Meet Alicia PunkRock Strong

Hey all, welcome back to another Monday Mention. Today we meet the talented Alicia Strong. So sit back, read her interview, and then stay after for a teaser from one of her wonderful poems.

Interview:

1.) Tell us what a day in the life of ____________________ is like.
 

Hm, I don't do very much. Not right now anyway. I'm getting heavily into Photography and Astrophotography, which means I take pictures of stars, planets, and eventually (hopefully!) Nebulas and other complex astral figures. I'm usually found with my camera and headphones on generally listening to metal, gets me in a more creative mood to take interesting pictures or make snippets of poetry for Hellopoetry.com.

2.) What made you want to start writing?

I discovered writing poetry is my outlet for negative, or just generally powerful emotions. Usually I write about depression because that's what plagues me most and I find writing really helps me deal with it. But before that, I just generally liked writing, it always kind of flowed with me.

3.) When writing, do you prefer silence or some kind of background noise?

When I write I generally prefer silence as opposed to some sort of background noise, but there have been times where I've listened to something instrumental to kind of help get the full emotion out.

4.) Morning person or night owl?

Night owl for sure, my "mornings" don't even start until like, 12pm when I wake up haha. Feel like I'm wasting my life sleeping though, I should probably get a better schedule going on.

5.) Do you prefer to have a schedule or wing it?

Oh man I wing it for sure. It comes back to bite me sometimes but I would feel too tied down and stressed out if I had some sort of schedule I had to follow.

6.) When you have downtime from writing, what do you like to do?

In my downtime I'm usually either with my camera, at a metal show or just listening to music. I'm not doing much right now so I get pretty bored to be honest.

7.) Do you make an outline or just write?

I never usually make outlines, usually I get a poem done within an hour, it just sort of flows by itself while I'm writing it. I feel kind of fortunate that I don't have to re-write and re-write things in order for people to enjoy them.

8.) What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Just write. Don't be afraid of getting your work out there thinking people will judge you for it or something. I write about some pretty depressing personal experiences which have kind of deterred me from getting my work out there in fear of the way people will look at me, but I realize that's not a very good excuse. I've had people tell me that reading my work has helped them build up some courage and even start writing themselves. There's nothing wrong with writing how you really feel.

9.) How do you come up with your ideas?

My ideas just kind of...happen. Usually when I'm in a bad mood, there's always a pattern. I'll think of something in my head then a line will generally just kind of work itself after what I initially thought of and I know it's time to get some thoughts down. Usually happens when I'm really stressed out or feeling some sort of powerful emotion that draws my attention and doesn't let it go.

10.) Do you like to base your characters on pure fiction or is there a little of real friends in them?

A hard question to answer for a poet. I don't generally write short stories or anything, I'm just a poet, but everything I write is either about me or how something makes me feel. Everything I write is with complete honesty.

11.) Do you have a favorite author and why?

Edgar Allan Poe. He's just...amazing. And so mysterious. And so dark. I love everything about everything he's even written. Period.

Bio:

Born and raised on the outskirts of the quiet town of Kentville, Nova Scotia in 1994, Alicia lived a pretty boring life until the end of Elementary school when she discovered the genre of music Heavy Metal. From then on she became very expressive and found she had become very in tune with her emotions. Her thoughts generally stray to the darker side of things, as reflected in her poetry, but she manages to find honest beauty in even the darkest instances of life. Struggling with Depression and Anxiety has made life a bit challenging and complicated for her but she is thankful she is able to channel it into something creative and rewarding like poetry.

Links:

facebook.com/FragileCorpse

hellopoetry.com/-alicia-strong/

Teaser:

"The sun breaks through a dark gray cloud,
I’m standing in the rays.
And while it’s there I realize,
I haven’t seen the sun in days...
I wonder just how long it’s been,
Since I’ve been in this maze.
The happy times have passed me by,
I’m stuck within this haze."

 

Thank you all for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed meeting another of our authors, and be sure to stop by again next Monday when we bring you another one of our phenomenal writers.