Life at Open Heart Publishing

M.E. Johnson, senior editor of Open Heart Publishing, was kind enough to answer a few questions for our readers about her literary life. In addition to being an editor extraordinaire, M.E. penned “Crossing the Guard,” a story in the soon-upcoming “An Honest Lie, Volume 1: Encouraging the Delinquency of your Inner Child.”

Welcome, M.E. Tell us about how you became involved with Open Heart Publishing and An Honest Lie.

I became involved in OHP and AHL when I became a writer, way back when (a date lost to infamy,) when I decided to be a serious writer versus a just for fun writer. (Don’t we all project our efforts into the future and base our decision on what we see?) The catalyst for our meeting (me and OHP and AHL) was Debrin Case, publisher of OHP and most excellent friend.

So, you’ve been writing for a while. What other artistic endeavors do you pursue?

I have always loved acting and have managed one way or another to be involved with it since I played the wicked step-mother in a junior high production of “Snow White and Her Friends,” a comedy spoof on the fairy tale. Over the years I have performed on stage and in film and have many fond memories from each. I am also an accomplished pianist, although I have never performed on the piano other than at recitals for students, and when I was a teen, to get the excuse of taking a break from work at Skakey’s Pizza Parlor (by playing piano for the dine-in customers in the restaurant.)

So you caught the acting bug early as well. When you’re attending a stage play for “Peter Pan,” do you clap for Tinkerbell to come back to life, or are you one of those types that sits on your hands looking embarassed?

No, I cry my eyes out. Seriously, who could NOT clap for Tinkerbell? She is every girl’s wanna-be, second only to none, including that princess.

Absolutely. Although Tiger Lily is slinkster cool, too. Switching gears, in the forward to An Honest Lie, you say the short story has the most demanding job of any literary form. What short story you’ve read would you say is the most well-crafted and why?

I don’t think I could pick just one. As an editor, I would have to say that any story that didn’t have spelling or grammatical or concept errors would be a most well-crafted story. As an editor, I would also have to say that any story that told me a story would be a most well-crafted story. And I would have to say that any story that had a voice would be a most well-crafted story. And also, as an editor, I would have to say, definitively, that every story has merit.

You’re in an interesting position, as many editors are, being both an editor and a writer. It’s strange to be on both sides of the process. Can you tell us about how you go about writing a story?

Would that be Plan A, Plan B, Plan K, or Plan Z? Driving seems to help. I’ve come up with some of my best ideas while driving from Point A to Point B. Staring at the computer screen does help, as long as I make my mind stick to thinking instead of chores/bills/errands and other responsibilities. Daydreaming is a favorite. I can work on that one for hours on end, no matter where I am. And last, a favorite method, “Mad Pull,” as I call it. It’s great fun. Take some slips of paper and write nouns (button, knife, rock, cookie, hat, Cheerio …) on them. This is random free association here, so be creative. On some more, write adverbs, on others, adjectives. On others write moods/feelings. And on others, write numbers. Put the slips for each group into an envelope (or box) of its own, and mix them up. Then, pull one (or two, or three, depending on how hard you want to make this) slips out of each envelope (box) and make a story out of what you get. (No cheating by just using the word.)

Great tips! It sounds like you really know how to challenge yourself into creative thought. What’s the most difficult story you’ve ever written, and what made it difficult?

“The End,” a fictional story about the possible lives of the known victims of the 79AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. What made it difficult? Having a page limit.

What an exciting premise for a story! Tell me, what do the masthead, “An Honest Lie,” and the theme, “Encouraging the Delinquency of your Inner Child,” mean to you?

To me, they mean that which is in all of us, that playful and mischievous part of each of us that would like to do pranks, surprise you, and show you in that odd way that children do that today is a pretty darn good day.

That’s a great way to put it. Speaking of mischief, have you ever considered committing a crime?

Heck yeah. I got a list. Wanna see?

