TT: What is your name?
MB: Michelle Barker
TT: What is your current location?
MB: Naramata, BC (The Okanagan)
TT: What is the name of your story in "Tesseracts Fourteen: Strange Canadian Stories"?
MB: Three Poems, "Near the Ends of Things"
TT: What inspired you to write your story? Each of these poems was written at a separate time but all came out of a workshop I used to be involved in (both in leading and participating) when I lived in Quebec. These workshops are a hands-on writing experience in the spirit of Natalie Goldberg - you keep the hand moving regardless of what comes out. We would do sessions based on different sorts of inspiration - from photographs to poetry to random objects. My prompts tended to be bizarre, so three poems about death were not all that surprising. Unfortunately I don't remember the specific prompts that inspired these particular poems.
TT: Since this collection is about Strange Canadian Stories, what is one of the strangest things that has ever happened to you personally?
MB: Well, once we almost bought a very old house in which - we discovered just in time - a young boy was buried in the basement. He had died of tuberculosis in the 1800s in the middle of a very cold winter and they could not bury him outside because the ground was too frozen, so they buried him in the basement. I believe to this day that house was haunted.
TT: Could you please send me a strange question you would like to ask other authors? This question will be held at the 15 Days of Tesseracts: Bitten by Books event, Friday December 3rd. www.bittenbybooks.com
MB: "If your writing were an animal, which one would it be and why?"
TT: We look forward to seeing your answer to your own question as well. Just a reminder to all, the event will start at 12 pm central, and will feature a variety of the authors from Tesseracts 14 dropping in to answer the strange questions posed to them by both other authors, and viewers posting questions. We look forward to seeing you there at www.bittenbybooks.com
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Michelle Barker lives and writes in the Okanagan region of BC. Her poetry has been published in literary reviews across North America, and a chapbook of her work will be published next year by Leaf Press. She has also published short fiction and last year one of her fantasy stories won honours at the Surrey International Writers' Festival. Her non-fiction work won a gold National Magazine Award and has appeared in newspapers, magazines and literary reviews. She is presently writing a series of fantasy novels for teens. You can find out more about Michelle at www.michellebarker.ca
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