Spotlight On Writers
Steven Fortune
- Where, do you hail from?
I am from Cape Breton, an island of Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada.
- What is the greatest thing about the place you call home?
The scenery, which is awe-inspiring and highly conducive to artistic inspiration. Cape Breton is home to the Cabot Trail, which is commonly polled as one of the world’s top-five most beautiful drives.
- What turns you on creatively?
Community coffee shops; I currently work at one of the many in my hometown of Sydney, which are commonly frequented by local artists and everyday crowds who comingle seamlessly. Coffee shops have a way of injecting profundity into the most mundane conversations, and making poets and philosophers of its most blue-collar patrons. Whether you’re one of a crowd, or on the introverted side, everyone’s presence is significant, and every life becomes a story. I’m a solitary writer that tends to do my best work in the confines of my own home, but a great many of my ideas come from these places.
- What is your favorite word, and can you use it in a poetic sentence?
I have two: frost and acquiesce.
The frost of a maritime night can only ride the coattails of a chilly morning for so long, for it is fated to acquiesce to the sun that overrules the wind.
- What is your pet peeve?
Myself. I can’t get out of my own way when it comes to the creative process. I struggle to write spontaneously, and no matter how hard I try to adopt a stream-of-conscious approach, I inevitably find myself writing and pondering one word at a time. As a result, I rarely write more than two drafts of anything, but I’d much rather write multiple drafts and edit feverishly along the way. Alas, my brain simply isn’t wired as such.
- What defines Steven Fortune?
The written word. I am a painfully awkward individual in the flesh, and my best intentions rarely translate well in physical gestures or off-the-cuff statements. No doubt it’s that awkwardness that feeds my aforementioned writing style, but when I tell somebody to ‘read my stuff,’ it is anything but idle self-promotion. More often than not, it’s a form of contrition.
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