5 Question Interview Series with Kimberly Reed”

Elizabeth interviews Kimberly Reed..read it here

5 Question Interview Series with Kit Anderson

Kit Anderson a producer, writer, director and author of “Never Cry Jack” has graciously agreed to take part in my ongoing “5 Question Interview Series.”

Amazon.com editorial description of Anderson book:

“Jack Champagne wanted the life, liberty and hot pursuits promised to her. She traded a world of tall trees, dirt bikes and milk money stains for a Big Apple American Dream. Her story begins with Monday Night Footbal, bobble head Jesus, a clock blinking eights and a cassette tape. It ends on blood letter print, the iPod, a Glock 27 and a crimson tulip growing from cracked mortar and broken eggshells. This is her life. This is Jack in Manhattan 1996-2001. Don't mind the smoke... “


How and when did you get started as a writer?

I’ve always been a storyteller. As a boy, my mother would sit me down and say, “Kit—That’s a good story, but you do know that actually never happened.” Typically, I would defend the story, passionately claiming it was true and honestly confused when realizing, indeed... It was only a story. “Only a story” I could sound off on that, but I’ll just say this. “Only a story” is akin to looking at the heavens and saying, “It’s only a bunch of rocks and gas floating around.” When I was ten or eleven, I wrote a 200-page story about an epic battle, being waged in the carpeting of my Lego room. The Carpet Commandos and Rug Rat Rebels were fighting WWIII and I was the only person aware of the conflict, so I wrote about it. I’m not sure what happened to that story, probably on a floppy disk somewhere. In college, a Creative Writing professor told me to switch from Graphic Design to his curriculum, but I rejected the idea. I hated studying anything creative shackled to a desk in a sterile classroom. I announced, “I am a writer—but I will write when I have something to talk about. Right now, I’m late for a snowboarding competition.”

What are the major challenges that you have faced in your career?

Major challenges? Does putting food on the table count? My career as a professional artist is brand new. I spent 10 years pursuing a professional snowboarding dream, but eight concussions turned my head into an eggshell and I got bumped out of all my snowboarding sponsorships and replaced by some seventeen-year-old kid. The same week, a truck ran over my rice-burner. Then a buddy was murdered, then a couple more... I broke down. Now, I have to write. It’s survival. It’s how I’ve learned to function. It’s a compulsion. Without a notebook nearby—Well, I just keep one with me all the time. We don’t have to talk about me without the notebook nearby. I don’t like that version of me. I like me as a writer—it’s the most stable version of me yet. Maybe, I’m just growing up.

Why did you choose to license your book with a Creative Commons copyright?

Why license through the creative commons? I became a fan in 2004. I had just finished making a movie with my production partner Ben Mahoney of http://web.mac.com/freshuan/iWeb/FreshuanFilms/Freshuan.html—Ben is the one who got me into making movies. I didn’t know you could do that. I thought rich people made movies, but he showed me some stuff he’d made. He told me to spend the insurance money from my wrecked rice-burner on a camera. I bought the camera the next day. I started shooting the snowboard park at Breckenridge, Colorado. It was a role-reversal for me. I was behind a camera now—Anyways, two years later I had moved to Lake Tahoe, California and finished shooting a movie we called Gapers Gone Wild. It was a quirky satire we billed as “The Most Extreme Movie Ever Made”. One day I get a letter--Girls Gone Wild is suing us. I got well versed in copyright and trademark law, really quickly. We won. We kept the name, but I learned some things. The simple fact is this—if we don’t change the laws, we will destroy a hundred years of creativity in American arts. The current laws are driven by purely capitalistic engines and are completely disconnected from the nature of the creative process. Read Ezekiel. There is nothing new under the sun. What you say is not unique—language is shared. Our voice is unique, not what we say. No one else can tell the story of Jack and the Beanstalk quite like me. That’s the fun. This “life of the artist—plus 70 years”… Let me put it this way: If Napoleon was born today--His last name would be Disney.

