Q & A with Georgina Queller

1. Who is your favourite author(s)?

I’m glad you added the possible “s” because I have many favourites.  For novels locally, probably my most favourite is Bernice Morgan, though I have also enjoyed many of Wayne Johnson’s among others. Nationally, I have been a fan of Margaret Lawrence and Robertson Davies when they were writing. Internationally, the Russian novelists especially Dostoevsky, and southern US writing has been appealing. My favourite Canadian poets are P. K. Page, Don Mckay and Al Purdy. Locally, there are so many good ones at the moment I would be afraid to choose between them.

2. What are you reading now?

I have been on a non-fiction binge this past week. I am reading The Banting Enigma by Bill Callahan and I’ve just finished Bob Bartlett’s Log and his The Last Voyage of the Karluk, Paul Butler’s St. John’ City of Fire, and Maura Hanrahan’s The Alphabet Fleet and Domino. Just before those I read Lisa Moore’s Alligator and Michelle Butler-Hallett’s Double-blind.

3. What was your first piece in print (book, review, or article, etc)?

My first literary piece in print was an inclusion in Life Sentences, “A Trip to Manawaka.” This was a piece about a visit to Margaret Laurence’s hometown, Neepawa, Manitoba and the Simpson house where she lived. Life Sentences was a collection of writing about writing by the Newfoundland Writers’ Guild, so really my first independently published piece was a poem “Hurricane Hortense” published by Tickle Ace. In the past, I had done lots of writing included in newsletters and was editor of many professional journals, newspapers, and technical and political writing.

4. When do you like to write (time of day, day of week)? Where do you do your writing (location)?

In general I am a night owl and a procrastinator, so it is not unusual to see me write late at night or in the sunrise hours, having been up all night avoiding starting till 5 am. I do most of my rewriting at my computer in my messy office at home.  I often start pieces in restaurants, out in nature sitting on a rock somewhere, or at a poetry reading when I am inspired by other people’s ideas.

5. What other jobs have you had besides being a writer?

You name it, I have done it sometime in my life, except of course you know what. I worked in agriculture for many years as a training coordinator and as an inspector visiting purebred dairy cattle maintaining their production records. I was a craft marketing specialist for six years.  I have done social and psychological research, worked as a waitress and had numerous factory jobs from making diapers to repairing tents and awnings, and, oh yes, I worked in an office maintaining stock records (on china and glass, not cows) and in office supervision and retail management.  In Montreal I was a manager of three small branch offices for Henry Morgan and Co. to which I commuted on a motor scooter whose top speed was 43 miles per hour over auto routes whose minimum speeds were 100 miles per hour.  Only one crooked little finger to show for it, not too bad.

6. What do you like to do in your free time?

Well, obviously from my list above, I read a lot, but also I waste oodles of time playing games on line. I eat out with friends often because I seem to have given up on cooking and I enjoy getting together with friends. I belong to a book group and a writing group (NWG). I like going for rides in the countryside and occasionally go to films or rent them.

7. What is your favourite food?

Anything dairy, like ice cream or milk. My favourite meal from childhood, and my birthday meal request, was baked ham with pineapple, corn soufflé, baked potato, and salad. Chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert.

8. What is your favourite movie(s)?

I don’t go to movies as much as many people and I always forget the names of them. In general, I like drama, eschew scary movies and chose often by who is playing in the film and by what the reviewers say.

9. What city/country would you most like to visit and why?

At the moment I would like to go to Italy, especially Florence. I went to Rome once and loved speaking Italian and enjoyed meeting the Italian people. There seemed to me to be a strong rural base even in that sophisticated city of Roma.  I enjoyed the art and sculpture there, and so Florence is my next destination. I am very curious about India and the African countries but am not very tolerant of heat and being as poor as the proverbial church mouse am not likely to get there.

10. Make a question of your own and then answer it.

Tell me about your family.

I was the youngest of three daughters; my elder sisters are Elizabeth and Sandra. We were all born here in St. John’s, where my dad worked in retail management and my mom worked at managing us three girls. She was a superior pastry chef, jam maker and seamstress. We girls all had nicknames: Snoopy, the Queen, and Pudding. We spent our summers in Second Pond, near Petty Harbour, where I played school as soon as it finished for the year, hopped rocks and swam. I cried when we couldn’t go back to school one year because of the polio epidemic.