|
A Soul That Bleed Ink: young poet publishes poetry collection
Kings County Record, July 18, 2006 by Charlene Mackenzie
PETITCODIAC She had a decade of writing behind her, has written more than 800 poems, two novels and a couple of film scripts and is a published poet. Stephanie Seely turns 21 in August and she’s already working on her second book of poetry.
Her first book, Meditations of a Soul That Bleeds Ink, was published in late May and contains 110 poems, most of them written within the last two years.
She’s been writing since she was 11. It began when her grandmother died and she was left a journal of poetry that had been a gift from her cousin, Natasha Seely, who died in a car accident when she was about 20.
Stephanie decided to try writing poetry, too, and a decade later, dedicated her first book Natasha. The poetry in her book goes from her older work to her most recent and reflects a journey of healing.
“It focuses on things I’ve been through, the last four years of high school,” she said.
There’s a recurring theme of “wanting something or someone beyond your reach,” she added.
Other poems reveal her feelings about subjects such as suicide, art, and industrialization.
She’s inspired by music she listens to as she writes, be it nature-inspired “Solitudes” classical music and even dance music. She likes writing outdoors, particularly at sunset and into the evening.
An avid reader, she’s a fan of J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series and novelists Nicholas Sparks and Danielle Steele.
She writes everyday, sometimes a poem, usually a journal entry. She’s been keeping a journal since Grade 11 and may write only a few lines or several pages, depending on what happened that day.
“I have to do it, it’s what gets me through,” she says of her writing.
She adds that ideas for poems often spring from her journaling.
“They’re a more metaphoric way pf expressing what I’ve already written.”
She does some of her writing long-hand in a notebook and some of it at her computer. An avid computer user, she has shared some of her poetry on her website and received positive feedback.
While organizing her large collection of poems on her computer, she decided to put her best ones in a collection. She found a Maryland publishing company, Publish America, online while researching poetry publishers and they agreed to publish the collection of 110 poems she sent. She chose to publish her book under the name Stephanie Rachel (Rachel is her middle name).
She was thrilled to see the completed 140-page books he publishing company sent her but admits to come initial anxiety about putting such deeply personal feelings “out there” to the general public.
“The title is the sum of what I feel it is it’s me on paper,” she said.
She used to read her earlier works aloud to her mother but kept her more recent work private, so there was a process of letting go involved in having it published.
She works as a caregiver for a young child, lives with her mother and sister, and continues to write. During high school, she took a correspondence course in writing and after high school, took correspondence courses in psychology.
Her creativity emerges in her sketching and painting as well she’s even combined her interests in projects such as an article, Bringing the Painter To Life, published in Artella magazine.
Among her writing files are a 40,000 word novel, A Little Piece of You, about a mother who tells her son about his father who died of cancer before he was born, and a 54,000 word novel, For The Love of Jaynie, about a brother who untangles a mystery about his sister’s death and proves it wasn't a suicide.
Where I Belong is the title of a feature-length film script she has penned about a person coming to terms with their identity, and she has written a short film script, Blue Lullaby, about a girl dealing with the emotional impact of her abortion.
Meditations of a Soul That Bleeds Ink is available through Chapters bookstore in Moncton or can be ordered direct online through the publisher, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Chapters.
|