What inspires you? How do you stay motivated?

What inspires me? Well, I feel like I covered that earlier, but motivation can be difficult. I don’t have a problem being creative all the time, writing, drawing, shooting, whatever—mostly my big issue is focus. I do a lot of visualization techniques, something I learned from snowboarding. I also pay attention to my diet. I also adopted a kind of monastic existence. Everything I have right now is listed at my old blog, with the addition of my cowboy hat, new boots and jacket. I like it simple—real simple. Inside my head is complicated enough. Got to stay Zen, or things get ugly quick.

What’s next for you? New book, Movie deals?

What’s next? Currently I’m working on a series of short films on the American Dream. A feature length movie adaptation of my novel called Luxury-and-the-AfterBang is in pre-production right now. I also just finished a two year project with the mathematicians called Transdimensional Odyssey of Doom. It’s footage from over 100 shows and two national tours, combined with some badass anime we made. Anyone in Washington DC for the inauguration can party with me and Mathematicians at the http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/. I’m also producing a new western on snowmobiles that is something like a Mad-Max/Point-Break mash-up based on a true story. We’re working on financing now. Anyone interested in being a part of that project can contact me through my Kit Anderson. The next novel is in pre-writing now and tentatively titled “Once Upon A Black Flag; Blood”. It is a historical fiction piece about my ancestor Bloody Bill Anderson. He taught Frank and Jesse James outlawry, led the first train robbery and the first daylight bank robbery in American history, and was the first to fly the black flag without skull and crossbones. Anything else? Let me think… That’s all that’s fit to mention right now. anyone interested in my novel or any of my other projects should exploit these links:file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/craigja/Desktop/www.kitanderson.com & Never Cry Jack: A Novel.

5 Question Interview Series with David Burke

Elizabeth interviewed David Burke, (click her to read the interview).

5 Question Interview Series with Peter Kater

Peter Kater is a Multi-Platinum Selling pianist-composer, Kater, has received 5 Grammy nominations in the last 5 years and has scored over 100 television programs and films including 11 Off and On-Broadway plays. He is also a proud recipient of the prestigious Environmental Leadership Award from the United Nations.

Kater graciously agreed to take part in my ongoing “5 Question Interview Series”



How long have you had an interest in healing music?
I think since I was a teenager I was attracted to playing music that simply made me feel "good". There was a lot of family stress, illness and death around me and suddenly my music veered from Rock and Top 40 to my own improvisations. And in playing these improvisations I felt I was somehow helping to bring myself into a greater balance and deeper peace.

What is healing music and methods for stimulating healing?
There are many theories around what healing music is. I've read many and studied a few. But it's my belief that the most poignant and powerful healing music comes when the composer or performer (in this case, me) is expressing from a deep place of healing, presence and peace. There has to be a huge degree of acceptance and inclusion energetically. The mind needs to take a back seat and allow what's "essential" to emerge. In a sense, one must access the "divine" from within and communicate it thru one's instrument.

What was the “click” (or) “it” moment of your life that you knew that healing music was a passion that you needed to explore and develop?
I never had that "click" or moment. I've always had a sense that what I do naturally and easily is in many ways my strongest and most unique expression. Even though I've explored and will continue to explore other forms of music and sound, my love for music that heals and brings peace to my Self and others will always be where I return to.


What inspires your creative process to write music for the sole purpose of healing? Better question yet, how do you know when music develops into healing music?
There's a certain kind of "listening" that's essential to creating what I would call "healing"music. I've always said that music is not really a "Creative" process. It's a "Receptive" process. People that pride themselves in being Creative are often coming from their ego and are trying to take credit for what naturally exists in all the Universe . . . Creation. Every moment of life and every aspect of life is miracle of creation. There is no linear or tangible explanation for how all this exists and why. Life, in itself is the ultimate creative act. And that includes every moment, circumstance, person and living thing. And since everything is alive you don't have to look very far for inspiration. I don't try and write music for the sole purpose of healing. I allow myself to be a vehicle for the expression of what's "true" in any given moment. And what's "true" is everything, not just the pretty stuff. But all life is an expression of light and dark, happiness and sorrow, birth and death. To deny one is to deny the other. One needs to embrace all of it to become whole.

