One Woman Writer to Another: Chynna's Q&A with the Experts

A Personal Interview with Angela Mackintosh

I recently had the ultimate pleasure of chatting with Angela Mackintosh, Founder and CEO of the ezine Wow-womenonwriting. Angela has devoted endless hours - not to mention her blood, sweat

Angela Mackintosh, Founder/CEO of WOW - Women On Writing ezine

Date of Interview: September 6, 2007

and tears - constructing one of the most phenomenal resources for writers, especially women writers. And as you will find out, the pulsing vein that gives life to WOW extends right from Angela's heart.

Q: Let's start with how you got into writing.

In some ways I feel as though I've always been a writer. When I was in the first grade my teacher would give us a topic to write about and I'd turn it into a thirty-page novel-which wasn't hard to do considering the sheets of enormous recycled paper and those huge lines! I still have those books today, decorated in tempera paints and construction paper, with stories about haunted houses, sharks, and unflattering caricatures of my teachers. They loved that part!

Q: In your bio you mentioned that losing your mother at the tender age of twelve prompted you to start journaling. Do you draw from that experience for strength in your writing?

I'm glad you asked, because that's what I was going to say next. When my mother committed suicide, a friend gave me a journal to write in as a substitute shrink. This was in the early eighties and my father didn't subscribe to the whole 'get help' thing, so the journal was really all I had. When I filled one, I went onto the next, and now I have a stack of journals filled with somewhat depressing rants, but also very funny moments-my first real boyfriend, going through puberty, and experimenting with various illegal substances-it reads like a Judy Blume novel.

And to this day, at my ripe age, it still does affect my writing, specifically, my fiction writing. I get into the zone where I can feel the character's pain or conflict and let it flow out subconsciously. I'm sure most writers do this whether they realize it or not. We all draw from our life experiences in one way or another...maybe that's why my fiction writing tends to be full of dark satire and plot twists. Quite the opposite of my nonfiction writing or WOW!'s articles!

Q: Tell us about WOW! Where did the idea come from?