Interview with Francesca Lia Block

November 15, 2018

Interview with Francesca Lia Block, author of The Thorn Necklace

Tell us about your latest book.

The Thorn Necklace: Healing Through Writing and the Creative Process is a writing guide/memoir about my thirty-year career as an author and what I’ve learned. It also includes twelve questions to help anyone structure their work.

What did you edit out of this book?

There were many wonderful quotes from my friends, students and colleagues but we had to cut most of them in the interest of space. I hope to use these on a blog post or essay in the future.

How was this book published? (traditional, small press, self pub, etc...) Why did you choose that particular publishing route?

I was fortunate enough to have Seal Press/Hachette publish this book.

Who are your favourite authors?

Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Angela Carter, the Bronte sisters, Shirley Jackson, Carson McCullers, Katherine Anne Porter, Joan Didion, Joy Williams.

What advice do you have for other writers?

Find a muse, find a mentor, banish the critic, channel pain into art. All these things and more are discussed in detail in The Thorn Necklace.

Where can people find out more about you and your writing?

www.francescaliablock.com and in The Thorn Necklace.

Who inspires you?

My children, my boyfriend, my teachers, my friends, my books, my life.

Do you believe in writers block?

With my last name, that term has been banished from my vocabulary!

What is your work in progress? Tell us about it.

Sea of Bones, based on the Isis Osiris myth. I’ve been writing it while in school to get my MFA at UC Riverside Palm Desert with the help of my professor, Stephen Graham Jones.

When you’re not writing, how do you spend your time?

Taking care of my kids, going out to eat with my boyfriend, exercising, watching movies while reading the screenplays, reading, reading, reading books.

0 Comments

I love to hear from you. So feel free to comment, but keep in mind the basics of blog etiquette — no spam, no profanity, no slander, etc.

Thanks for being an active part of the Writers and Authors community.

Interview with Francesca Lia Block