Megan Stielstra's Blog

So I am a fan of Sarah, a super-awesome illustrator (this is my favorite!). Through her site, I linked to Lauren—

Sidebar: apparently, there’s some great debate going about the absence of women and non-white males in the wide world of blogs (isn’t that debate going on about everything? Absence of women and non-white males in academic positions, executive positions, political positions, et all?). It was reading Lauren’s response that made me decide to get a blog. I figured that I couldn’t weigh in on the issue until I knew what I was talking about (my New Year’s resolution: don’t get involved in arguments for the sake of arguing), so, now I’m here, one more woman to add to the statistics.

—and through Lauren, I linked to Erika. Her dog, Slammer, will be my Mojo’s best friend. They will have doggy playdates and Erika and I will be THOSE girls. The ones who set-up doggy playdates. Anyhow, I read these three sites nearly everyday while I was in Prague. These were the cool girls, the ones whose lunch table you want to sit at, whose hairstyles you copy. “I want my blog to be as cool as Erika’s/Lauren’s/Sarah’s waaaaaaa etc. etc.”

SO, I was reading Erika’s the other day and she’s got this interview thing going on. Like, somebody interviewed somebody and somebody else said, “interview me!” and so they did, and THAT person interviewed somebody else, and THAT person interviewed somebody else and on and on into a great big bloggy web. I read Erika’s interview and then left a comment saying, “interview me!” and she had my questions up in a couple days.

If you want me to interview YOU, do this:
1. Leave me a comment saying "interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you questions here (different questions than the ones below).
3. You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Here are my answers to Erika’s questions:

Question: what sort of influence has your cool-ass father given you, and what do you find yourself doing differently because of him?

Man, I could answer that in a thousand different ways, but for now I’ll give you this: my dad called me up and asked if we could get some dinner. Now, I was in Chicago and he was in Ann Arbor. “Getting some dinner” was not meeting in Lincoln Square in a couple hours—it was a five hour drive back and forth, so, I knew something was up. He got here and we went to a French Place on Damen (Merlot Joe. Anybody remember that place?). We talked about school, work, the normal chit-chat, and suddenly he said, “So, I quit my job and I’m moving to Alaska—” Alaska. Kodiak ISLAND Alaska, like, in the middle of the OCEAN— “next month—” next MONTH—“do you want to come?”
This wasn’t a mid-life crisis thing. A shiny red Porsche thing, no. This was his dream, ever since he was a kid. He loves hunting, fishing, mountains, the great outdoors, the whole Henry David Thoreau-type life. Also, my Uncle Chuck lives there, so my dad would go up every summer and hunt doll sheep and, man, he loved it. He’d come back with the photos and stories and … this was his place, you know? And one day he just work up and thought, “fuck it (maybe he didn’t think fuck. My dad’s not much for the swearing. I’m the one with the mouth like a sailor), I’m going.” And he went.
Of everything I’ve learned from him, that’s been the most important. To run after your dreams, even if they seem far-fetched (because he reads this blog, I need to add the following: as long as you have money in a savings account. A health plan. A job waiting for you so you don’t A. starve B. call home to your father for money or C. eat cat food in retirement). It wasn’t the most LOGICAL thing for me to run away to Prague for eight months, or, for that matter, to teach college part-time and really try to make it as a writer, instead of getting a nice, full-time job teaching public school somewhere … but you’ve got to give this stuff a shot, right? My dad got to Alaska and fell in love with my step-mother a year later. That was SUPER inspiring! Like, he went to the middle of NOWHERE and found the person he was supposed to be with (likewise, it wasn’t until I’d decided to leave Chicago and take off to Eastern Europe that Christopher and I got together). So what am I doing differently because of him?
I’m doing what I want with my life, instead of what I’m supposed to be doing.
At least, I try.

Question: What’s going through your head.... RIGHT NOW!!!?? No cheating!

