Does
every story need a moral?
This week’s Q & A is with contributor
Audrey Austin, who sticks to a one-book-per-year writing
schedule. Today on
CommuterLit we present Audrey’s story
Weaving Alice.CL: Many of your stories
seem to include a protagonist who is helped by God or communicates with God. Is
this reflective of your own personal belief system/faith? How is your faith
reflected in your fiction?AA: A religious person I am not,
however I am a strong woman of faith. When I meet new characters in my short
stories and novels they take on a life of their own. Often no one is more
surprised than me to realize that a character’s comfort or challenge with
religion is often a reflection of my own internal struggle. Fundamentalists of
all religions cause the hairs on my back to stand on end. At an early age I felt
discomfort in the Christian fundamentalist pew in which I was required to sit.
Today I am grateful for this past woe because it set me on a path of learning
and discovery, which has enhanced my life and I hope, in the process, my
creative writing. I am reminded of Rohinton Mistry’s
A Fine Balance —
the balance between hope and despair. To maintain this balance is a fine goal.
The exploration of faith and religion through fictional creative writing is
pleasurable, but always I keep in mind the advice of a dear friend who said to
me, “Beware the one who says he knows.”
CL: What role does faith
play for you in your writing process, and in the pursuit of your writing and
publishing career?AA: It was not until I retired from the
working world that I began my writing career. Faith plays a major role in my
pursuit of publishing success, the definition of which is ever changing in my
mind. I cling, sometimes precariously, to faith in myself, faith in my writing
proficiency accompanied by its own imperfection plus my faith in the wonderful
readers whose encouragement and support keep me writing when sometimes fear —
the opponent of faith — comes knocking on the door.
CL: Do you
think all stories need a moral in them?AA: When I begin to
write a story in no time at all the character(s) take over and I feel as though
I become the student; the observer; the typist who records all that they want to
express. I’m not sure if all stories need a moral. I leave that decision to the
characters because I swear each one has a mind of his own.
CL:
What authors are you currently reading and why?AA: To know and
to understand people, to try to grasp the reasoning behind human behaviour is
the carrot. Since early childhood it has never been enough for me to simply
accept that this is what people do. Always I want to know why people do what
they do. This desire to know is carried over into my writing but also into my
reading. For this reason one of my favourite authors is Rohinton Mistry. I have
read and re-read all his books.
Poppie Nongena by Elsa Joubert offered
a memorable journey and a more recent book I’ve read is
The Help by
Kathryn Stockett.
Today my short story titled Weaving Alice is featured on http://CommuterLit.com
