The Art Parlor for September Presents: Abbie Johnson Taylor
Episode Notes
Welcome to the September edition of The Art Parlor, brought to you by Friends in Art! In this episode, we speak with author and entertainer, Abbie Taylor. Join us as we explore her journey starting as a music therapist, with music entertainment and writing following in step. We also learn about her newly-published book, Living Vicariously in Wyoming: Stories.
It was a pleasure having Abbie with us on the Art Parlor and we hope you enjoy the show! To learn more about her and stay up to date, visit her website at www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com.
AI-Generated Transcript
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Friends in Art welcomes you to the Art Parlor, where visually impaired artists of all types will discuss their work.
Pull up a chair, bring along your beverage of choice, and listen to thoughtful, stimulating conversations with visually impaired artists in all media and from all parts of the world.
And now, here's your host, Ann Chiappetta.
Good evening everyone, welcome to the Friends in Art Art Parlor, where artists and audiences thrive.
You can find us on www.friendsinart.org.
Tonight we are talking to Abbie Johnson-Taylor, and Abbie is a singer, a musician, a poet, and an author.
Did I miss anything, Abbie?
I don't think so, I think you covered it all.
All right, and we're going to talk a little bit about your newest book, Living Vicariously in Wyoming, which is a great title, by the way, and all the other creative things you do in your life.
Hopefully we can get it all in in the time that we're going to be talking to you.
So, Abbie, first maybe you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you live, what you do, and then we'll go from there.
Okay, well I'm in Sheridan, Wyoming, and I am, as you said, a writer, and I'm also a singer.
I've published seven books, and there's two novels, two poetry collections, and a memoir, and then this new short story collection that just came out back in March.
And when I'm not writing, I entertain monthly at two or three senior facilities in the community, plus at our local senior center, and then I also do the music for a local church the second Sunday of the month.
And then in the fall, winter, and spring months, I sing with a group called the Hubcaps, which meets at the senior center and does most of our performances there.
My goodness, you need a personal assistant to like help you out.
Right, well, that's what I have my AMAZON ECHO devices for, and my iPhone.
So, yeah, yeah, definitely.
So, how long has it been for you, like, when did you get the bug, like this, you know, I know that, at least I think I remember you saying you came from a musical family, and can you talk a little bit about that?
Well, my grandfather played the saxophone in a band, and so I think I must have inherited his musical genes.
And then my younger brother did play drums for a while, and I think he still does, but I don't know that he does it on a regular basis as much as I do play the piano and guitar and sing.
But yeah, I have, and when I went, my mother loved to tell this story about how I started playing music.
They had purchased a used piano, upright piano, and they thought it would just be a toy.
And I was about five years old, and I was digging around one day, and I don't really remember this, but my mother said she heard me playing "da-da-da-da," and so she immediately went to call a piano teacher.
Oh, and so where did you go from there?
Well, I took lessons, you know, off and on.
At that time, we were living in Tucson, Arizona, and I, you know, took lessons from several teachers, and then we moved here to Wyoming, and I took lessons for another year or so, and then I finally gave up, and I then got interested in playing popular songs and then singing and using the piano to accompany myself.
And I pretty much did that, you know, through my teen years.
And then in college, when I decided to study music therapy, I had to get a guitar, because, you know, if you're working, like, in nursing homes, and of course the residence rooms don't have pianos, and so you need something portable that you can take, you know, and play when you're in those situations.
So, and that's basically how my music career got off the ground.
How long did it take for you to really learn the guitar and feel confident with the guitar?
Well, I actually, I'm guessing maybe like one semester, because I just took a beginning guitar class, and that was really all I needed for what I was going to do.
Just, you know, learn some basic stuff, you know, just to play, you know, a few chords here and there, nothing, nothing really fancy.
So, yeah, about a semester.
And then, you know, the piano kind of, I really don't remember how long it took to learn the piano.
I was pretty small when I started, but, you know, I took lessons for years.
But I only took, you know, guitar maybe for half, for a semester in college, and that was it.
So, which do you prefer to play, or which do you play more often?
I prefer to play the piano, but since, you know, the facilities where I go don't have a piano that's either, you know, available in the same room where I am, or it's out of tune, or whatever.
I use the guitar, but I actually prefer the piano, because I can do more with it than I can with the guitar.
Yeah, yeah.
And do you read Braille music?
No, I play, I do all my playing by ear, and nowadays it's easy when I learn, want to learn something new, I just have my A lady play it, and then I go find the words online, and, you know, I may have to hear it several times, and, you know, and, you know, go through it with the, with the lyrics, but it's really not that hard to do.
That's amazing.
Do you have perfect pitch?
Yes, I do.
Yeah, well, that makes it easier, doesn't it?
