Issue 5 Writer Spotlight | Mark Blackburn
C+B: Tell us about yourself, Mark!
MB: I'm an ex-shoeseller and politico, but now devote most of my time to writing - and the many ancillary activities which that involves. Now that I've started, I just feel driven to write - in all kinds of genres - nonfiction, short stories, children's - and maybe even a novel! If it's a nice day and I haven't got a deadline to meet you might find me pottering about down country lanes in an old car.
C+B: How has your relationship with your work changed since you first started creating?
MB: I think I now write more as a means unto itself, rather than to achieve any outside goals or recognition, although those are always nice to receive!
C+B: Share some details about your process for creating.
MB: I usually get everything non-writing out of the way by lunch, and spend the afternoons writing or doing writing-related stuff. I used to use the spare room but I found I couldn't find the right mindset there any more, so now I alternate between the dining table and a little room I've found above a shop in my home town.
C+B: What is one quote that inspires you or informs your work? Who said it and why do you admire them?
MB: "A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened." - Albert Camus. I believe that there is something deep within us which is the root of our creativity, and our pursuing it is the purpose of our work. Camus' take on life - put most simply, we do what we can - informs not just my approach to writing but to how I want to live too.
C+B: What is something exciting that you're looking forward to in your life or creative life?
MB: I've managed to be picked for a select writing course which I'm really excited about but can't say too much about yet as the news isn't public!
Find and support Mark here:
IG: @mdhblackburn
Website: markblackburn.co.uk
Mark Blackburn
If my work was a meal it would be: A seven-course tasting menu!
I would love to be able to share my work with: Cal Flyn, writer of Islands of Abandonment. I feel my lost airports with their weeded-over runways might appeal!
If I didn’t work in my current medium, I would like to try: I think I'd be a photographer. I don't have any technical ability, but I do have an eye, and even found myself shortlisted in a national competition!
My hope for those viewing my work: One small thing they can relate to that maybe they hadn't previously considered.
