MoAA Interview #24: Gra Linnaea

Today, MoAA is proud to present SF author Gra Linnaea!

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Gra Linnaea & Supercat!Princess Alethea: What’s the best thing about writing? What’s the worst thing about writing? Finish this sentence: “Writing is like…”

Gra Linnaea: This may seem like a cliché, but writing is like a drug. No, seriously. I can’t think of any other non-physical action that gives me such a straight dopamine hit as writing a sentence that works on three levels or figuring out how a character feels in a complicated emotional situation. At the same time, the worst thing about writing is … not writing. On the days that I don’t write, I feel edgy, guilty, I start getting neurotic about my career.

AK: If you could write anywhere in the world, where would it be?

GL: Always cafes. I’m a huge extrovert, so I need people around, even when I’m writing. That said, Café Borghese in Old Nice, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea is about the best one can do for quiet ambiance.

AK: Pick five words to describe your latest work.

GL: Funny, Surreal, Sad, Touching, Different

AK: Pick five words to describe you.

GL: Serious, ridiculous, thoughtful, excited, purple

AK: What’s your favorite type of tree?

GL: Oh, that’s easy. The madrone. I’m completely in love with the Arbutus menziesii. These huge twisty trees shed vivid red paper and reveal alien green/yellow/red skin beneath. I’d love to live in a house surrounded by them.

AK: What were you like in high school?

GL: I was … a misfit. I was kind of a nerd, but my ADHD made it hard to focus in school. I loved punk rock, but couldn’t figure out how to dress to fit in with the punks. I think I never found the keys into any of the major groups

AK: If you could give one piece of advice (writing or otherwise), what
would it be?

GL: Never stop analyzing. Run your work through the wringer every time you create. Never stop looking at yourself with an honest mirror.

AK: The Colin Harvey Memorial Question: What are 3 things you’d like to
do before you die?

GL: Visit every place everywhere. Create a staggering body of work. Live to be 120.

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Grá Linnaea is an editor for Shimmer Magazine and member of the Science Fiction Writers Association. After winning Writers of the Future and attending the 2008 Clarion Workshop, his fiction has appeared in magazines such as Apex, Daily Science Fiction and Intergalactic Medicine Show. His Stoker Award nominated story “Messages From Valerie Polichar” was featured in Shock Totem magazine. He currently has a serial novel, The Curious Investigations of Miranda McGee,” running on his website: http://www.gralinnaea.com/