My tea is tepid, which is a pain in my ass ‘cause I like it really Burn Your Tongue hot and my puppy has started licking the radiators and I’m waiting for his tongue to turn black and fall off, right now he’s sleeping under my desk as I type, and he’s crying and shaking so I’m wondering what he’s dreaming about and last night I didn’t dream which is rare for me, maybe it has something to do with how early I’ve been getting up which maybe has something to do with me turning thirty soon (August), like, do you turn thirty and suddenly it’s like BAM no going to bed after ten and now I’m no fun, no more table dancing and belly shots and all those things I never did in first place but now might come to regret, although I’m not much for regret, if I regret anything it’s how guilty I’ve felt over things I had no control over.

Question: What is the best way to describe how you feel when you are up on stage reciting or reading?

How I LIKE to feel, what I strive for is like I’m sitting with good friends over a pitcher of margaritas. And we’re all, “Oh yeah? Well, listen to THIS!” That kind of intimacy. Ease. You never tell a better story than when you’re with friends. I want my audience to feel that connection, like I’m talking just to them.

Question: What do you love about having a brand new blog?

Initially, it’s been that I’m writing everyday again. In Prague, during those glorious eight months devoted just to my work, I wrote everyday. I could be real leisurely with my journal. I could describe every place, every person we met and I like to think I got a pretty good picture of our time there. Back home, back to work and the demands are back: be here, do this, read this, etc. and it’s all great, but mostly I miss the time I could devote to my journal. This blog thing makes me think that there might be somewhere out there reading this (like I read yours, and Sarah’s and Lauren’s and Betsy's) so I need to write in it. Then, once I’m journaling, that’s usually when my ideas come for stories—I move pretty fluidly between the journal and the “work.”
So, I'm more productive. That’s my answer: I love the productivity … and the dialogue.

Question: What’s your most favoritest song/band/and writer?

No WAY can I limit this to one!

Song: We Float by PJ Harvey. Also, this gospel-y group, Sweet Honey in the Rock, has a song called I Be Your Water that’s gotten me through a lot of crap. Yellow Butterfly by Tahiti-80 for me and Christopher, and, right now, the Israel Kamakawiwo'ole version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

Band: PJ Harvey. Prince. Meshell Ndegeocello. Nina Simone. Iron and Wine. My friend, Scotty Karate. Radiohead. Charles Mingus (they did this KILLER tribute album, Weird Nightmare). I saw Andrew Bird live a couple weeks ago and my world just rocked.

Writers: Tolstoy and Faulkner. Kakfa’s journals. Dorothy Allison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and James Baldwin. Middlesex by Eugenides. Fall on Your Knees by Ann Marie MacDonald. Tied for number one on my Read This ASAP list are Hairstyles of the Damned, Joe Meno and All This Heavenly Glory, Elizabeth Crane.

Question: You are a pretty damn amazing writer! How young were you when you started? When did you realize this is what you wanted to do?

It started with journaling, except I was pretty sheltered so there wasn’t a lot to journal about (even I got bored with my typical pre-adolescent ranting) so I started making stuff up. There it was: the fiction; however, like most young writers, I thought I should go to college for something “secure” (re: journalism) and I hated it. Hated the writing, all of it, so I went to Italy and studied European lit for a year. That’s when it clicked … reading is the best way to break through in the writing. I came to Chicago, to the fiction writing department at Columbia and it was like a big florescent sign: YOU ARE HERE.

Question: Is there any possible way to list every place you’ve been?

(this will be an ongoing list)

The Fleetwood Diner, Michigan.
Lukács Thermal Baths and Swimming Pool, Budapest
Two Happy Guys, One Swell Burrito, Martha’s Vineyard.
The Dragon’s Den, New Orleans.
FleetBoston Pavillion, Boston
The Strand, New York
Great Bear Brewing Company, Alaska
Kavarna Meduza, Prague
Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam
Shakespeare and Company, Paris
Sundance. Sundance, Utah
Riverside Studios, London
Cherry Creek Water Park, Denver
Saint Xavier High School, Kentucky
Boboli Gardens, Florence
Circus Circus, Las Vegas
Guell Park, Barcelona
Crazy Baron's Garden, Quebec
City Lights, San Fransisco