Meet Lâle Davidson

 

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lâle Davidson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lâle, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Since a very young age, I wanted to be a writer. My parents were both English professors, and my mother read the classics to us every night. I loved being crammed into bed wth my siblings and leaning my ear against my mother’s back, hearing how her voice resonated like an echo in a cave as she acted out all the characters’ personalities. The idea that I could be the one who decided how the stories ended was both empowering and terrifying.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I’m a writer of magic realist short stories and novels, as well as a bit of humor and poetry. I’ve written on and off my whole life and gotten my work published here and there in print and online magazines. As a young writer, I was extremely thin-skinned, and rejections from magazines triggered other family traums. So, I earned my living as a professor of writing at a small community college, where after thirty years, I was named a distinguished professor and won two awards, for teaching and writing. Teaching is an art in itself that demands creativity, adaptability, social skills, patience, hard work, and organization. It’s an emotional and intellectual roller coaster. It didn’t leave a lot of energy for writing. Nonetheless, when my publisher, Stephanie Larkin with Red Penguin Books accepted my first novel and asked for two more, it healed a lifelong wound. Once I knew that someone wanted to hear what I had to say, I became a writing workhorse. I have since published Blue Woman Burning (2021), a magical realist coming-of-age novel about a young woman trying to reconcile her multicultural upbringing and the vanishing of her mother, Against the Grain (2022), an environmental thriller with a mystical twist about activists trying to save the redwoods, and Beyond Sight (2023), is a ghost story that includes Saratoga Springs NY history. Against the Grain won two National Indie Excellence Awards (in the “faction” category and as a finalist in the “nature” category). My collection of experimental and fabulist short stories Strange Appetites (2016, 2021) won the Adirondack Center for Writing’s People’s Choice Award. Now, I’m taking a writing break, and instead of this being a time of fear (omg, what if I never write again?), I’ve come to understand that creativity has seasons, periods of hibernation, exploration, and then creativity.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I wasted a lot of time worrying about whether I was a good writer. Due to anxiety and upbringing, I suffered from writer’s block on and off all my life. When I finally broke through, I took the time to write “Five Principles to Combat Writer’s Block,” a longer version of which can be found on my website, Laledavidson.com. I’m so glad I wrote these lessons down when they were fresh in my mind, because, like all things we learn, we habitually forget them and have to refresh our memories. Here are the five principles in summary form.
Principle One: Write only because you want to and because it brings you joy.
Principle Two: Create a well-protected space for rough drafts.
Corollary A: Warm up before you write.
Corollary B: Choose a subject that springs from your core concerns, values, or challenges.
Corollary C: Imagine an audience you feel comfortable writing for
Corollary D: Choose the narrative voice that excites you.
Principle Three: If you can’t write it, write about it, but write what you want to achieve, not what you fear you can’t.
Principle Four: Listen to the writing block, it may be telling you to try another angle.
Principle Five: Trust your process.
Corollary A: Digressions are maps.
Corollary B: Bad writing leads to good writing.
Corollary C: Give it time to rise.

If you want a better understanding of how each principle plays out in writing examples, visit my website: laledavidson.com
They all work best if you believe these philosophical and somewhat Buddhist underpinnings:

• We each have the brilliance of the universe inside us, since we are made of it. We just need to get out of our own way.
• When connected to ourselves in a balanced way, the world benefits from us, if only in a very small way.
• We each have a gift to give, and no matter how small, it is essential that we give it.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

You know, like any writer, I’d love to see my novels turned into films. If you’re an independent filmmaker and you’re willing to let me be part of the project, contact me.

Contact Info:

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