Meet Nancy Springer
"Conform, go crazy, or become an artist." I have a rubber stamp declaring those words, and they pretty much delineate my life. Conforming was the thing to do when I was raised, in the fifties. Even my mother, who spent her days painting animal portraits at an easel in the corner of the kitchen, tried to conform via housecleaning, bridge parties, and a new outfit every spring. My father, who was born into a British-mannered Protestant family in southern Ireland, emigrated to America as a young man and idolized the "melting pot" because at last he fit in. Once in a rare while he recited "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" or told a tale of a leprechaun, but most of the time he was an earnest naturalized American who expected exemplary behavior of his children. My mother was a charming Pollyanna who would not entertain negative sentiments in herself or anyone around her. As their only girl and the baby of the family, I was coddled, yet hardly ever got a chance to be other than excruciatingly good.
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Interview with Author Nancy Springer
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This was an amazing and inspiring interview! Thank you so much for the time put into this and for sharing!
It's really interesting to hear how writing could heal a person when a slew of medicine could not. Just shows that the human spirit can't be caged.
Thanks for commenting Aywren. I'm glad that you enjoyed my interview with Nancy Springer. I certainly found it to be inspiring as well.
Writing is a powerful, creative force that allows a person to release many emotions at once. In that way it can be a very healing process to write a book, story, or poem.
I just finished I am Morgan...
I decided at that very moment to go out and get anouther book by this great author only to find that the book store (well known) has none of her books in stock. NONE! So, we drive across the busy intersection to the other well known book store to get one of her books. They, too, have no books by this author. What gives?
Some of Nancy Springer's books are rather old and are now out of print. Your bookstores should at the very least, however, have the latest "Enola Holmes" series. This series is not only new but is also very popular.
It's strange that they didn't have any books by Nancy Springer at all.
I remember "The White Hart" and "The Silver Sun" -- I enjoyed Nancy's fantasy novels very much. I was working in a Walden's bookstore back then.
Nice interview, and an interesting life story!
Donna
Nancy Springer definitely does have an interesting story to tell about her own life. It is just as interesting as the novels that she writes. I am grateful that I had the chance to interview her.
Thanks for commenting.
Thank you for a wonderful interview with an amazing writer. Unfortunately, the link to Nancy Springer's official website, at the bottom of the interview, takes me to a page called "Home Furniture Ideas." Kind of funny, but nothing to do with Nancy Springer. Something amiss?
Sadly it appears that Nancy Springer stopped paying for her domain name and a furniture company snapped it up. Either that or she was hacked. I have removed the link.
Thanks for letting me know.
On the web hack/misdirect-If you type into your browser "www.nancyspringer.com" you can still get there, though my browser sometimes takes me to the furniture link that is technically ".net" instead of the .com.
Thank you and Nancy both for the wonderful insights into her life and writing-as a forty-something woman who grew up an army brat-moving 21 times by the time I was 16-I grew up in a household where I was expected to behave and do well in school. I was so afraid to make a mistake or disappoint someone! I also spent a great deal of time alone or with adults, with an absent father and a mother who wanted to be a good wife and homemaker, but who also was desperately lonely for home and her large extended family. Now I know why I so identified with Nancy's "The Silver Sun" and other early works-we were coming from similar places, personally, and craving the same things-a fantasy world where you could have a friend/brother/relationship with someone that was deep, meaningful, and loving. A place where love was possible, where good had a real chance against the evils in the world (ok-I am a Vietnam War army brat, and my dad flew Huey helicopters-we had a lot of neighbors on base that did not make it home). To this day I still go back to that book for a comfort read, when dealing with my daughter's chronic illness has taken it out of me for the day, the world of Isle wraps its' magic around me in a warm embrace, and it feels like home. Thank you Nancy, for having the courage to make such wonderful characters out of your own pain and needs, for sharing a part of your soul and letting it fly free, spreading its' wings so it could roost in someone else's empty tree.
Okay, I fixed the new link. It appears that she moved her website from nancyspringer.net to nancyspringer.com
Thanks, Lisa Wik, for sharing your thoughts on how Nancy Springer helped you.
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