It does make it easier, but it makes it annoying at parties, because when people hear you have perfect pitch, they say, "What's this note?
What's that note?"
And it can get annoying, to say the least.
But otherwise, it works hands-in-handy.
That's like, my kids, I would, I would tell them to drop a coin, and I would say I know what coin it was, and so that turned into a parlor trick with their friends, and at some point, I was like, "No, I don't want to tell you what coin that dropped on the floor."
Oh, I know.
Like, I'm sorry.
You're not the only, you're not the only totally blind person I know that does it.
I had a friend who was totally blind when I was in college, and whenever I dropped a coin, she would say, "Oh, you dropped a quarter."
Well, that's really helpful, but can you tell me where it landed?
No.
Well, I could kind of tell you, maybe, like, maybe it's over there by your left foot, but I don't know how far it is.
Right.
Oh my goodness.
All right.
You were originally from Tucson, Arizona.
Did you move to Wyoming?
Well, I was actually born in New York City.
Were you really?
Yeah, yeah, and, but we were only there for about a year, and then my parents, we moved to Boulder, Colorado, and we stayed there for a few years, and then moved to Tucson, Arizona, where we lived for about eight years before deciding to move up here, and we moved up here because my grandfather had just passed away, and grandma needed someone to run the family's coin operating machine business, and so my dad felt obligated to do that because none of his other siblings were interested.
So, we came up here, and I've been here ever since.
I did go away to school in the 1980s, but then I came back, and I've been here ever since.
Oh, I didn't know you were born in New York City.
My goodness.
Yeah, yeah, and unfortunately, I don't remember anything about living there.
We were only there for about a year, I think.
So, well, you know what?
That's great that you didn't remember the bad things or the good things.
Right, exactly.
Life's late, right?
Yes, yes.
Abbie, you and I have known each other for how long now?
A long time.
I can't count that high.
Ten years, I think, and we originally met through behind our eyes.
Yes.
Right?
Yeah.
So, I knew you first and foremost as a writer, and then as a musician.
It's just interesting, you know, who knew you first as a musician, and who knew you first as a writer?
I'm just telling you, I knew you first as a writer.
And then, you know, when I really listened to your work, you know, as a vocalist and everything, you give a beautiful voice, and you have a gift.
I just wanted to say that.
Yeah.
So, let's talk about your book, Living Vicariously in Wyoming.
I already told you I loved the title, and I didn't really, kind of, you know, when I first heard the title, I was like, "Oh, this should be interesting."
Then after I read the book, I was like, "Oh, it makes total sense now!"
So, I was like, "Yeah, it's the perfect title!"
And I like that in books.
A little bit of intriguing, like, question.
It makes you open the book and read it, to find out why you chose that title.
So, I really liked it.
I guess my first question would be, like, where did these stories originate?
Were they prompts?
Were they things that you sent off to other publishers?
Were any of them just, you wake up in the middle of the night, and you had to write that down?
>> Well, these stories had, you know, a variety of different inspirations.
I know that the last one in the book, Welcome to Wyoming, it was actually a dream I had that I was the one who was trying, getting back and ended up in the situation that she is in, in the story.
And other stories were just inspired by some by real-life events.
There's one where a college student identifies with a character in a play, and my parents, were into community theater.
And I did have some acting experience in high school and college, and I was on the speech team.
And so, in that kind of inspired that story.
And, you know, just different, different things inspired different stories.
>> Yeah.
Did you have any stories in the collection that you felt were really important to put in the collection?
>> Well, I thought they were all important.
It was just figuring out where to put what story.
And I certainly hope that I kind of created a balance.
I didn't want, because I knew there were a couple, two or three stories that had the similar theme.
I didn't want to have them too close together.
And, you know, so I'm hoping, you know, I tried to create a balance so that each story was going to be, you know, different from the last.
But then there might be a few that might be similar, but they wouldn't be together.
>> Right.
Yeah, the balance.
How to put the order of things.
I know from doing that myself.
>> Right.
>> It's, you know, you've got to get it right.
And, you know, you don't know what, you know what's not working.
You know, but once you get it right, you hit the sweet spot, you know.
>> Right.
>> Yeah.
I want to know which story was the story that was like the throwout story.
Like if it doesn't fit, I'll get rid of it.
>> You know, I don't think any of them were.
I wanted to make them all fit.
I don't like to just throw anything out.
The only stories that would not have fit it, because I wrote, I've written other stories that aren't set in Wyoming.
These are all set mostly in Wyoming.
And so anything that really didn't have anything to do with Wyoming was definitely would not be included in this particular collection.
But of course, I might put together another collection sometime that would have other stories that don't take place in Wyoming because I've written several of those.
>> Oh, excellent.
So yeah, follow up book for sure.
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> What was the most satisfying about getting this book together personally?
>> Well, when I finally read through the collection for the last time before I sent it to Leonore at DLD Books for her to edit, you know, just reading that through and thinking, oh, yeah, this works, this story here and that story there, you know, it all just seemed to come together for me.
And that was the most satisfying, I think.
>> Hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, I can understand that.
>> So performing and writing, okay, they're both creative, right?
>> Right.
>> Yeah.
So what's the difference then?
Like, do you use the same skills?
Why or why not?
Do you use different skills?
Do you find that, you know, you draw from one place within you versus another place when you're performing or when you're writing?
Could you, like, talk about that?
>> Well, when I'm performing, it's usually, especially when I'm singing.
Now, I do perform my own poetry once in a while during readings, but when I'm performing music, it's usually somebody else's songs.
And so then I'm, I am, you know, figuring out, you know, how to interpret the song.
Sometimes I interpret it in the way they sang it.
Sometimes I have a whole different interpretation.
But when I'm writing, I'm creating my own work as opposed to delivering somebody else's.
>> Hmm.
And what's that like?
>> Well, it's, it's, it's a lot of work, you know, creating my own work.
It uses a lot more, I think, a lot more brain cells, perhaps, because you need to, you know, create, put the work together.
Whereas when you're singing something, another song, you just, you only have to do is memorize the words and figure out the interpretation.
When you're writing something, whether it be a story or a poem or an essay, you're actually doing it from scratch.
I think it's maybe like kind of baking a cake from scratch.
You start, you know, you don't, you know, nothing is pre-made.
You just, you know, put it all together and mix it together and put it in the oven.
And, you know, that, that's what writing is like for me.
>> Interesting stuff, like baking a cake?
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> Hmm.
A cake from scratch, not one from out of the box, right?
That's the difference.
>> Right, yeah.
No, I'm talking about, you know, from scratch.
And the good news is I don't bake.
I just write.
I mean, I kind of, I prefer to write than bake, because if you make a mistake when writing, it's easy to go back and fix.
But when you're baking, you add too much of this.
I mean, it's harder, it's going to be harder to, to fix that, you know.
>> That's for sure.
You leave it in the oven too long.
>> Right, exactly.
There's nothing you can do about it.
But when you're writing, you make a mistake, you want to make a change to something, especially nowadays with the computers, it's much easier.
I often wonder how writers like Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck and Mark Twain did it, because, you know, I understand Mark Twain was the first one to use a typewriter.
And of course, those typewriters back in the, they didn't even, there was no way, they didn't even have auto-correct, let alone, you know, going back and changing things like you can on a computer.
So.
>> Yeah, they did the old-fashioned strike through or skip a line.
And can you imagine what their manuscripts look like?
Oh, my goodness.
>> And they probably would have to just rewrite things, you know, if they, you know.
>> They pencil out stuff, you know.
>> They acted more than one draft, yeah, exactly.
>> Yeah, yeah, wow.
I know, I can't imagine that.
So I started out an old Smith Corona with a little tiny screen.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> And of course, you couldn't see it, and you didn't know when you made a mistake.
You didn't have a screen reader, so you had to, you know, figure out another way of correcting those mistakes.
And I'm sure that was tricky.
>> Yeah, I actually, so my first one was like that.
Then I graduated to the one with the little floppy disk, and it had a little screen, a separate monitor, and I had a special setup.
>> Oh.
>> And that worked for a while until my vision got really bad.
>> Oh, right.
>> But then, you know, technology got better, and my life improved, so.
But yeah, electric typewriters, those are the things that we learned on.
>> Right, right.
>> You know, we mastered.
So do you, so I know you went, did you spend some time at a school for the blind?
>> Yes, in Arizona, I spent five and a half years of my elementary school education at the Arizona State School for the Blind.
And I was a day student, because it was right there in Tucson, so I was able to commute.
I didn't have to live in the dorm or anything.
>> Right.
And that's where you learned all your blindness skills?
>> Yeah, that's where I learned to read Braille.
And, you know, that was basically the only blindness skill per se I learned.
It wasn't until I was in college, and I went to a college prep program at a rehab facility in Topeka where I learned cane travel and, you know, some, you know, other communication skills and stuff, and some daily living.
Although my mother taught me a lot of the daily living stuff that I learned, so.
>> How did, so what did your mom teach you?
Like, what are some of the takeaways from that?
>> Well, you know, she taught, you know, how to make a bed, how to, you know, make a sandwich, you know, how to cook things, how to use the microwave, you know, how to cook things on the stove, how to do laundry, you know, a lot of that stuff I learned from her.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> Especially after we moved to Wyoming, because there really wasn't much in the way of programs where blind people could learn those skills.
