Local Author Spotlight: Linette Moore
Local Author Spotlight
Linette Moore
Please describe your writing routine. Is there a time of day or place that is most productive for you?
I don’t have a fixed writing routine, which is probably less than ideal. I do seem to have inspiration while I’m in the kitchen, usually doing something mundane like washing the coffee pot. I think it’s the combination of standing up, moving about a little, and keeping the forebrain occupied.
Is there anything in Lowell or in the surrounding area that has inspired your work? Such a place to take nice walks or a piece of artwork?
Some of the inspirations for The Prisoner of Shiverstone were the atrium at the Gardner Museum in Boston, and also Hammond Castle in Gloucester. I would like to incorporate some canals and stonework into a future book.
What do you believe are the most important elements of writing? How do you incorporate it into your own work?
I think it’s important to evoke a sense of place in a story. I try to do this with light and color in my books, but if I were solely a prose writer I would try to sketch in some tactile details of the world through which my characters are moving. It’s tempting to rely too heavily on dialogue to move the story forward.
What advice would you give to a young writer and/or a writer starting their first creative work?
Writing a story is a process of accretion, with indeterminate starting and ending points — it may have had its genesis in something that happened years ago, and only now begin to take some kind of shape in your mind. And it may take some time before it reaches its ideal shape. You have to feel your way to it. Patience is essential, as is a side hustle to keep food on the table.
What were your favorite books when you were a child?
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh, The White Mountains by John Christopher, Maggie and the Pirate by Ezra Jack Keats. Many picture books by Richard Scarry.
Do you have any reading recommendations?
The Lonely City by Olivia Laing, Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany, The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen, The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel.
Linette Moore’s website can be found here. She shares her art on Instagram. Her graphic novel, The Prisoner of Shiverstone, can be purchased on the Abrams website or wherever books are sold.