Um, that’s okay. I wouldn’t want you to incriminate yourself. Why don’t you tell us about how you became a writer instead?

Like all of us, there’s always been a writer in me. In school I was in charge of the Humor Department for the school paper … that would be one joke per week, please make them funny. I didn’t realize then that the joke was on me. I thought it was going to be an easy job. Later in life I wrote the monthly newsletter for a production company and got permission to be as creative as I wanted, so I did. With the passion for writing born and pampered, I moved on, writing for the comedy/improve troupe “Troupe Movement.” That also included writing mystery games and audience participation skits. And there was quite a host of corporate media to write in order to keep a roof over my head. All of this led me on to writing screenplays, novels, and short stories (among other things.)

You really tend to combine elements of the arts in your life. I noticed on your blog, Em’s End, that “Dallas” is among your stage and film credits. Since you seem the best person to ask, who shot JR?

Who shot him? I don’t know. I didn’t watch that episode. I did get to be an extra in one episode of “Dallas,” but JR wasn’t in that episode, so I didn’t get to see him, either.

Got it- you never saw JR and I never saw that list. Why do you believe people should read your story, “Crossing the Guard,” in “An Honest Lie“?

Well, I really think it would be more of a question of why I want people to read my story. I thought it was good, and hope you do too. But we won’t know for sure until you go read it, will we?

I really enjoyed your whimsical tale, and I bet our readers will, too. Let’s talk about other people’s writing for a moment. What authors’ work do you think will be regarded as classic literature in the future?

Seriously, I think we have come to an age when it’s not the author who joins the ranks of classical literature, but the story itself. Does anyone even know who wrote ET? Who wrote Jurassic Park? It’s another one of those precious things we are losing to technology, like letter writing (and I mean by hand, with a pen, on paper, posted with a stamp, carried to its destination by a man on a really fast pony.) Today we just type a short quip on an impersonal keyboard and hit the send button. We’re going to lose libraries soon, too. Mark my words.

Facebook is putting so many hardworking ponies with families to raise out of work. And it’s a good point that the story often gets more notice than the author. What’s the best story you’ve read lately?

After running out of fresh picks at my local library, I’ve sort of been on sabbatical from reading books. I did read a very interesting biography of Marie Antoinette recently. And I would like to re-read “The Iliad.”

That’s pretty heavy reading for a sabbatical. Say, do you believe in ghosts?

Of course. I see ghosts all the time. Don’t you? The real question though, is do I believe in Ghost ‘hunters/seekers/banishers.’

I don’t know about you, but I can’t figure out why they have to turn the lights off to talk to ghosts that are perfectly happy to throw dishes around in plain daylight. Let’s end this interview on a cheery note. Do any philosophical problems recurrently bother you? What are they?

Absolutely, lots of them do. They bother me all the time. It seems we haven’t learned a thing in all these years. We still have the same philosophical problems today that we had back when Pliny and Socrates tried to spell philosophy out for us. The only difference is that they had answers, and we ignored them. Our lives are filled with philosophical issues. We wage wars based on philosophical decisions. We philosophize about the merit and morals of the individual, and for that matter, anything that runs contrary to our way of thinking. And all of us, just like Plato, ponder the peril of the soul, asking that age old question about life after death.

M.E. Johnson is currently a freelance writer and Senior Editor of Open Heart Publishing. Among her published works are Call of the Quitter, published in Dreams of Everyday by The Poetry Guild and The Story of Why Your Mother Always Told You To Stand Up Straight,” published by The Village Wit. M.E. was co-producer/founder and cast member of Troupe Movement a live comedy-improve troupe performing at numerous venues in Dallas, Texas.
Her film credits include Dallas (Lorimar Productions); Born on the 4th of July (Oliver Stone, Dir.); Love Hurts (Bud Yorkin, Dir.); Pancho Barnes (CBS/R. Heffron, Dir.); Dead Solid Perfect (HBO/B. Ross, Dir.) and Talk Radio (Oliver Stone, Dir.)

Stage credits include Fantoms, of the Opera and Band of Merry Charlatans II (Runway Theater); 39th Annual Grid Iron Show (Bob Glen, Dir.); Mr. Rambo’s Neighborhood, Stupid Cat Tricks, and The Lady and the Clarinet (PAS Playhouse.)
Other projects include Assistant Producer for Faults (R & S Production) and Guest Editor for the premier edition of Texas Film/Video News.

M.E.’s company, ThinkingWorks SP, offers speech coaching; on-the-fly writing and editing for public speaking; and writing/editing services for all applications within the corporate, multimedia, public speaking, film/video, and stage platforms.

You can visit M.E.’s blog at: http://www.blogcatalog.com/user/EmsEnd
and her writing portfolio at: http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/fumbles-world

One of the tasks of being a junior editor is interviewing the artists, so today I’m interviewing myself, Erin Marissa Russell. Erin is junior editor of Open Heart Publishing and did interior illustrations for An Honest Lie.

Erin, art has been called a metaphor for life in so many different ways. How do you feel this is relevant to your own craft?

Well, Erin, as you know, art couldn’t be anything else. Everything I create is going to be a metaphor not just for life, but for my specific life. It’s almost impossible to get out from behind my own perspective. Every painting, song, or story is only me trying to explain myself. I don’t think there’s a better way to figure out how someone else views the world than by looking at their art. Or interviewing them.

Ha-ha. How did you begin as an artist?

I always wanted to do visual art, but I was very frustrated with what I produced when I tried. When we were both still teenagers, my friend Eli Browning told me to draw an eye. I drew a sort of almond shape with spiky eyelashes sticking out of it and showed it to her. She said, “Look at my eye. It doesn’t look like that. It doesn’t have an outline. It’s light and shadows and shapes.” I started over and drew eyes all weekend. Many years later, I’m still learning to look at things.

Is there a certain medium you’ve come to like more than others?

I love working with charcoal, because the more you work with it, the more detailed the drawing becomes. Some things, like oil pastels, if you go too long you end up with a bunch of waxy gray mess on your page. That breaks my heart. I also love the mess of charcoal dust. Charcoal’s so un-final. If you make a charcoal line and hate it, you move it. But if you make a line in Sharpie and hate it, you have to start over, and I hate starting over.

What can you tell us about the piece(s) you completed for “An Honest Lie”?

I drew these illustrations first in Sharpie and then painted with diluted India ink. It creates a clear outline, but still allows for subtler shading effects. I was inspired by comic book art and Quentin Blake’s illustrations for books like Roald Dahl’s Matilda. I love old fairy tale illustrations, too, like Arthur Rackham’s or Harry Clarke’s. The pieces were really fun to work on because I didn’t have the full story, just an image. So the whole time I worked on them, I wondered what the stories could be about- all the different scenarios that could lead up to and away from this scene. It’s going to be fun to finally read them and see if the way I felt about the characters or scenes when I drew them still holds true.

Stepping away from art for a minute, you’re also the junior editor of Open Heart Publishing. How’d a nice girl like you end up in a place like this?

Well, I’ve done some freelance editing since I started college. I took a News Publications class over the summer, and they asked me to start as copy editor of the Brookhaven Courier. Editing on a regular basis made me realize I really enjoy it. In arguments, people often accuse me of getting caught up in semantics. I can’t help it! It’s just how my brain works. But it comes in handy for the work, and I love to read too. So when I heard about the editorial position, I couldn’t tell Debrin I was interested fast enough.

So, you’re an artist, an editor … what other creative outlets do you have?

I’m a writer myself, actually. I write poetry and short stories that are occasionally published. I founded a literary journal at Brookhaven last year, the Moulin Review, which I co-edit. I also sing and play instruments. In the past I’ve been in bands called Poor Wendy, Teenage Symphony, and How to Photograph Wildlife. Now I’m in The Lewis Family Singers and another project that I think is going to be called The Lavenders. I like to sew my own clothes or upcycle vintage. Unfortunately, I can’t dance.

So what do you like to write about?

I like to write about emotional things. Tiny things with enormous implications. Magical realism, with a fairy-tale influence. I tend to take a whole lot of my own experiences and a few things I made up and kind of chop them up and put them back together until they mean what I want.

Fairy tales and magical realism … do you believe in magic?

I believe in everything, especially magic.

Have you ever considered suicide as an alternative to procrastination?

I’m considering suicide as an alternative to answering this question.

Don’t get testy. What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned as a writer or artist?

Everyone says this and I didn’t ever listen until this year, but get a small notebook and write everything down. Every phrase you think is pretty that might become a poem, and every sketch of an idea for anything. Everything you overhear someone say that instantly brings a whole character to mind. A voice recorder is handy, too, especially if you’re in the car or if you’re trying to remember a song.

What do you feel about quantum mechanical theories involving cats in boxes or rather sharp razors?

I’m inclined to the many-worlds interpretation for the cat, on no real grounds other than it appeals to me the most. I don’t understand the need for a rule like Occam’s razor. Although discussing it encourages thinking, if it was proven we could just make a computer program to think for us and we would all get dumb.

What other projects are you currently working on?

I’m in my second semester at Brookhaven College, taking Drawing 2 classes as well as some others. I’m always writing and editing for the newspaper, and I’m planning a collection of short stories. We’re working on Moulin Review: Volume II and accepting submissions for Volume III. And I’m working on having my art matted and framed to take to all our events this winter and next year. I also attempt to maintain some semblance of social relationships, but it isn’t easy with all these things to do!

Who or what has inspired you as an artist?

J.D. Salinger’s work, particularly his characters the Glass family. Sylvia Plath, Neil Gaiman, Kate Chopin, Walt Whitman, J.M. Barrie, Wes Anderson’s movies, Harold and Maude, Mary Poppins, Flannery O’Connor. And looking at things around me every day. It’s easy to walk around not noticing anything.

Okay, since you’ve been paying attention: What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?

Long answer: That everything is connected to everything else. That the whole world is there, outside your door, waiting for you to step onto it. That there are forests you can put a tent in and stay at for free. What happens in the meadow at dusk.
Walt Whitman’s answer: That you are here–that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.
Short answer: 42.

Who is your personal artistic hero/ heroine, and what does this individual mean to you?

Edith Bouvier Beale. Her entire life, down to her perception of herself, was a work of art. She was a cousin of Jackie O. and was one of the subjects of the documentary Grey Gardens. If you watch it, I think you can tell that she’s completely in her own reality, and completely thrilled by it. I think she had a wonderful life.

And finally, how do you encourage the delinquency of your inner child?

“Off we skip like the most heartless things in the world, which is what children are, but so attractive; and we have an entirely selfish time, and then when we have need of special attention we nobly return for it, confident that we shall be rewarded instead of smacked.”
— J. M. Barrie (Peter Pan)

I’ve always been too sensitive for delinquency. But I encourage my inner child by feeding the ducks almost every morning, eating ice cream sandwiches, playing dress-up, not wearing shoes, whistling to birds, and playing in dirt.

Erin Marissa Russell is a 26-year-old who studies art and writing in Dallas, Texas. She is the founder and co-editor of Moulin Review, a literary journal staffed by students at Brookhaven College. Her short story “That’s What It’s All About” won first place in the National League for Innovation in the Community College Contest in 2009. She is also copy editor of the Brookhaven Courier. In addition to writing and making art, Erin enjoys singing with The Lewis Family Singers and working on a new project, as yet unnamed.

