ABOUT

Alanna Rusnak lives on a small patch of untamable land in small town Ontario with her three children, husband, and avintage van she's far too excited about. Fuelled by copious amounts of coffee and chocolate, she writes fiction and creative non-fiction from within her tiny study. Her debut novel was a finalist for the 2018 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and named one of the top reader-recommended titles of 2017 by cbcbooks.ca and her latest novel will hit the shelves on November 7, 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

AUTHOR STATEMENT: 

All I want is to create something beautiful. To make music with words, verses with rhythm, harmonies with synonyms...to create something from nothing, from empty space where no story lay before—this is what a writer does, they search for the extraordinary in all things.

I have been passionate about words from a young age - writing stories, journals, poems, and songs as long as I can remember.

I grew up before the internet, when social sharing amounted to the scribbles on our binders and the "I Heart {insert crush of the week here}" penciled in the margins of math textbooks.

It was all about telephone calls after school and passing notes in class and no matter what you wrote and how great you thought it might be, the only people to see it were the ones you physically placed it in front of. Like your English Writing teacher {who still uses me as an example because I am the only student he ever had that submitted A NOVEL for my twelfth grade independent study}.

I believe that life is story and there is something worth sharing from every experience if we just look hard enough. And when you love words like I do, you jump at the chance to tell a story.*

If I am an artist then words are my medium.

I married Scott one week after high school graduation and we work hard every day to keep the fire alive. Thanks to him I am the proud momma of three lovelies - two boys and a girl - and they all keep me very busy and inspired.

I maintain our home, do exorbitant amounts of laundry and dishes, handle our finances, work 25 hours a week doing graphic design, website maintenance, and social media management {among other things} for my church, I'm working on a novel, a children's book, and a memoir, I pretend to garden, I'm the Editor in Chief of a pretty little Canadian Lit magazine, and I try to blog regularly!

It's funny to think that ten years ago I didn't even know what a blog was. Ten years ago we didn't even own a computer! Can you even imagine??!!

My writing journey has been part of my story as long as I can remember. From the moment I was able, I was creating stories—both in my head and on paper. My blog journey began in 2009 when the '25 Random Things About Me' challenge was all over Facebook. I participated and was thrilled by the few comments I received—one of which said "you need a blog" which I interpreted as 'everybody wants to read what you have to say!'

I let the thought percolate for a while. Then I watched the movie Julie & Julia and I was completely sold on the idea of a blog...I just needed something to write about and, unlike Julie Powell, I was not a cook. But I was a wife. And a mother. And a crafter. And a writer. 

My blog, {originally known as SelfBinding Retrospect} was born out of a need to prove to myself that my life was not ordinary. That in all the seemingly dull demands of motherhood, 'wifedom', and daily monotony there was a beauty that shone through the cracks—moments that claim my little corner of the world as something rather extraordinary. 

My goal here, in this online space—beyond all my various writing pursuits and projects—is to expound on the gift of living, to imagine a masterpiece from ugliness, to express the loveliness of laundry, the glory of exhaustion, the prettiness of hard work, dishes, love, tea, boogers, music, surprises, LIFE.

I don't claim to have answers. I only claim to have hope. And faith. And a near-to-the-heart belief that what I'm doing somehow matters. I may never know why. I may never know how. And that's okay.  I'm not here to change the world. I only wish to share what beacons I am given.

Will you join me in finding the extraordinary in the ordinary?  

Because every journey is better when it's taken with friends.



"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection."

Anais Nin

RANDOM ALANNA TRIVIA

1. I have an insatiable crush on John Travolta.

2. I pulled the car over and cried when I heard that Heath Ledger died.

3. I have always wanted to go to Italy.

4. I keep a dictionary in my computer dock because I'm terrified that without it people might find out I'm not as smart as they think I am.

5. I dream in colour.

6. I hallucinate late at night. It shouldn't be legal for me to drive past midnight. I see snakes slithering all over the road and crazy little people running beside me in the ditch.

7. I like doing the dishes. It's my time of escape when I can turn my back on everyone and get lost in my thoughts.

8. I met my husband when I was 15. We started dating when I was 16 and we got married when I was 18 and I still like him {17} years later.

9. I dream of being a published author but no one will look at my stuff because I don't have an agent and no agent will take me because I'm not published...do you see my dilemma?

10. Anne Rice is my favorite writer. I have never found anything else written so beautifully and fluent. My vampire infatuation is thanks, in large part, to her eloquence.

11. I love to cook. I hate to bake

12. Competition stresses me out.

13. A perfect day would end with a bath and a book and a cup of tea.

14. All 3 of my children share a name with a "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" character.

15. I love a good peanut butter & tomato sandwich on a toasted english-muffin.**

16. Topless men offend me.

17. I will only dance with my kids.

18. I could eat "Chows" egg rolls every day.

I hope you'll stick around and we can get to know each other. We'll laugh and cry and make fun of ourselves. Go make a cup of tea - grab your grandmother's quilt - cozy up someplace warm and let's share our stories! 


*{Not 'tell' a story - public speaking makes me want to vomit and hide in a linen closet - I mean 'share' a story...that's much nicer anyway, isn't it?}

** Toast the muffin. Spread on butter while the english muffin is warm so it melts down into all those little spaces. Slop on some peanut butter. Add a slice of tomato and some fresh ground pepper. Trust me! It's wonderfully delicious!!