STORYTIME TAPESTRY

Nicole Stevenson??™s Weekly Column

Fireside Chat ??“ Featuring ??“ Debra Shiveley, writer and editor for Storytime Tapestry Jr. Newsletter

July 12, 2005

Branching Out

written by Nicole M. Stevenson

*****************************Debra Shiveley lives with her family in

 Columbus, Ohio near a lake and enjoys her calm surroundings. Her natural enviroment has proven to be an excellant backing for her writings.

What made you feel compelled to write?

I really don??™t know.  I have been writing since I can remember: poetry, short stories, essays.  It??™s always been a part of me.  My grandfather was a poet and published many poems during the thirties and early forties under the pen name "Proxy," my father was a poet published under the pseudonym Proxy II" and my mother wrote poetry as well.  I guess it's in the genes.

Maybe it was when I was nine-years-old.  My mother and father divorced when I was a baby and I??™d only seen my father once, at age four.  Here he was, in the flesh again, and I was totally smitten.  He sat me down at the kitchen table, handed me a pencil and some paper.  ???Did you know that you can write poetry? No?  Well, you can.  Here??™s your theme.???

He gave me the title and first stanza of a poem that his father had written and then passed on to my father to write his version.  Now it was my turn.  It was called ???Poetry Problems??? which I used as the title of my newspaper column in the Seventies.

What genre do you write in and have you ever thought of writing in another?

I write poetry, essays, articles and fictional novels.  This past winter I completed a murder mystery with my cousin, titled ???Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams,"  have recently sold a children??™s book called ???A Very Special Child??? and have just gotten the thumbs up for a non-fiction work ???Letters to Christopher.???  I am now working on a Native American based fictional novel, which has tentative approval, titled ???Cedar Woman.???

I would very much like to do an historically based novel in the near future.

Explain to me as a reader what makes your writing style so unique?

What makes any style unique?  When you pick up a novel, you don??™t have to see Stephen King??™s name on the cover to know who wrote the book.  How do you define his style?

I guess, if I had to pick an aspect of my writing that would reflect my ???voice??? it would be the fact that I write with a lot of emotion.  I like to pull my reader in and make them a part of the story.  If I don??™t make you laugh, cry or sigh, I haven??™t done my job.

I also like to include dialects in my writing.  Words have always fascinated me and they come in so many flavors.  I like to reflect that in my work.

Have you ever thought about giving up writing?

Never!  I have been scolded, badgered, bullied and nagged to stop.  I was told I would never be published.  But I couldn??™t stop any more than I could stop breathing.

Can you tell us a little more about your website?

I have many: www.merribuck.com is my family website which reflects life on a lake, pets, family values, friends; www.adoptmeplease.com is a website which encourages the adoption of children born with cleft lip and palate and other craniofacial anomalies and I am assistant web master for www.widesmiles.org, a support and informational site for families and persons dealing with cleft lip and palate; www.eaglewingsfarms.com is a website with information on my and my sisters Native American Paint Horse rescue farm; http://www.medievalrenaissancecookery.com/ is a website with authentic recipes from the medieval and renaissance eras;  http://www.americancuisine.info includes recipes from all over the united states.  It is still a work in progress; www.standswithwings.com has just been brought up and is under construction.  It will contain the web sets that I have created; www.whodathunk.org will go up when my first book is out this fall.  It will be the vehicle from which I promote my writings.

Debra - Mitakuye oyasin - We are all related.


I firmly believe that I have received the same child I was meant to receive whether I gave birth or adopted.  The same soul, the same entity was meant to be mine from the beginning of time. Debra Welch

Debra, Mark, Christopher, Bilbo Baggins (White Face Cinnamon Pearl Pied Cockatiel Hen), PippinOz Larrikin (Yellow Face Pearl Cockatiel Male), Arwen Evenstar (White Face Cinnamon Pied Cockatiel Male), Kelly Belle (Female Yellow Lab Mix), TotoOz (Male Yorkshire Terror) and a baby Timneh African Gray named Layla - Ohio
We love our life on the lake where birds and animals of every description abound
www.merribuck.com
"Making the decision to have a child is momentous -- it is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
- Elizabeth Stone."