There is, was a summer camp for the blind, but it was only like for a week or two, a week if you were a kid and two weeks if you were an adult.
You know, you can't learn much in one or two weeks.
So, you know, yeah.
>> Right.
>> So, you know, it was mostly just education.
We didn't learn, at least in elementary school.
Now, I think in seventh and eighth grade, they had home ec, but by that time we'd moved here, so.
>> Okay.
Do you read braille music?
>> No, I don't.
I never learned to read braille music.
I just play all my playing by ear.
>> Have you ever tried?
Like, like -- >> I did try.
I, you know, I tried a few times.
I just couldn't get into it.
And I just, you know, and now if I were playing classical music, you know, or, you know, or singing opera, then I think braille music would be, would be easier for me to, you know, to learn.
>> Right.
>> But if I'm just doing popular stuff, it's just easier, you know, to hear the song and just learn it by ear and then develop my own accompaniment, maybe my own style, maybe do it the way the other person sings it or do it my way, you know, just, you know, whatever.
Just kind of go with the flow.
>> Yeah.
I've heard you on karaoke night -- >> Oh, yeah, yes. >> -- on ACB, and yeah, and everybody loves you there.
>> And that's, yes.
Yes.
And that's another thing I do.
I do that, I usually do that once a week.
And of course, so I'm so, of course, I'm always doing new songs, you know, working on that and getting those records.
So that's another thing that takes up, you know, a lot of my time as well as the other stuff that I'm doing.
But it's fun.
I enjoy it.
>> Wow.
>> Because, I mean, I don't know, when we were kids, I think we all aspired to be rock stars at some point in our lives.
>> Right.
Right, right.
>> Air guitar and air drums.
>> Right.
And then we were all told, oh, you should find something more lucrative.
And so that's what I ended up doing.
And maybe it's better that way, because I don't know.
I don't know if I want -- I've read memoirs by Olivia Newton-John and other artists, and I'm not sure now, in my old age, that I would want that life.
So -- >> It's a tough business.
>> It is a tough business, yes.
>> It is a tough business.
I mean, I think of people like Cher.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> Did you read her first memoir?
Her first part?
>> No, I didn't.
>> Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, she narrates it herself.
>> Oh, wow.
>> Yeah.
And she's working on the second one, the second half.
>> Oh, wow.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, I should go find that.
>> I digress.
>> I loved Cher.
I should go find that.
>> Yeah.
She's somebody who is the penultimate child of the music business.
I mean, she literally grew up in the business.
>> Oh, my gosh.
>> And she talks about a lot of stuff.
>> Wow.
Wow.
>> Yeah, yeah.
Really interesting.
So let's go back to the writing.
We're going to pivot a little.
So when I was reading your stuff, I noticed you had some recurring characters.
You had Al, Ruth, and Michelle.
>> Yes.
>> And they had a couple of stories.
>> Three stories to me.
>> Yeah.
And I want to know, would you ever consider developing them as a novella or a novel?
Because their histories are so interesting to me.
They have so much under there.
I'm like, oh, it would make a great story.
>> Yeah.
Well, you know, possibly.
I'm just not sure, though, where I would go after the third story.
Because Al kind of gets himself into these situations and how he gets out.
I'd have to think of more situations that he could get in and out of.
So, yeah, maybe it's possible.
If I could figure out where to go with it, I might do that at some point.
>> Yeah, they were very compelling to me.
They spoke to me quite a bit.
And I just thought they were great.
They were great characters.
>> Yeah, yeah.
And they work as standalone as well as together.
I kind of worked them so that if somebody, you know, didn't read one, like the second one, without reading the first one, they still kind of get an idea.
So, but then they could be read all together.
All three of them together.
But I didn't put them all together in the book.
I thought it would be better to kind of space them out.
>> Yeah, I like that.
Yeah.
I like the way that happened.
The inspiration I got for this whole collection was reading a book by Anne Beattie, B-E-A-T-T-I-E, called "The State We're In."
And her stories are set mostly in Maine.
And she has two stories about the same characters.
And she had one at the beginning of the book and one at the end of the book.
So I thought, well, I'll space mine out because maybe that might be more effective that way.
>> Oh, it definitely was.
Any other challenges about any of the stories or, you know, anything related to -- >> Well, there were a few stories that I didn't know quite how to end.
And the one about the class reunion, I sent to a behind-our-eyes critique group, and somebody gave me a really good idea for an ending.
And so that's, you know, the ending I ended up using.
And "Welcome to Wyoming" I wrote years ago.
That's the last one.
And I struggled with umpteen million different endings until I finally just decided just to go back to the original ending.
