Lillian Moats

Author of The Letter From Death (Three Arts Press, 978-0-966957631.

When did you start reading, and what did you like to read as a kid?
Coming from a family of artists, my early reading choices were determined more by illustrations than text. I was devastated when we “graduated” to chapter books with few pictures.

When you were growing up did you have books in your home?
My mother had a collection of children’s picture books from around the world. You can imagine how popular our cocker spaniel became when he developed a taste for the rabbit hide glue that was used in most of the bindings. After he gnawed through the spines of many of her favorites, a more congenial home was quickly found for him!

When did you think about becoming a writer? Was there someone who got you interested in writing?
I was in 5th grade when I transferred schools mid-year and was given my first real creative writing assignment. I was terrified, knowing we would have to read these stories aloud. Fortunately, the experience turned out well—I managed to crack up my new classmates by reading my story in dialect, and so became permanently hooked on writing. A few months later I wrote and illustrated a chapter book about my dog (different dog)...actually his "autobiography." My mother encouraged me to show it to Helen Williams, a local consultant in children’s literature who was on the United Nations Advisory Board on Books for Young People. She became a lifelong mentor of mine and a dear friend until she died a few years ago at 97.

How do you write?
I have no regular writing routine, though this sounds sacrilegious to some. Both writing and painting have become ways of translating difficult issues into art, so I have to go where the internal action is. Sometimes the only writing I do amounts to making brainstorming notes for the next writing project while most of my energy is spent painting. There usually comes a point when my thoughts about form and content for a piece of writing have jelled, and then I write daily for as much time each day as I can find, and for as long as it takes to finish the book.

Do you have any particular story to tell concerning the writing of this book?
Here’s the story behind The Letter from Death: Even as a child, the idea of mortality seemed quite vivid to me. How I see death has changed drastically over the years, though, as I’ve had time to look at it through so many different lenses. I’ve experienced enough fear of death to finally find the humor in it and to incorporate some of that into The Letter from Death. But I found it very unfunny after 9-11, when I began to see how our cultural tendency to avoid confronting our feelings about death made us very susceptible to fear-mongering and manipulation. I began to make a lot of notes and to do extensive research—all of which seemed to have no where to go until it occurred to me that only an imagined persona of Death, itself, could bring the perspective I needed to this subject.

I think my characterization of Death breaks every stereotype we’ve been subjected to. I hope it will surprise my readers. The perspective expressed in this book is a distinctly different world view. It’s an opening and an invitation to look at death and life, and war and peace, in a revolutionary new way. It’s not an ideological book—if anything, it’s anti-ideological. I don’t want to impose this world view on anyone, but I’d love to have it join the panoply of others that readers may have considered.

What is some good advice that you've received concerning writing? What's some advice that you could offer young writers?
I think Anne Lamott’s advice (in Bird by Bird) to give yourself permission to write a lousy first draft (and second and more) goes a long way to liberate a writer and to demystify the writing process. My advice to young writers would be to gradually gather a collection of perceptive readers whom you trust to give their honest reactions to your work, and who will do so with no hidden agenda. They may not be easy to find, so hang on to them!

How did you find the publisher for this book? What has your experience as a publisher been like?
I had grown very used to creative independence as a filmmaker before The Gate of Dreams—which I wrote and illustrated—was published by Cranbrook Press. Their press had been established during the Arts and Crafts Movement and, in 1993, was in the process of reinventing itself. I was asked to oversee every aspect of the book’s production. While I was learning these new skills, colleagues with whom I’d worked for years contributed their editorial, design and technical advice. The hands-on training that I acquired in producing The Gate of Dreams was gratifying in that the hardcover edition sold out, and the book was selected for the South Carolina Reading Awards List for 1995.

My first memoir, Legacy of Shadows, would not have been appropriate for Cranbrook Press, and I was reluctant to turn it over to a commercial publisher. I wanted to be sure there would be no sensationalism surrounding this very personal story, and I felt that most editors would want me to rewrite the book in the form of a conventional novel, which I had no interest in doing. With the supportive involvement of family and creative collaborators, Three Arts Press was established in 1998. I’ve continued to publish through Three Arts. The Letter from Death is my fourth book.

What are you working on at the moment?
The Letter from Death was just released so I still have to be very involved in its promotion. I’m doing research and writing notes for my next book for adults, but in the meantime may return to illustrate a children’s book whose text I wrote many years ago.

What are you reading?
I’m reading The Winter Sun: Notes on a Vocation by Fanny Howe, and Mothers and Others: the Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy.