Sallie Tisdale

Hugo House: In a couple of months you will debut a brand-new piece at Hugo House; have you started working on it yet?
 
Sallie Tisdale: Yes—I started one piece and worked on it for several weeks before deciding it wasn't right for this. Something was missing. So now I've switched gears.
 
HH: What were your first thoughts on receiving an invitation to write on an assigned theme? Any regrets on having said yes?
 
ST: Assigned themes aren't a problem, as I interpret any such thing widely—although this time I'm actually sticking pretty close to the more literal theme. That is more happenstance than anything else—I'm working on the piece that excites me right now. My regrets came after I realized it's a group effort with music—perhaps I'll tell the story about my experience at Omega while I'm there... I'm merely a writer, which means merely a reader and always feel a bit overshadowed by more “entertaining” fellows who know how to use tools. I'm more primitive.
 
HH: Could you tell us a little bit about your process—how you approach writing something new?
 
ST: Often there is nothing more than a sentence or an image or a memory. That may be it for a long time. Then it's patience, relaxation, waiting for the charge. I know when it's time to start writing again—a kind of pressure or distracting interest—a charge builds up —and if I try to write before that, it's dead. Once I get started, everything goes in, all kinds of details and images and ideas and directions until I have a big mash-up. Then shaping and paring and more waiting... I love revising; it's my favorite part of writing.  And when I'm done with a piece, I'm done; I rarely read anything I've written again.

HH: Children are full of scraped knees from falling off bikes, bee stings from treating hives like piñatas or an occasional broken bone from doing that thing mom told them not to do about 100 times. What was your most harrowing injury as a child?

ST: Actually, I can't tell you too much because it would give away part of the story. But I had a few trips to the emergency room, a concussion and a secret near-death experience.  Physical injuries are the least of it, of course. The territory of childhood is fraught with damage.
 
HH: If you were a personal injury lawyer, what would your toll-free number spell?
 
ST: 1-800-let-itgo