Author Q&A with Alexis Marie Chute
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? Or what first inspired you to write?
I have been writing since as far back as I can remember—and even before I could hold a pen. As a child, I was very creative and cerebral. I was always coming up with stories and adventures. Fortunately, I didn’t lose that trait as I grew up. I find writing inspiration everywhere, at all times. My brain is a sponge for my environment and stimuli. Sometimes this is overwhelming, but most often I use this hyper-awareness to my advantage.
Where/When do you best like to write?
I like to write surrounded by candles and incense. I cannot have distractions or a busy desk. My music choice is typically classical, like Vivaldi or Mozart, and nothing with words as I find I begin typing what I am listening to. I like to write at my vintage style black wood desk by the window in my room. My actual work-desk in the office is too distracting for me. I don’t have a “best time” to write except when I am crunching a deadline. I love deadlines as external motivators.
Do you have any interesting writing habits or superstitions?
I am far too busy and productive to have useless superstitions about my writing. It has been valuable for me to be disciplined and approach my writing with bootcamp focus. I sit down and work. I love it, but if I only write when I feel like it, I will procrastinate till I’m dead.
When you are struggling to write/have writer’s block, what are some ways that help you find your creative muse again?
Free writing is the best tool I have found to break out of writer’s block. I sit down and simply start typing, no matter what it is. Getting my fingers moving and the mental juices flowing always opens the floodgate eventually.
What do you think makes a good story?
A good story has characters that are simultaneously loveable and deplorable. The plot is unexpected and varied. There is a lot at stake, and the risks and rewards are always in flux. I can always tell a story is good when it keeps me up at night, lingers long after the last page, and I wish I had thought it up!
Is there a message/theme in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
The resiliency of the human spirit is what percolates up in most of my work. It’s the dogged determinedness that I see in so many people, no matter the hardships they face. They inspire me, and because of them, I want my work to inspire others.
Author: Alexis Marie Chute
In the forty weeks of her pregnancy, Chute grapples with her strained marriage, shaken faith, and medical diagnosis, with profound results. Glowing with riveting and gorgeous prose, Expecting Sunshine chronicles the anticipation and anxiety of expecting a baby while still grieving for the child that came before―enveloping readers with insightful observations on grief and healing, life and death, and the incredible power of a mother’s love.
About the Author
Alexis Marie Chute is an award-winning author, artist, filmmaker, curator, and inspirational speaker. Her memoir, Expecting Sunshine: A Journey of Grief, Healing, and Pregnancy After Loss, was a Kirkus Best Book of 2017 and has received many other literary awards. Expecting Sunshine is also a highly acclaimed feature documentary film produced and directed by the author. The film screened around the world in 2018 and 2019.
Alexis is also the author of the epic fantasy adventure series called The 8th Island Trilogy. Above the Star, book one, was released in 2018. Books two and three–Below the Moon and Inside the Sun–will hit bookshelves in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Alexis holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art and Design and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. She is an internationally exhibited painter and photographer, art curator, and a widely published writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Alexis is passionate about creative living and coined the term, “The Healthy Grief Movement.” She is a highly sought-after keynote speaker and teacher across all her artistic and healing disciplines.
In her spare time, she loves traveling, reading, canoeing, paddleboarding, sharing thoughtful conversations with friends–old and new–and spending time with her family. Alexis lives in snowy Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, with her husband Aaron and their three living children.
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