For what feels like an eternity,
I’ve been talking about starting
a blog. One that talks about the development
of my writing projects, looks
at what’s behind them, revolves around them, shows the direction they’re growing. Now the time has come.
Voilà, here it is. The project I’m currently
Seit Herbst 2019 begleite ich das Projekt und mittlerweile haben sich über dreißig Teilnehmerinnen von nah und fern bereit erklärt, mitzumachen.
putting most of my time and
energy into is the interview project. On the one hand, because a few weeks ago I lost four months’ work on two
manuscripts when my writing program crashed. Despite repeated attempts to
revive it, the already quite advanced third part of SOMMERFRISCHE (Summer Retreat)
vanished into thin air forever. Also 200 pages
of a manuscript with the working title
FRANCES OR THE ART OF STUMBLING were suddenly gone. Fortunately, a large part could be retrieved, so that I can continue with what is still there. On the other hand, the interviews are currently taking up a lot of room, since I’m keeping them very close to my heart. I’ve been accompanying this project since the fall of 2019, and meanwhile over thirty participants from near and far have agreed to take part. It’s a colorful mix of women, and every single one enriches the project in her individual way. Some time ago, I started to introduce one or the other lady on Instagram. There you can find photos and short posts about coffee house owner Bernie in San Francisco; my physician Dr. Karin Riedl; the “tattooed psychic“ Faye; the author Erika Kronabitter; the oracle of L.A., Amanda Yates Garcia; the Congolese activist Neema Namadamu from the organization Hero Woman Rising and the jazz singer Leslie Lewis from Paris. Funnily enough, musician and author Judith Holofernes replied to the questions in her Q&A podcast episode on Patreon, so you can already listen to her answers there, as well as read about other exciting things she is doing. Since not all participants are on social media, I decided to move it over here and write a bit more about the project. For example, about how I came up with the glorious idea, in January of this year, albeit somewhat late, to enrich the questionnaire. Namely, with the question obvious from the working title Happiness Research: “What makes you happy?” Collecting these answers subsequently proved to be a test of patience, but by now I have almost all of them. Above all, I’m very grateful to each and every participant, who took the time again to reply to this question for me. These snapshots also feature expressive photos and slowly, but surely, the project is shaping up nicely. With exciting confirmations that have recently trickled in, it continues to grow. It remains exciting and I look forward to introducing more participants and reporting on the development of this project.