Late afternoon, my first hour at Ghost
Ranch after an exceedingly long day; a three hour drive to the first airport, two connecting flights,
two buses from Albuquerque Airport to Ghost Ranch - first one broke down so we
stopped at a casino for some lunch and to await a “rescue” bus.
I struggled up a steep path, perspiring
with effort. Teri drove her car alongside me and stopped to offer a ride the
rest of the way. I thanked her unconvincingly saying something insane like I
needed the exercise. When I arrived at the summit, I saw Teri pull her car into
a space and haul two enormous suitcases from its back as though they were empty.
Now this, I thought, is serious
writer - a woman who’s going to move mountains during her one week retreat.
This is a real writer!
Immediately, I was intimidated by Teri
who, as it turned out, was my Ghost Ranch next door neighbor. Nice coincidence
but combined with her writing artistry, life wisdom and excellent humor, it was
a great one. First impression: Teri is reserved, contemplative, and extremely
serious. Real impression: how wrong first impressions often are!
Teri Crane shared her views about her
experiences during the week long AROHO Retreat and the insights she gained
there.
Is there one specific
moment or event at the retreat that sparked an insight or shift in how you
perceive either your work or yourself as a writer?
So many ideas, exercises, conversations
- all blended together, fortifying one another, speaking at levels known and
unknown. I listened to the wind. I
listened to the table talk. While
I was at Ghost Ranch, I realized that I also was listening to my characters. By
the time I returned home, I understood so much more about them.
Not being required to adhere to a
specific schedule left me open to understanding many things. The writing process includes enriching
periods of fertile idleness and it’s this fertile idleness that’s become part
of my writing habit. It leads to putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard
but not feeling driven or compelled. Instead, it’s knowing I’m in process and that
gives me the freedom to write.
While I sat with other members of our
AROHO community - at meals, in small groups, during evenings listening to
readings, or late at night outside talking and sharing where we’ve come from
and where we are, I realized I was talking with writers. I realized I am a
writer talking with other writers.
It wasn’t at all like talking with non-writers who ask, “What have you
written?” That’s really synonymous with “What have you published?” It makes the
writing process defined only as the end product.
In talking with writers, questions
about process are more active, such as “What do you write?’ or “What are you
working on?” The writing is alive.
We write as we breathe.
By interacting with women at Ghost Ranch, I found my mirror.
Women writers have inspired me since I
read Silas Marner in ninth grade
English and learned that George Eliot was a woman. Writing is difficult enough,
but adding that layer - where acceptance is worked through a sieve of sexism
and still attaining success is admirable.
Even though I appreciate writers of both genders because I appreciate
great writing, I feel that women writers evoke an edge of sisterhood. We’re all
bonded in common struggles. I‘ve
continued to follow works by Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker; I relish reading
Alice Hoffman, Anne Tyler, and Annie Dillard’s focused prose. I admire the way in which Selah
Saterstrom weaves a tale with polished prose and was honored to have Selah as
the 2nd reader for my MFA thesis book.
What’s the best advice
you’ve received about writing?
The best advice I received was from my
brother while I working on my doctoral dissertation. He said, “Don’t worry about being brilliant, only about
being finished.” At the time I
thought it was about finishing in a timely manner, that I could be brilliant at
some other time. However, while a student at Goddard, I discovered the art of
revision. Now I realize it means so much more. Often I think of his advice and couple it with my current
notion: once the story is told, it’s time to polish it up.
How would you describe your
typical writing day?
Typical writing day? What’s that? My days are filled with writing, whether punctuated with
Face Book status updates, e-mails, journal writing, working on my blog, or
thinking about (and sometimes actually writing) my current project. I always feel as though I’m in the
writing process whether that means putting words together on paper or thinking
about words and ideas. I guess
that’s my typical day---less structure than fluidity but always a connectedness
to writing.
Can you describe for us
what you’re currently working on?
My current project is a book. It a
fiction story about two women in the 1800’s traveling west with their
respective families on a wagon train.
They leave their gentile Eastern lives, learning to exchange their roles
for those critical on the westward trek under challenging conditions. They
discover that even greater changes are demanded of them at their final
destination.
When I went to the AROHO retreat,
somehow I knew that my women characters would travel the Santa Fe Trail but
didn’t really know where they’d end up.
Serendipitously, while exploring one day, I discovered that the Old
Spanish Trail went through Abiqui on its way to Los Angeles. It was during that moment I knew my
women would be on it!
Bio:
Dr.
Teri Crane
is a writer, retired teacher and marriage and family
therapist. After stepping aside from classroom teaching, she
decided to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College where she wrote
a memoir, We Never Used the ‘F’
Word, a story about growing up in her native Southern California
and the impact of her father’s death when she was seven years old, which is
still pre-published. Currently she’s working on an historical
fiction novel about two women going west by wagon train in the 1800’s, and
moderating online classes for teachers through LA County Office of
Education. She is a certified “Journal
to the Self Workshop” instructor.