You can visit Erin’s blog at: http://erinmarissa.wordpress.com
or her art at: http://erinmarissarussell.com

Today we’re talking with artist, designer, and illustrator Kelly Jacobi. She’s an illustrator for “An Honest Lie, Volume 1: Encouraging the Delinquency of your Inner Child”.

Kelly, art has been called a metaphor for life in so many different ways. How do you feel this sentiment is relevant to your own craft?

Life is very big. Big, expansive, intricate. My art is at times about things bigger than myself, but I typically create as a form of introspection. Which I suppose would count as a metaphor for a miniscule piece of my life, and upon being viewed, for a minute piece of someone else’s as well.

That’s an interesting way to think of it. How did you begin as an artist?

Crayon on drywall, much to my parents’ chagrin.
I have been interested in art my entire life. When I started reading on various philosophies concerning art in my mid-teens I began to feel involved in art. Learning there is no right or wrong where art and the creation of art are concerned allowed me to really explore my own creative voice.

And does your creative voice have a preferred medium?

My current fave is technical pen and ink, and my second favored medium is watercolor.

Kelly, what can you tell us about the pieces you’re working on for “An Honest Lie”?

At the moment I’m still working on them, but I’m really enjoying it. I love creating, and it’s fun pairing up with writers to create a visual representation of their work. It was interesting being given a snippet to illustrate; I look forward to reading the pieces in their entirety.

It sounds like you’re a reader, too. What other areas of the arts do you explore?

Dance. I have learned a bit of belly dance and am eager to do more. I hope to learn some poi, which would be fun to combine with belly dance.
I also do yoga, which I think might count as a relevant tangent to the arts if you talk to the right person.

I guess that makes me the right person. Speaking of which, do you believe in magic?

Yes, I believe there is something ‘otherworldy’ in our world.

On a more serious note, Kelly, have you ever considered suicide as an alternative to procrastination?

No.

Good. And what do you feel about quantum mechanical theories involving cats in boxes or rather sharp razors?

Sharp blades are always better than dull ones.

Okay, Kelly. Tell us about any other projects you’re working on.

At present I am only working on a personal health project. I am turning away from the life of sweet, luscious indulgence and am taking my first steps on a hard and unforgiving path of health and wellness. It is being chronicled at http://jettatura.wordpress.com. My art and design can be seen on my other two websites, cleverfiend and http://www.kjacobi.com/.

Good luck on your journey! I’m sure your journal will inspire others on the same path. Speaking of which, who or what has inspired you as an artist?

Within the entirety of my experience living, I would have to say Richard Serra’s larger works have had a tremendous impact on me as an artist. I hope to someday create an incredible experience for my audience the way Serra has with his work.

It sounds like you really admire him. Would you say you have a personal artistic hero or heroine?

I don’t have one hero/heroine; I admire all who create, who relish in their quirks and who embrace life.

Sounds good to me. Last question, Kelly. How do you embrace the delinquency of your inner child?

I relish in the small things.

You can read Kelly’s blog at cleverfiend.

Kelly Jacobi is a native Texan who was encouraged at an early age to explore her innate curiosity and artistic nature, often allowing her to disassemble old phones and other devices. She has been developing her craft since elementary school and continued to do so as her life progressed beyond those formative years.
Kelly continued her artistic studies at the University of North Texas and Brookhaven College, and completed her Associate’s of Applied Science in Visual Communications with an emphasis in Graphic Design.
Kelly has been recognized for her outstanding work in layout design at Brookhaven College as well as from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association.
In her own words Kelly discusses her preferred mediums: I love tactile art and enjoy experimenting with various media on various surfaces. I typically put pen/brush to paper and see what comes of it, but do, on occasion, actually plan what I create. I hope to have a go at chemically etching copper someday.
Kelly’s plan for the future is a rather elaborate enterprise involving herbalism, art, music, coffee, tea, liquor and life as a gypsy wrapped within a sleek and stylish entrepreneurial package.
Examples of Kelly’s work can be found at kjacobi.com and cleverfiend.com.