Tracey's Laziness

When I went to spend time this weekend with Jimmy and Oliver, their younger sister Tracey asked me for a favor. She's a sophomore journalism student at Loyola and they have a writing assignment to do over holiday break. Interview someone who has their writings published on nearly a daily basis. While almost everyone in her class rushed off to newspapers, Tracey, in true lazy fashion, decided to interview me, her friend who has a blog. She pointed out to me that it does count since I do have my writings published every day. Here is a snippet of the interview transcript she sent me today. This isn't nearly the whole interview but I wanted to post a part of it:

Tracey: Where did the name of the blog come from?

Me: First it was Diary of a 20-Something but I felt that that was clichéd and stupid. And then I changed it the Awfully Big Adventure from Peter Pan because it was a blog about becoming an adult and who’s more against that then Peter Pan? And now it’s The Mixed Tape because I used to make a lot of mixed tapes with a little bit of everything mixed in.

Tracey: What kind of music do you listen to?

Me: Everything except country. Well, I can’t stand new country. I like old school though like Johnny Cash and Buck Owens. And whenever I hear Patsy Cline sing “Tennessee Waltz”, I get Goosebumps. And I’m also a closet fan of Loretta Lynn.

Tracey: And Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Me: Skynyrd is southern rock.

Tracey: Sorry. I forgot. Now, you’re really into old music, old blues from the 20’s, crooners from the 40’s, doo-wop from the 50’s, girl groups of the 60’s, and rock from the 70’s … how did you get into so many different types of music?

Me: My parents. They always listened to a lot of music, especially on record, and Bill [brother], Chrissy [sister], and me just grew up with it. And this music is actually music that has survived. I doubt in 50 years, people will be still listening to the Pussycat Dolls.

Tracey: Okay, some easy questions. Favorite book?

Me: A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb.

Tracey: Favorite movie?

Me: That’s not an easy question.

Tracey: Favorite food?

Me: Cheeseburgers.

Tracey: Now onto the writing. What was the first story you ever wrote?

Me: The Mystery of the Missing Monkey from elementary school. It’s horrible.

Tracey: Why did you start writing?

Me: My dad. He was always very creative with his story telling. He’d have us laughing so hard just from the way he told it. And then he went to DePaul for his masters in writing and I don’t know. Guess he just passed it onto me.

Tracey: Is this why you started a blog?

Me: I did it, yes, to write but also just to get things down on paper of how I felt at this time in my life. A lot changes when you graduate from college and I just thought others could possibly read it and relate to it.

Tracey: You used to have this fear of letting others read your writings.

Me: Oh, yeah. My parents, after I started the blog, kept saying, “You’re a really good writer” and “Wow. You really can write” and I kept thinking, “Did you think I couldn’t?” No. It wasn’t that they thought that. It was because they had never read anything of mine. I have notebooks and notebooks just filled with writings and no one besides me ever could open them.

Tracey: What happened?

Me: I started slowly posting stories on a couple of websites and getting feedback from writers. I found out that others were enjoying my stories so I became a bit more open about writing. I still am hesitant at times but that’s just because I don’t think I’m the best person to handle harsh criticism.

Tracey: How many hours a day would you say you spent writing? On your blog and just in general.

Me: On my blog… that depends on the day and what’s going on in my life. But I can be a pretty fast writer so let’s say 1-2 hours on my blog and then 3-4 writing in general. I have a couple stories in progress. I’ve been working on them for several years, notebooks filled with notes and dialogue and descriptions and I cut pictures from magazines to help me visualize certain scenes or characters so I have folders full of pictures. Still, I probably only have about 20 pages to each story if that.

Tracey: Only 20 pages after writing them for several years?

Me: You don’t rush art.