Because the original ending is -- the people in critique groups are saying, "It doesn't work.
It doesn't work.
It doesn't work."
Well, you know, does it really have to work?
It can be, you know, it can be kind of -- it doesn't always have to be realistic.
So that's why I kind of left the ending the way it went back to the original ending for that.
>> Yeah.
It's funny you mentioned endings.
That's something that I struggle with a lot in my short stories and my flash fiction.
And, you know, no matter which ending I choose, there is someone that, you know, inevitably says, "That didn't work for me."
>> Right, right.
>> Or, "It didn't wrap things up.
It didn't end on a happy note.
It didn't end on a tragic note."
[Laughter] >> Or, "What happened to the cat?"
I mean, like, things like that.
And it's just very interesting to me how the feedback, you know, formulates your success in your stories.
Could you talk a little bit about that?
Like, how critique groups and feedback, you know, has helped you or maybe not helped you or maybe, you know, made you scratch your head?
I think that's, you know, that's something that about the writing life specifically that, you know, we don't often talk about.
Like, you know, how we struggle with picking this word or that word or this person's name doesn't fit with that person's name.
Can you recall any of those things in any of those stories?
>> Yeah.
And like I said, it was more sometimes critique groups could be frustrating because they would say, "It doesn't work."
And then, "Okay, well, what would you suggest?"
And some people would suggest things I think, "Oh, my God.
I've had it just so outraged.
I could never do that.
That's not something I would do."
And it's just like, you know, I -- so I just finally, you know, I've decided I take what I get in a critique group with a grain of salt.
And if it works, it works.
If it doesn't, it doesn't.
But at least, you know, I'm getting some feedback whether it's helpful or not.
>> Have you ever changed anything major dramatically and then going, "Oh, yeah."
Like, "All right."
>> Yeah, I have done that.
And I've changed it and sometimes it works.
And then I change it and I think, "Oh, no.
I don't like it.
I'm going to go back to the original."
>> Talk about a little bit how you manage your computer and your file system, that kind of thing.
I know this inevitably comes up whenever we talk about writing, like how you manage your Microsoft folders or, you know, whatever.
Do you have a system that you'd like to share?
>> Yes, I do.
I -- yes, I do have a system.
I have all my poems are in one folder.
My fiction is in one folder.
My nonfiction is in another folder.
And then any -- when I submit something, I move it to a different folder.
And sometimes if it's like a magazine that I regularly submit to, like Magazine Ladders, I have that in a separate folder in that submission folder.
And so that -- when I decide I'm going to put a piece in that particular publication, I'll move it to that -- save it to that -- no, I won't move it.
I'll save it to that folder, you know, and, you know, then it's just easier than when I find out about what's been accepted and then I go back and look, "Okay, well, that wasn't accepted.
So that was rejected."
And then I can make a note of it.
And I have a Word document that I keep track of where I keep track of all my submissions, what's been submitted, whether it was rejected or accepted or what.
And so that's how I keep track of everything.
Do you include dates and things like that?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And my submission records, I do.
I do.
Yes, on that document.
Yeah, I include dates when it was submitted and dates it was accepted and, you know, if it's going to be published, what edition, and/or if it was rejected, I'll put that down.
That way I know when I look at it again, to send it somewhere else, I'll know it's, you know, it's available or not available.
Yeah, that's cool.
I do something similar for sure.
Now, what about like your Works in Progress?
I mean, I have a folder that says Works in Progress, and then I have subfolders based off that, like, you know, genres and things like that.
I don't have separate folders for Works in Progress.
It all goes into poetry, fiction, or nonfiction.
And then when I'm looking for something to submit, I can go through and I can look at it and say, well, it needs work.
I do have time.
No, I don't have time.
Let's find something else.
That's basically how I do it.
Yeah, I do something similar to that.
I do work with Excel more, I think.
I'm kind of getting used to doing that more.
I don't know.
It works.
For your submission reference?
Yeah.
Oh, you know, I've tried.
I need to figure that out.
That's one thing I need to figure out how to do is use Excel because it might be more efficient.
The Word document works pretty well.
But yeah, because I can keep, you know, information about each piece in a separate paragraph, and then I can search for it and find stuff that way.
But I'm thinking the Excel spreadsheet might be more efficient.
One of these days I'll figure that out.
It does take time to set all that stuff up.
Right, yeah.
Especially when you have, how many poems do you think you have, Abbie?
Oh, my gosh.
Like I said earlier, I can't count that high.
No, I've got quite a few poems, quite a few stories, quite a few nonfiction works.
And some are on the computer, and then I have some that I put on a thumb drive, an SD card.
Because when I go to my monthly poetry group or any kind of workshop, I take my Braille display with a thumb drive or SD card, and I save stuff to that.
And so, you know, I've got all kinds, works everywhere.
What type of Braille display do you use?
I use a Brilliant BI20, a 20-cell display.
And I also use it with my computer as well as a display because I find when editing, Braille is more efficient than just using speech.
When I was editing the ACB of New York newsletter, I would have a Braille proofreader.
Oh!
Yeah, and she would always catch my double periods.
Oh, yeah.
Or my double spaces.
Right.
It was great.
Yeah, in fact, the people in my small critique group with BOE, I'm sure they're frustrated with me because I read, I go through everything, their stuff in Braille, and I, because some of them, you know, can't tell if they have made a mistake.
And so, they appreciate me telling them, but I'm sure it's frustrating.
Oh, why didn't I catch that?
So, yeah.
Yeah, I know, you've got to be pretty good at editing in Word with JAWS and stuff to catch every little thing.
But of course, there is stuff that I miss as well.
I'm not perfect.
I miss stuff too.
You know, it happens to, even sighted writers, it happens to.
Yes.
You know, we're going to miss stuff.
Yeah, and I think that's something that we need to say more often to people more blind or low vision that are writers, you know, in work, is that everybody makes mistakes.
You look at something too long, you're going to miss something.
Absolutely.
It's always best to have a third eye on things.
Yes, yes.
Yeah, yeah, whenever you can.
So, does anybody else have questions for Abbie?
I know you guys have been silent.
This is Peter, and I was curious about, you've written, I know, books of poetry and you've read novels.
What, I don't think you've ever published a collection of short stories before.
No, I haven't.
What inspired you to now do short stories and how are they different from writing a novel or a poem or how do you sort of distinguish the various styles?
Yeah, I was inspired to put this collection together, like I said, after reading Anne Beattie's The State We're In.
I thought it might be neat because, and you know, Wyoming is really no different from any other state.
But, you know, people in Wyoming have life just like they do in any other state, but, you know, I just, it's kind of neat to have stories set in a locale.
And, of course, short stories, unlike a novel, where you can kind of, you can put more, add more to a novel and kind of go into depth, short stories, you have to kind of, they need to be paced, have a faster pace.
Or otherwise, you know, they get too long.
Whereas novels, you can kind of go on and on and, you know, but not with short stories.
So that's really how they're different.
Yeah, so I was just going to ask you to talk more about sort of the short story genre, as it were.
Talk more about how you think differently when you're writing a short story than a novel.
Yes, they're shorter, obviously, that's why they're short stories.
But how do you determine, for example, if a block of text is a short story or might be a part of a novel or how do you sort of determine that?
Well, that's difficult.
And I've actually had a couple of my short stories did start out as novels.
But then I realized I just didn't have enough material for a novel.
So that's why I made them into a short story.
It depends on the subject matter and the plot and how far you want to go with the plot.
That is what determines whether something will be a short story or a novel.
And then I actually wrote a short story back in the earlier part of the century that actually morphed into my first novel, We Shall Overcome.
It was originally a short story, but then I thought, oh, I could add more to that.
Maybe I could write sequel.
No, I'll just write a novel.
And so that's how basically how We Shall Overcome was born.
Is that how The Red Dress was born?
Actually, no, that was actually a novel, but that one was inspired by a memoir story.
I was taking a memoir writing class at the time, and we were prompted to write about an article of clothing.
And one lady in the group wrote about this red blouse she had that her mother made for her.
And she went to college and her sorority sister bullied her into giving her that red blouse.
And the relationship between her and her mother was never the same after that.
And so I got one of those what if moments I get when writing fiction.
What if it was a red dress?
She wore the red dress to her prom.
She danced with the boy she thought she loved.
And then she discovered him in the act with her best friend in the backseat of his car.
And then she takes the dress to college at her mother's urging in case she needs it for some formal event there.
And her roommate bullies her into giving up the dress.
And that's how The Red Dress kind of got started.
Mm hmm.
Wow.
All that from a writing group?
Yes.
Yeah, it's amazing what inspiration you can get in a writing group.
Yeah, for sure.
Nell, you had a question.
Yes.
I was wondering when you put your collection together, because I have trouble with, I guess, putting things in order.
When you put your collection together, how did you decide the order in which your stories would fully be?
I know that you were talking earlier about how some of them, Annie had asked you about a few of them that were kind of interconnected or had the same characters.
But other than that, did you have a routine or or even, I guess, like a hack that you used to help you decide where you were going to put your short stories?
Well, first of all, I wanted to put stories that were told because, you know, some of my stories are in third person point of view and some of my stories are in first person.
So I tried to separate so that I wouldn't have two stories told in first person.
Well, that didn't always turn out.
