Interview with Cindy Smith

Today I am pleased to welcome Cindy J. Smith to my blog for an interview. Cindy is a poet and I am delighted to have the chance to interview her. Here's a bit about her in her own words:

I am Cindy J. Smith and I write poetry.   I was raised in a small town in Upstate New York (I have NEVER been to NYC). I live in western Indiana with my husband, Dave. I drive a truck over-the-road with my husband to keep from being a "starving artist".  In my free time in the truck, I read.  If you ask anyone who knows me, I am kinda partial to coffee, purple and jasmine.  I am not sure why anyone thinks that.  I love dragons, jokers, fairies and big cats! I have four poetry books published at this time; Voices In My Head, They Won't Shut Up, Rhymes Through Time and Words On The Wind. My children's book, Caesar And The Bluebells, is being reillustrated and should be back out soon. More of her poems appear in eight anthologies as well as several books by fellow authors.

Let's get onto the interview:

1 - What made you want to be a writer? 
To be honest, being a writer was not something I chose to do, it chose me.  I have been rhyming since I was a toddler.  Letting others see my work, however, was harder.  It happened because of my daughter and her desire to see my poems published.

2 - What kind of books do you read for pleasure? 
I love to read and my "go to genre" is Horror.  I enjoy classic literature and have recently found that SciFi can be really good.  About the only things I don't carae to read much of are erotica, westerns and romance novels.  I am willing to try anything if asked.

3- If you had the chance to write anywhere, where would you choose?  
If I could write anywhere, I would choose a rocky shoreline.  I love being in nature and I think that would give me so much inspiration.  The waves crashing, bringing ideas from other places and offering them to me. 

4- What attracted you to your chosen genre? 
I like poetry because you can say anything and it is not considered confrontational.  People will either see themselves or ignore the truths you are saying.  They don't usually become hateful over a poem. 

5- How have other writers influenced your own writing? 
I am most influenced by Dr. Seuss actually.  I love how he was able to teach life lessons when you weren't looking.  Any topic he could put to rhyme and make understandable.  It is my wish to be like him, to help people open their eyes and really see what is in front of them.

6- Do you prefer to type or hand write? 
I type mostly.  My handwriting is so bad that more often than not I can't even read it!   Typing them on my laptop gives me the ability to find and share my poems at a moment's notice.

7 - Would you ever like to branch out to a different genre?  
I have branched out a little recently.  I have written a few short stories and I participated in NaNo this year.  I actually did finish the NaNo but the work itself is not done yet.  I do need to finish it.  I believe poetry is where I will stay though, full sentences are hard.


You can find Cindy on Facebook, Goodreads and her website.

Check out the blog every Friday for an interview, review or guest blog! If you want to be interviewed, or do a guest blog for Joey's blog you can contact her here.