Artist Centerstage — Leslie Muzingo

Leslie and I found each other in an online writers’ group, and last year we finally met in person. Every time we talk I find out something new and interesting about her, like where she got her start…

Q: Tell us about your writerly beginnings! What’s a little known fact you wish more people knew?

A: That I was a high school drop out. Despite the fact that I attended law school and practiced law for many years before becoming a writer, I began without a high school education. I do not encourage this, but I want people to know that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. After getting my GED, I struggled financially to make it through junior college, then the university, and then law school, but I finally made it. How was I able to do this without basic high school education? It was because I had determination and, most of all, I was an exceptional reader. Reading is everything. A person who can read well has the key to unlock thousands, nay, millions of opportunities.

Q: You’ve had a fascinating career, first as a lawyer and later as a shelter aide and waitress, among other things. How does your rich background inform your writing?

A: It taught me about people. I write character-driven stories. To be able to focus on character, I must understand different characters. I do not mean the caricature form of writing; I mean how people are really motivated. I think working as a census taker taught me the most, at least at first. I was later able to apply what I learned there, and the education I received from the food and beverage industry, to my law career, and then what I learned there to my writing.

Q: Though you were born in the South, you spend part of the year outside the US. What can you tell us about your travels? Do you notice a difference in your writing style depending on where you’re located?

A: I think it goes deeper than that. Yes, I was born in the South, but I was raised in the Midwest. I now live in the South in winter and Prince Edward Island in summer. I find that living in PEI brings back a lot of my memories of living in Iowa. The people on the Island are modern, but in some ways the place is like living in Iowa when I was a young girl in the 70’s. There is an innocence here that used to be in the Midwest. As far as my writing style, I’m so wrapped up in this novel now, which partly takes place in Maritime Canada, that I can’t really see a difference because this is almost all I write these days.

Q: What would you say is your favorite genre to write?

A: I like best to write fairy tales and legends. But I write almost everything except hard-core horror or sci-fi.

Q: You’ve been featured multiple times in magazines like Fudoki Magazine and Two Sisters Writing and Publishing. (Congrats!) Do you have any secrets to publishing success?

A: Don’t just send your stuff out willy-nilly hoping someone will take it. Read what publishers are looking for and if you don’t have what they’re asking, then don’t send them anything. In fact, only send them something if you have exactly what they’re asking for or at least pretty damn close. Publishers are getting hundreds of submissions for just a few slots. It doesn’t help you if you’re considered to be someone who can’t read because you sent something that is totally outside the call. Also, if they reject you but say submit again, then SUBMIT AGAIN. And ones who publish you like your writing style. Definitely submit to them again! I was published three years in a row by Scribes Valley because they published me the first year, so I figured they liked my writing. They stopped at three because I didn’t submit a fourth time — I’m too busy with my novel.

Q: What can you tell us about this novel? Any exclusive tidbits you can share?

A: History is ripe with things that you didn’t learn in school. My novel takes place from 1911–1919 and is set in Maritime Canada and Ireland. There are some things that happen that I learned about through research, but when I ask the people here they’ve never heard of them. Why? Because governments in many places, not just the United States, controlled the school curriculum, especially on matters they had intervened on. But, as time went by, those things have slowly made their way to the internet. These are the things that you look for when you write. These are true things that you bring to the public’s notice, but you do it in a story.

Q: What’s the most fascinating thing you’ve learned, either about the writing process or while researching?

A: I knew this already because it has always been one of my approaches to life, but I applied it to the writing process and obtained a result that was better than I could have hoped for — that is, it never hurts to ask. I will try to make this brief. I had read a poem but when I read it, I thought it was simply a line in a poem because it is so short. I thought, “just a line, I can claim fair use and use it in my novel.” But after a while I began using the whole principle of that line — it was like a thread that ran through my work. I looked up the poem again and then realized that line was the entire poem. Fear gripped me — I didn’t know how I could just remove all of my references to this, for it had become important to the work. So, after much thought, I looked up the author, found her on Twitter, and asked her if I could use her poem. She asked to know more about my novel, and gave me her email address. Well, what I sent her must have seemed like a mini dissertation. She responded rather tongue in cheek that she certainly had a clear picture of what I was writing and my intentions, and that yes, I could use her poem in any way I wanted, including for the title. All she wants is attribution which of course she will have. But I never expected her to be so generous. Like I said, it never hurts to ask for what you want.

Q: In addition to writing, you do impressive beadwork. What about the medium appealed to you most? Can you share any pictures of your favorite pieces?

A: That’s easy — I liked beading because it sparkled! It’s funny though because I seldom wear jewelry. There used to be this commercial for Ortega Mexican products. In the commercial, the family was making tacos. The question they asked was, “what’s more fun, making them or eating them?” For me, when it comes to making jewelry, it is much more fun to make it than wear it.

Q: Standard question: favorite pie?

A: Rhubarb-pineapple. If rhubarb is unavailable, then any two-crust fruit pie that I make.

Q: What question do you wish I’d asked but missed?

A: If I thought I was an artist. When I saw the name of your blog — Artist Centerstage — I cringed and almost told you I couldn’t do the interview. I think people throw the word “artist” around too easily these days. Everyone thinks they are an artist when 99% of us, perhaps more, are merely craftsmen. Shakespeare was an artist. Cather, Steinbeck, and the like, they were artists. I am merely a craftsman. The same goes for what I do with beads and quilting. I do want to encourage other writers, other beaders — everyone however they want to express themselves — but it is my opinion that calling oneself an artist is like making a comparison to Michelangelo. I know I don’t even come close. But the world also needs us craftsmen. There are so few true artists that we’d get bored if that’s all we had. So celebrate being a craftsman. I know I do!

Q: Thank you for interviewing with me! How can we keep up with you?

A: I’m on Goodreads and Amazon Authors. I can also be found on Twitter.