DeWinter, Corrine - author

By: Dominick A. Miserandino

DM) What was the first story you ever wrote?

CD) The first story I remember was one I wrote in 5th grade. It was called "The Pink Lady." The Pink Lady was a ghost who haunted an old house. Kind of a cliche, I guess. The story line is a bit fuzzy, but I got a thrill out of writing about ghosts and hauntings. I showed it to my teacher at the time, and she gave me a polite smile, handing it back to me without a word. I remember that clearly.

DM) Have you ever used your talents to write a love letter?

CD) This is a huge understatement!! I'm constantly writing love letters. Friends still ask me to write letters for them to their boyfriends, because they think they'll have better results. One story I wrote called "Valentines for the Dead" is actually one long love letter. In my opinion, it's one of the best things I ever wrote. When you have someone in mind, it's easy. When writing to someone who is your lover, or possibly a future lover, you want to show them something of your soul. You want them to know who you are. You confess happily, you admit to fears and joy and what's caused this ecstasy you're so occupied with.

DM) Would you say that you've ever been in love yourself?

CD) I have been in love with a very talented musician for years. He's one of the most intelligent people I know, and that's important because I need to be learning constantly. But asking "Have you ever been in love?" almost never yields one definitive answer. I once read a quote that said, "Poetry reminds us how difficult it is to remain just one person." And that sort of concentration, the effort to be consistent, sort of applies to falling in love. When you fall in love, you are transformed, made more whole in a way. You discover new aspects of yourself. In my poem "The Book of Eve" I wrote: "Although we are whole as beings/ we are half of something always/ and crave the mystery of that other side." What is so appealing about falling in love is that we lose ourselves. We become bored with our own rituals.

DM) You said that my question yields more than one answer. There are some who would argue that "being in love" might never even happen to some of us.

CD) I agree. Someone once said to me, "Some people live their whole lives and never find anyone to love, or anyone to love them." I don't know if it matters who or where you are, maybe it's your state of mind, or maybe it's just the fate that's been handed to you, and no fault of your own that never brings you to falling in love. Some people who have been in love later say, "That wasn't 'true' love." We deny it after it abandons us maybe.

DM) And how would you categorize your writing style?

CD) I call it a cross between fairy tales, mythology, and horror, which basically started out as the same thing way back when. Tinkerbell, for instance, wasn't the smiling Monroe-ish innocent little fairy that Disney re-created her as. She was actually a very dark, jealous, malicious, bat-like creature who had murderous intentions. In the original manuscript, she was described as having leaves and twigs matted into her long, black, stringy hair. In Andrew Lang's FAIRY BOOKS there are hundreds of tales involving smothered babies, tortured children and siblings who disfigured each other. But almost everything I write is first based in reality. It's like a dream--there are elements of reality to it, but then suddenly you've inherited wings and are ready for anything.

DM) It sounds rather gruesome. I thought fairy tales were for children. Wouldn't it be a rather bad idea to tell children stories about mutilation?

CD) You mean like they do with modern cartoons and other TV? Yes. America is, and really was, born from violence. Even commercials are violent. I'm not saying we should read our children macabre tales before they go to bed, but then why do we let them tune into murder and rape on TV? Why are 11-year-olds going on shooting sprees, and 10-year-olds beating toddlers to death? Is violence just a natural thing? I don't think so.

DM) What do you think causes this violence in society?

CD) Addiction. Poverty. Not being nurtured as children. Being hungry for anything and going to extremes to get it. Guilt. Being unsettled and without any spirituality, or centering force in life.

DM) Who are your favorite authors?

CD) For poetry, I admire the works of Conrad Aiken, Anne Sexton, Hayden Carruth, James Merrill, Georg Trakl, lots of poets from the 40's like Muriel Rukeyser, George Barker, William Carlos Williams, and Dylan Thomas. I also like Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry, the "Duino Elegies" in particular, and of course Sylvia Plath. Other writers I like are Daphne DuMaurier (she wrote The Birds, Rebecca and a slew of other great novels), H. Rider Haggard's She, Nick Cave, Poe, William Packard (playwright), C.S. Lewis. I like a lot of authors who write about the metaphysical, paranormal field.

DM) How do you overcome writer's block?

CD) By writing pages full of really banal stuff, or just leaving words alone for a few days instead of trying to wrestle them into genius. Usually I don't force myself to sit down and write, although other writers and teachers will tell you, you MUST write every day. I don't. I'm not usually at a loss for inspiration. I'll write about something, anything, even if it's a poem about having a crush on Pee Wee Herman.

DM) You've had a crush on Pee Wee Herman!?!?!

CD) I wrote a book called Like Eve a few years ago. I wrote from the viewpoint of many women, including Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, Mata Hari, The Virgin Mary, etc. And of course Eve herself. Why I felt I could do that, and so convincingly, is (I think) because desire and temptation are sewn into me so securely. A crush on Pee Wee Herman wasn't so odd, considering the "crushes" preceding that: Bela Lugosi, Laurence Olivier, Gary Cooper, Jesus Christ, my Spanish teacher in high school, Sid Vicious, etc. I think there will never come a time when I will be "crushless." And thankfully, because who would I be writing about?

DM) What attracts you to these people?

CD) There's something distinctly romantic about all of them--even Sid, who I heard from a photographer in NYC, was very sweet and shy. The whole Jesus-crucifixion-Bible thing has always fascinated me, maybe because it is so like a fairy tale. Pee Wee Herman was sort of a comic Valentino, with his neat suit and painted face and gentlemanly habits. Bela Lugosi as Dracula appealed to the death-meets-the erotic spot (all of us have it.)

DM) How close is your boyfriend's personality to these crushes?

CD) There's elements of all of them in him. But he is not very akin to any of them.

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