I’m pleased to introduce you to author Maria Haskins. 🙂 Make sure to check out the poem in the end of the post.
Bio:
Maria Haskins was born and grew up in Sweden, but has been a resident of British Columbia, Canada since the early 1990s. Currently, she lives just outside Vancouver with her family – a husband, two kids, and a very large dog. She has had several books published in Sweden, and ‘Odin’s Eye’ – a collection of science fiction short stories – is her English language debut.
Her favourite literary genres are fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction; and her favourite writers include Ursula K. Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, T.S. Eliot, George R.R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, George Orwell, Hemingway, John LeCarré, Umberto Eco, and Colleen McCullough.
In addition to being a writer and blogger, she is also a certified translator, translating between Swedish and English.
What genre do you write?
Right now I’m writing science fiction, fantasy, and poetry. My current release ‘Odin’s Eye’ is a collection of science fiction short stories, and I am also working on a novel set in the same future “universe” as the short stories. At the same time, I’m also poking around with a science fiction novella, and I’m in the pre-planning stages for a fantasy novel, which should take shape someday. I guess I’ve got too many projects in my head in a way, but at least I always have something to work on! I also write poetry on a continuous basis. For me, writing poetry is kind of like keeping a diary or journal, it’s something I just do whatever else I’m working on. It’s a way to deal with experiences and emotions in everyday life in a more immediate way than you can do with fiction. And just to add to my to-do list, I am planning to release a collection of poetry later this year.
Have you always wanted to be an author?
I have always been writing stories, ever since I was a little kid. At certain points in my younger life, I considered becoming a veterinarian or an archaeologist, but the writing has always been there, I’ve always done it, and I always come back to it. I struggled with terrible writer’s block for a few years, and I don’t think I realized until I came out of that funk just how much happier I am when I’m writing. That experience has really reinforced for me that I do need to do this: I need to write.
Tell me 3 things about yourself that your readers don’t know.
- I have a very unhealthy obsession with salted licorice. I blame this vice on the fact that I was born in, and grew up in Sweden: it’s a Swedish thing!
- When the TV-series LOST was on TV, I was completely obsessed with it and even had a website dedicated to the series. You can still see it here: http://megeeking.blogspot.ca/
- I LOVE online role-playing games. I’ve played Ultima Online, Everquest (was in both of those games from launch), Everquest 2, Dark Age of Camelot, Asheron’s Call, Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft. Right now I’m still active in Guild Wars 2 even though I don’t have as much time for gaming as I once did.
Tell me about your book.
Odin’s Eye is a collection of science fiction short stories that are all glimpses into this future universe that I envision. The stories take place on Earth, elsewhere in our solar system, and in outer space. In each story a character is facing some kind of challenge or choice. For example, one woman is stranded on an alien planet, another character has to deal with a powerful artificial intelligence, and one woman serves a life sentence on Mars in a prison system that is set up both to punish, and profit from, the convicted. Two of my favourite science fiction authors are Ursula K. Le Guin and Ray Bradbury, so my science fiction isn’t exactly “hard” – like those authors, my main interest as a writer is to explore how human beings are influenced by technology and a changing society, rather than space battles and technological details. I do enjoy reading hard sci-fi, but as a writer I guess I’m just a little softer!
Links:
My website: https://mariahaskins.wordpress.com/
My Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mariahaskinswriter
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/MariaHaskins
My Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00UICDA2K
My Tumblr: http://mariahaskins.tumblr.com/
My Goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13459869.Maria_Haskins
Odin’s Eye at Amazon – it’s available in paperback and as an ebook: http://www.amazon.com/Odins-Eye-Maria-Haskins-ebook/dp/B00UIANX06
Dragon
I said
fire
but I couldn’t even feel the flame
crawling across my skin
– thin and blue –
barely breathing
no heat, no charred skin, no blistered fingertips
no pain.
Won’t touch
don’t touch
not with the words or hands
not even to look at.
I said
there is no fire
and watched it snake and slither across the skin –
blue thin flame
held close to the bone
tight in fist,
my breath withheld.
But, oh.
Oh,
to uncoil in all the glory of it:
jeweled scales shimmering
this shiny coat of arms.
To feel it, rippling across the ground:
the searing, burning, vicious heat of it,
still withheld in my chest, mouth, head
firefirefire
rough and hot and raging
consuming every good and wicked deed and thought and dream
unsaid words like screaming flames
caught in my barbed throat.
No.
Leave it.
Leave well enough alone.
Leave me:
just one claw, just one tooth, just one precious scale.
Just one lick of flame:
thin and blue
barely visible
scrawled upon my naked skin.
© Maria Haskins, 2015
Image based on Wikimedia file.
Helle Gade 