There are some instances where I have maybe two or three stories set in first person together, two or three stories set in third person together.
But then I also, you know, by by the themes, I didn't also want to I didn't want to have two stories with the same theme put together.
And so that's that's it.
I was telling Annie earlier.
That's why I spaced out the Al Johnson stories, because that would be better to have them, you know, one kind of close to the beginning, one kind of in the middle, and kind of one kind of closer to the end and just space them out.
And it's not an easy thing to do putting together a collection, figuring out what story is going to go where.
But it actually it actually didn't turn out too badly once I did get it all put together.
No, it didn't.
I found that it flowed pretty well.
And, you know, I you know, if I if I stopped listening, you know, at the end of one story, you know, and I do something and then I went back and listen, I didn't feel like I missed anything from one to the other.
So, yeah, that kind of thing.
It was for that reason.
About reading short story.
Yeah.
You don't have time to read for a long period of time.
You know, you can feel satisfied usually.
Now, some of my stories endings kind of leave you up in the air.
But in most cases, you know, you finish a story.
You don't have time to go to the next one right away.
You feel like you're not left hanging in the air most of the time.
Yes, that's true.
I mean, and that's that's a really that's, you know, to land a story in a place where most people are going to feel satisfied is is a big ask.
Yes, he is.
Who right?
Like, yeah, because there's a lot of second guessing and always this right.
And, you know, and all of that.
But when you write, people tell you, oh, I love that.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
That was the right place.
Before we get to you talking about, you know, where to find all your books and all that stuff.
I'd like you to talk a little bit about your poetry and where it fits in with your your musical career and your writing career and how you balance that.
OK, I have two collections of poetry out.
The first one is that was published in 2011 was How to Build a Better Mousetrap, Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver.
Now, that is a full length collection divided into four parts.
The first part is was inspired by my caregiving experiences.
My late husband, Bill, suffered two paralyzing strokes after we were married.
And so I took care of him at home during most of our married life.
And a lot of the poems in that book, in that first part, were based on that.
And then I've got a section of poems that I've called Recollections that are based on inspired by childhood memories.
And then there's a section called Reflections, which is basically reflections on different topics.
And then the last part of that book is on aging.
And those are poems.
There's only like six poems in that collection, and they are inspired by my experiences as a registered music therapist in a nursing home before I started writing.
And so a lot of the poems, you know, were inspired by my life.
And then my second collection, Bat's Life, is just kind of it's a chapbook, actually.
And it's just kind of poems that were inspired by different events in my life.
There was a couple, one or two, that inspired by stuff that happened in the news and just just different things.
Hmm.
What kind of poetry do you like to write?
Do you like nature poetry?
Do you like people focused poetry?
Do you like poetry that nostalgia?
I prefer to write poetry that is straightforward because I write the type of poetry I want to read.
So I want to I want to write poetry that is easy to understand, that doesn't leave you a shake in your head like, hmm.
You know, I want I want to be fun.
Well, not, of course, if there is on serious subject, it's not fun.
But I want to be easy to read and understand and identify with is basically the type of poems I like to write and read.
Yeah.
Do you have any favorites?
In favor of my poems or somebody else's poetry?
Well, do you have any favorites?
Other poets, other writers, other musicians?
Billy Collins, Ted Koozer and Marge Piercy are my favorite poets.
And they have actually Billy Collins and Ted Koozer have and oh, no, I'm sorry, but Marge Piercy and Billy Collins have inspired some of my poems.
And then Marge Piercy wrote a memoir called Sweeping with Cats, which inspired my memoir, My Ideal Partner, because what she did with her memoir is the same thing I did with mine in that she put a poem at the end of each chapter in her memoir.
And so I read that and I thought, oh, I'm going to do that with mine.
And it kind of it makes it makes the chapter I try to relate the poem to what I talk about in the chapter and it makes it more effective, I think.
Well, it gives another level of appreciation and yes to what you're writing.
You know, it opens up a whole different level of perspective in your writing.
I think that's if you can do that, I think that's great.
I think that's why a lot of people open up with quotes and things like that in their chapters.
That's why I did it.
Right.
Because I gave a little bit of a clue as to what's going to happen.
A little bit of insight, a little bit of depth.
And it helps the reader.
I think it helps the reader appreciate what you're writing.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Hey, Abbie, can you talk you talk about your beginnings as a musician, how you practice the piano and all that stuff.
I haven't talked about your beginnings as a writer.
How did that start?
How did you start?
Oh, beginning as a writer.
OK.
Yeah.
Well, as I said, I was working as a registered music therapist in a nursing home and I got the writing bug.
Oh, probably about in the late 1990s, I was spending a couple of weeks each summer at a camp for the blind on Casper Mountain.
