#42 Sharon Mertins, writer

'Pieces of paper with reminders or ideas scribbled on them'

Sharon D. Mertins is a fiction writer from Guatemala. She grew up in Guatemala, Panama, the United States, and the UK (London). She now lives in Berlin (Germany), writing about strange natural forces and everything phantasmagorical and uncanny. Her work has been featured in Visual Verse, Cafe Irreal, Jersey Devil Press, Leopardskin and Limes, and The Wild Word Anthology. She is also the director of The Reader Berlin and co-producer of the Story Strumpets Podcast. You can read more of her work at sharondmertins.com.

Where do you write?
I almost always carry a little notebook with me, and I have it in all sorts of locations, ranging from bed to U-bahn to blindly writing in a movie theater. However, I also have a desk, which I use a lot.

What can we always find on your desk?
I tend to scatter pieces of paper with reminders or ideas scribbled on them. I have random postcards that I find aesthetically pleasing, the inevitable empty mug that I forget to take to the kitchen until evening, a little gargoyle (I love him!) that my best friend gave me when I was in high school, and an old rotary dial phone that used to hang in my grandparents’ bedroom when I was a kid. It was already super old back then. I don’t know why I loved that phone so much. My grandmother kept it for me in Guatemala for years until I finally managed to bring it back with me. I use it to talk to myself and my characters and, sometimes, to vent.

Morning writer or late-night words?
I love to write by hand in the morning, but I get creative in the evenings after conversations or listening to music. Sometimes, that’s when everything comes together.

Coffee, tea, nibbles?
I like my tea—green, preferably—but I do indulge in a cup of coffee here and there. Nibbles… I always keep nuts at home—all kinds. I never get tired of them. Also, roasted pumpkin seeds, but they’re not very practical to eat when you’re writing.

What's your most tempting distraction?
Ah. I would like to come up with something more creative here but it’s always either dog videos on Instagram, watching my cacti on the window, or those little strolls to the kitchen to find something to eat, drink, or plants to water, or something to reorganize…

What's that we hear on the speakers?
Movie soundtracks and ambience music. Lately I’ve been really into an album a friend of mine made of sounds underwater. I like to dab into 80s, 70s, or a little electronic music during those little breaks, though.

Have you got any pre-writing rituals?
Sometimes it’s music, sometimes it’s reading a few pages, and sometimes a little meditation. I’m not too good with routine, so I try many things. It always depends on how I’m feeling.

Perfect bookshop to hide on a rainy day?
Another Country in Bergmannkiez is always great because you can’t go with a book in mind. You can stay there for hours, but you have to let yourself be surprised. I’ve acquired some real gems there that influenced my writing.

What's your most treasured book?
All the books I keep are treasured. I get rid of the ones I don’t think I’ll read again. But okay, I’m quite fond of my copy of Our Part of Night by Mariana Enriquez, not only because I LOVE it but also because, even though I don’t like the physical copy I have, she scribbled something in there that I will never be able to understand, hah!

Favourite word in the English language?
Waggish! It means humorous and mischievous, reminding me of a dog wagging its tail.

Dream writing location?
My friends and I used to rent this old house in the countryside on the border with the Czech Republic. It was pretty run-down but had a lot of rooms and a fireplace in the kitchen. No Internet. We were all so good about writing or reading and then re-grouping in the kitchen for meals whenever we got stuck on our writing or just needed a chat. I feel like I got a lot done there. And it was just magical.

Three writers (dead or alive) to have dinner with?
Octavia E. Butler, Carl Sagan, Michael Crichton. Definitely at the same time!

One poem that has changed your life: 
I don’t know if it changed my life, but a friend of mine lent me a book by Natalie Diaz called When My Brother Was an Aztec.