Your current collaboration CD: “In a Dream” with Dominic Miller is transcendental music. It has quickly become one of my all time favorites. Do you think that you and Miller will have any future partnerships?

I truly hope that Dominic and I will do more music together. And I think we will. We have a synergy together that I think is very beautiful and interesting.


***Bonus Question***

How does a guy who is born in Germany and raised in New Jersey develop a passion for Native American music, which led to winning United Nations Environment Leadership Award?
I guess one step at time.

5 Question Interview Series with Charlotte Rains Dixon

Charlotte Rains Dixon is a freelance writer, novelist, copywriter, ghostwriter and creative writing teacher living in Portland. Charlotte has a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and is the editor of “Book Strumpet” and the author of the “Word Strumpet” blog. Dixon graciously agreed to take part in my ongoing “5 Question Interview Series”.


What’s a Word Strumpet & why name your blog after a Middle English name for a prostitute?

A wordstrumpet is someone who can’t get enough writing, or enough words. The implication being that the prostitute can’t get enough sex, which is probably an erroneous assumption, but oh well. And thank you for knowing what the word strumpet means, you’d be surprised how many people don’t. My inspiration for the name comes from how we say (at least I do) “I’m an email whore” or “I’m a slut for email.” Kind of along those lines. Most people intuitively get it. I’ve also had people think the title means Words Trumpet, which also makes sense so I guess its okay.

Why blog? How did you get started with blogging?

I was actually trying to remember the other day what motivated me to start blogging. I can’t remember the exact inspiration. I was doing a lot of copywriting for the internet and I needed a website and a blog seemed to be the easiest way to get one. Now I think of it as sort of a website/blog hybrid, which I think is becoming more and more common. Often I land on traditional websites and get bored, thinking, where’s all the new info? The updates? The interesting personal stuff?

What inspires you? How do you stay motivated?

Oh God, that’s such a good question. What inspires me? I don’t even know. Life, the people in my life, family, friends, the absolute absurdity of the human condition. Love, wanting to figure it out (when really it’s very simple), relationships, helping others. One of my writing mentors, Melissa Pritchard, once said that to be a good writer you have to know a lot about life. I think that’s true—and I also think that I, at least, figure life out as I write about it. Making up stories about my life gives it meaning. How do I stay motivated? Trying to figure the next thing out. Also, I’ve reached the point in my life where I don’t seem to be able to stop writing. Whether it is for self-initiated projects or for others, I’m writing a lot every day. I’ve said this a million times, but for me, writing truly is like breathing. I just don’t get how people live without it.

On the completion of your novel: How did writing a book that you knew would be read so closely by your blog audience compare with writing the blog?

It’s funny, the blog is very free form to me. I get an idea for a post, and sometimes it is just a vague idea based on my writing life, and I start writing and it just flows. Often the posts end up being way longer than I think they are going to be when I’ve started. In some respects, writing the novel was the same way, at least in the first draft. After that, there’s a lot more shaping involved, since the plot has to work and the characters need an arc and all that. I try not to be too specific about my novel in the blog, my idea being that readers want to read about the process of writing it, not the novel itself. So it will be interesting to see the reaction when it is published.

Your life seems to be a journey that is totally expressed by blogging: Do we know the real you or do you keep a private life that is not told to your readers?

I’d probably panic if I went back and read all my past posts and realized how much of myself I’ve revealed. But in truth, I write so much that I tend to write things and forget about them. I’m on to the next thing. The thought occurs that this could be a self-protective mechanism. I’m halfway toying with the idea of starting a memoir next, so what you don’t get from the blog you’ll probably get in there. I’d say people get about 90% of the real me. Everybody deserves a few secrets, don’t you think?