SALLIE TISDALE is the author of Sorcerer's Apprentice, Harvest Moon, Lot's Wife, Stepping Westward and Talk Dirty to Me. Her columns for Salon from Jan 98 to June 99 helped shape the way we think about the Salon section, "Mothers who Think." She guided the Writing About...what you're afraid to write about workshop at the University of Oregon. Her latest work-in-progress is titled The Best Thing I Ever Tasted: The Secret of Food.

Q: Your work has appeared frequently in a broad range of magazines; your bio at Salon, in fact, calls your work "the varied diet of the generalist." Do you consider yourself any particular type of writer?
A: I have always simply considered myself a writer. Yes, I've grumbled over all the designations like "nonfiction" and "creative nonfiction" and "prose" and "belle lettres" and "essay" and so on. But I just write--I write about the problems and questions that interest me. There are a few of us out there, like David Shields and Bernard Cooper and a few others, who largely write essays and shift topics. Since we're all just always writing about our relationship to the world, topics are the only lenses, giving different views on the larger picture.
     On the other hand, I do consider myself an advocate of the essay, an endangered form threatening to deteriorate into semi-fiction, imagined memoir, and confession.

Q: Do you define a line between fact and fiction--particularly in the murk of memory and the personal essay?
A: The line between fact and fiction is the topic of hours of discussion. I believe our memories are actually faulty and limited and I distrust most memoirs for this reason. Few writers admit to not remembering well. The important question for personal material is, "Is it fair?" In some cases, we simply must ask, "Is it true?" and try to answer it and admit all the gray areas.

Q: Speaking of essays, you often write about the small things in daily life--like shopping, cooking, reading your teenage journals--often with deep passion. How do you find your topics? How do you constantly generate meaningful story ideas?
A: Ah, the small things. What Mary Gordon calls "water colors"--the details of the domestic life so often used to peg women writers as "minimalists"--instead of the "oil painters," in Gordon's words, who are men writing about Big Things like War. What else is there, anyway? Cooking, cleaning, eating. Even in war, these are the moments of our lives. Washing the bottom of a dying person. What's bigger than that?

Q: Sorcerer's Apprentice came out in '86, Harvest Moon in '87, and Lot's Wife in '88--prolific would be an understatement. Were you working on any of these books at the same time?
A: "Prolific"--that was a strange time, those years. The books just wanted to come out. I had 3 kids and a nursing job and not much money. I barely remember it--late nights in a cold basement, typing. Of course, one never writes a book in the amount of time spent actually writing. Books, essays, stories are born and grow in our heads for a long time before they see light. My latest book took almost 5 years.

Q: Are there any habits, techniques you've developed?
A: Of course. I read the newspaper every morning--a bad habit. I pace around my work--I imagine the boxer in the ring. I play solitaire, cook, do jigsaw puzzles. I "work"--which means everything from reading, filing and going to the post office as well as writing--about 25 hours a week now. I wait for the charge to build up and actually write when the pressure is strong, and if that's on the weekend or at 3 in the morning, so be it. I don't like short deadlines and have learned to honor the pace at which I sort through words.

Q: Has there been an issue or an idea you've wanted to write about for a long time, but somehow never could?
A: I've not written much about my children until the last few years. I can't write about anything until I have a certain distance. This is good, I think. I may take notes in the heat of something but it could be years before I work with them. The only thing I find extremely difficult to write about is my religious practice. It is an area where words are very limited. This is beginning to change and I'll probably tackle it soon enough.

Q: You write about very personal subjects--is there a clear line you define between what you're willing to reveal to an audience and what you hold back?
A: Of course there are lines of limitation. Readers only see what the writer lets through and if we do that right, it seems spontaneous and uncensored. People said I was brave for what I said in Talk Dirty to Me, but they have no idea what I didn't put in there. Good writers do have to be brave about censure and disagreement, I think, but we're all craven about something and that's what we're not saying. I'm actually a very private person in regards to my family and daily life and have gone to some lengths to hide my home address and phone and so on.

Q: Has the internet shaped the way you write or the product of your writing? Do you see the increase of internet publishing changing creative nonfiction?
A: I'm very skeptical of electronic publishing. I hate reading off a screen and use the net only for research through academic sites and for long-distance e-mail. My experience with the web has been one of extensive and blatant piracy and plagiarism and at any given moment, about 30 of my articles are for sale there without permission and I never see a penny. When the problem is solved--which may be never--I'll look again. I love books as objects and want to own and read well-crafted ones.

Q: How does your latest project fit into your work--not so much the subject but the development of craft?
A: It's the first time I've really written about my parents at length, and like my other work is an amalgam of history, sociocultural issues and personal material. Development of craft? More of the same. More practice. Some of what I write is good, some not so good, a little quite good. I try to accept that.
     Rilke said that if you want to write you should wake up in the middle of the night and lie in the dark and ask yourself "do I have to write?" and only do it if the answer is yes. I write because it is the most natural way for me to meet the world and explain things. I also simply love words, language, sound, rhythm and stories! An excellent way to spend my days.