/screen, a process involving ridiculous quantities of caffeine and even more ridiculous quantities of
Tom Jones albums. At the moment I am leaning toward the “book” mode of writing, although it is hard, and sometimes puts my leg to sleep.
4 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process?
Oh, I just love them. They are like mother’s milk to me...
5 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficultor essential (or both)?
I am an extremely difficult, and yet essential sort of person myself, and so was pleased to find I was able to offer editors a run for their money (if in fact actual money is involved in Canadian writing and/or editing, which I am personally skeptical of at this time).
6 - When was the last time you ate a pear?
You are a nosey thing, aren’t you? Well, if you must know, I had one for a morning snack today – a lovely, juicy, golden, politically-correct, organic, locally-produced
Bartlett pear, picked at the peak of its little pear life, and presented to me in all its glowing yellow goodness by my glowing white “life-partner,” Bryan (AKA husband.)
*NOTE: I made the last bit up. I had to get it myself out of the fridge, while Bryan was looking up lame facts on the Internet in the next room. Although it is true he is very white, and should get out more . . .
7 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
“Save your fork; there’s going to be pie! And fellowship.”
*NOTE: Even I have no idea what that last bit means. It is, strangely enough, an actual quote... And yes rob, you still owe my uncle a piece of pie. The fact that he has since passed away does not let you off the hook, damn you and your pie-eating ways . . .
8 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (poetry to fiction)? What do you see as the appeal?
I am extremely interested in writing extremely long, complicated, and unduly incomprehensible fiction, chock-full of obscure meaning and riddled with subtext, which English literature students will be forced to read until they weep and gnash their teeth, and I will laugh and laugh whilst I twirl about in my doubtlessly shallow and possibly unmarked grave. Poetry is so easy, so dammed short – you have such little scope for annoying people, and must resort to other tactics (see Question #4 above).
9 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
Oh, I like to get up just a little late, lurch jauntily down the stairs, frantically bark orders ateveryone from my nine-year old son Sam to the senile
Siamese cat, have a pot or two or something caffeinated, make lunches, sign papers, make snarky comments to glowing “life partner,” drag son to school, mill about at second-hand store on way home, hide really cool “Barreta” home game under the back porch so that glowing “life partner” does not find it, finally look at self in mirror, remove toast crumbs from eyebrow, brush hair, brush eyebrows, get dressed, inhale more caffeine and single perfect organic, locally grown
Bartlett pear, and then settle in for a full hour or two of checking email, seeing how much our house is worth now, and looking for free puppies on
EBay, before “Writing Time” actually commences, usually about ten minutes before my son is due home on the bus.
*NOTE: This description is frighteningly accurate. In speaking it out loud, I am ashamed and yet somehow relieved, as if a great burden has been lifted off my foot...
*NOTE: I love the lame, yet lingering melodrama that is ellipsis...
10 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
What is the old saying? 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration? Disgusting. I’m all for waiting until the
Muses pick you up and carry you, kicking and screaming to your keyboard, and squish your little fingers randomly down on the keys until you produce a masterpiece. You and the little monkeys with typewriters. . . (And no, I don’t mean
Davy Jones ...).
11 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art? I love Everything! But most of all . . . Oh, I just can’t decide! Everything it is!
12 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Is there something I haven’t yet done yet? Good God! I’m getting right on that!
13 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I’ve always dreamed of becoming a derelict, although for quite a time, in my youth, I was entranced by the idea of becoming a wolf, and spent a good deal of my childhood and teenage years lurking about the side of the house, growling.
14 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
Satan. I’m pretty sure. Yep. Satan.
15 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
16 - What are you currently working on?
I am really and truly working on a graphic novel for children, as well as a novel involving (in some mysteriously spiritual and yet sleazy way)
Tom Jones, and a new poetry manuscript, and another graphic novel not nearly so serious and pretentious as the other one, and a third one much more serious and pretentious than the lot of them, and yet another book, even more serious and pretentious than all of the above, and heads and shoulders (knees and toes) over
The Desmond Road Book of the Dead, by
Clare Latremouille, (AKA me), a glorious and largely overlooked masterpiece which (after long contemplation and careful consideration), turns out to be the best book ever.
Sorry, rob . . .
Clare Latremouille reads next in Ottawa on Tuesday, October 23rd at the Royal Oak II Pub as part of the TREE Reading Series.
"Clare Latremouille is previously from parts unknown (mostly Kamloops, BC, with a bit of Toronto, Vancouver, Chilliwack, Victoria, and just a dash of Nanaimo thrown in for good measure. She has little or no recollection of her years in the town of Alexandria in Glengarry County, Ontario, although there is some sort of statuette in her honour in the park, or at least that's what the nice man told her...) Anyhoo, she is now a full time writer, which means she does anything and everything to avoid actually sitting downand writing, spending hours cleaning the litter box rather than picking up a pen, which would be much more sensible if she actually owned a cat... She presently has dreams of being a wildly successful writer and artist, but will in all likelihood only achieve her previous childhood dream of growing a really cool moustache. . ."