And they had a creative writing class, which I thought I'd take just for fun.
And that's kind of where I got bitten by the bug, you might say, because I was writing for a stacked band.
That was before I had a computer.
And so I was doing everything in Braille.
Then eventually I got the computer and then I was able to use that.
And that's kind of basically how I got started.
And in 2000, I had my first story published in a local college's literary journal.
And and then I and then one of my poems won a contest in a local writing group was having and I was invited to join the group.
And that's kind of basically how it took off.
But at the time I was working sometimes 40 hour weeks.
And it was hard finding time to write.
And so when I met and married my late husband, Bill, he persuaded me to quit the day job and write full time.
And that's what I did.
And I haven't looked back.
And how was that?
And you're working 40 hours a week and all of a sudden you're not working at all and you're writing every day.
How is that?
How did you make that adjustment?
You know, it was wonderful because Bill, before he had his strokes that is and he was able to do things independently.
He was an excellent cook.
And so I didn't have to worry about.
And he also did housework.
I let him do everything.
And I wrote.
And then, of course, I would help with the dishes after a meal.
But, you know, other than that, he took care of everything.
Of course, we did have a cleaning lady.
But, you know, it was great.
It was liberating.
You know, I didn't have to worry about, you know, what am I going to do this?
How am I going to find time to do this, that?
I did it.
Of course, after we got married, he decided to buy me a Windows computer because I had been using a Mac.
And, of course, back then the speech was kind of antiquated and so on and so forth.
And so he was using a Mac and so he or a Windows machine.
So he got me my first Windows computer.
So then first thing I do before I could write anything was, you know, learn how to use the Windows machine and then transfer everything over.
But once I got going, I mean, it was just liberating.
And then Bill had his first stroke.
And nine months later, I brought him home and then I was taking care of him.
And so then it was back to, OK, I've got to do this and this and this for him.
When am I going to have time to do this and this and this for myself?
But I managed to publish two books while I was caring for him.
So, you know, one way or another, I got it done.
You sure did.
Yeah, you sure did.
I just can't imagine, you know, my from my experience when I was sort of forced to sit down and write stuff.
And I really is the way I viewed it was being forced to write stuff that, you know, you, you found that whole leaving work and and having that space liberating.
Right.
I find that so interesting because that's not the way I experienced it at all.
And that's why I no longer write in part.
But I just find that really, really interesting.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it is too bad that you're no longer writing.
I hope you can someday be inspired to get back into it again.
Oh, I do creative stuff.
It's just not in the field of writing.
Oh, OK.
Well, you know, as long as it's, you know, making you happy and and feel fulfilled, you know, because it is what I'm doing now.
I'm not I do entertain at nursing homes and stuff.
I'm not a practicing music therapist anymore.
But what I'm doing right now is fulfilling and rewarding for me.
And so, you know, that's that's that's that's the important thing.
Yeah.
Yes.
To find what's rewarding and what what fills your your time with experiences and and and feeling useful.
I know that when I left my full time job, took me a little while to figure that stuff out.
Right.
I felt like I was kind of floating around in a little bit of a bubble.
Right.
But then I got my feet back on the ground and I didn't look back.
So and it was liberating, Abbie.
You're right.
It is.
And it was just it felt so freeing.
I could take my thoughts and my creativity wherever I wanted.
And yeah, that's kind of like what I wanted to do all my life.
So, you know, it just took a long time to get there.
Yes.
Yes, it does.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But really good stuff.
So, Abbie, tell us where we can find your books.
OK.
And any other type of social media kind of stuff.
Yes.
The easiest way I think would be to go to my website, which is www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com.
And there are pages for all my books where you'll find information about the books.
You'll find some reviews, interviews, and then you'll find ordering links from the various resources.
Can people contact you from your website?
Yes.
There's a contact form there where people can reach me.
So, yes, absolutely.
And finally, can you let the people who are listening, you know, what would be your advice to someone who's just starting out as a writer?
What would you, what advice would you give them?
Well, I have several bits of advice.
Read, read, read, read.
Not just books in the genre you want to write, but read books on the craft of writing.
Also, if you can, read the Writer Magazine, Writers Digest.
They have all kinds of helpful articles and markets and other resources.
And also find a group in your area or online that can help with critiquing, or you can share your work and network with other writers.
You know, join writers organizations.
Just, you know, get out there and meet other writers.
And those are my two pieces of advice.
I think those are great pieces of advice, because those are the two primary ways that you can improve your craft and get out there and meet people.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
All righty.
Well, thank you, Abbie, so much for being here.
And good luck with all your writing endeavors and all of your singing and all of the things that you do.
You're a very creative person.
And thank you for being here.
Well, thank you, Annie, for having me.
It was my pleasure.
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