Meet your fellow writer, Carmen Lane
Meet your fellow writer, Carmen Lane
Meet your fellow writer, Carmen Lane
Carmen Lane is a Pacific Northwest writer and artist based in Olympia, Washington. When she’s not crafting content in her little art studio, you might find her avoiding writing by watching movies, reading, traveling, enjoying the company of her partner Julie, or being at the beck and call of a sweet, sassy 14-year-old tabby cat (named Cheryl Strayed) who adopted them both. With an abiding love for the lush evergreen rainforests and waters of the Salish Sea and the Great Pacific Ocean, Carmen draws inspiration from the beauty, quirks, and sometimes terror of life in Cascadia.
(She also happens to be the founder and host of Cascadia Writers.)
Meet your fellow writer, Carmen Lane
Meet your fellow writer, Carmen Lane
Current project: Way too many writing projects started, not enough finished, honestly. It is a battle to grant myself permission to write what I like, as I like, how I like, and without fear of judgment or retribution. So yeah, naturally I started this little writers group a few years ago to help avoid facing my own writing demons by championing other writers to do what? To sit down and write. Isn't life funny.
What do I currently write? Mostly nonfiction business content (read: boring) and training materials for my work. Necessary but not exciting or entertaining. At all.
What do I WANT to write? Well, more nonfiction. I'd love to interview others and be able to tell their stories. I can envision awesome and nerdy books filled with interviews of established and yet undiscovered Pacific Northwest writers. Or a series filled with the stories and sagas of our local PNW commercial and charter fishing captains. Like television's "Deadliest Catch" but in book format for people like me who want to be entertained and inspired, and yet also learn something new in the process. (Quick! Somebody please write those books!)
I am in equal parts drawn to and repelled by my obsessive need to write of horrific recurring nightmares -- some of which have terrorized me for as long as I can remember. Horror fiction then, if you force me to pinpoint a genre, involving orcas and great white sharks (of course!), tsunamis and tidal waves (of course!), bears, ghosts, witches, monsters, aliens, and good old-fashioned psycho murderers. You know, "the uzhe". Fear of being abused and/or murdered by one or more estranged siblings and others is a recurring theme that keeps me glancing over my shoulder IRL and wishing sleep wasn't a biological requirement. These are the kinds of nightmares that I could see morph into a collection of short stories, possibly a novel, possibly even a screenplay. Or it might just remain a primitive personal diary. I keep telling myself that if absolutely nothing further comes from my writing, maybe the act of capturing these nightmares is enough to banish them, or weaken their grip so they no longer haunt me. Therapy-schmerapy. Maybe it is possible to write it all away.
Life is good. I want to end this blurb on a positive because I have been on this earth long enough to recognize how lucky I am. I have good health and a kind, faithful, funny, loving spouse; a sweet kitty; a safe warm home; a comfortable bed; enough food to eat; a reliable car; money to pay bills/money to spend; toys and technology to play with; and lots of other people and critters to love and be loved by. So yes of course I am grateful for this wonderful life. And my busy brain that gives me nightmares also sees fit to provide me with hilarious dreams (the kind where I literally laugh myself awake) and funny thoughts to say aloud to make my friends and family laugh and fun ideas which may also be worth writing about. Maybe this could all be comedy, if I looked at it in just the right way. Nearly any situation can be funny with enough time. Or wine. And that's what I'll keep telling myself. Cheers! ~Carmen