Finding creative inspiration in the unseen and the visual arts with Susan Earlam.
#07 ATELIER, a collaborative interview series exploring our creative spaces, processes and rituals.
A warm hello to anyone new here, I’m Lyndsay, mother, creative and storyteller with a background in interiors PR. Story & Thread. is a weekly letter exploring the intersection of creativity, mothering and the living world, with a home and a garden at the heart. I am so glad you have found your way here…
“I'm hugely interested in science and the world around us. The geography of a place, the mythology of a place, all the things we can't see”.
—Susan Earlam, on inspiration.
Hello everyone,
I am dropping in this evening to bring you the latest ATELIER interview, with author , writer of The Wild and the Quiet on Substack.
It feels as though Susan and I have almost definitely crossed paths in our previous lives, mine deep in the interiors PR world and Susan as the writer behind renowned interiors blog ‘Old Fashioned Susie’. Susan now turns her talents to fiction that revolves around the uncanny and the strange, with two books under her belt and another underway. Susan’s writing here on Substack features intriguing esoteric explorations, dancing at the point where sci-fi, magic and horror overlap, and she generously lifts the veil often on her writing practice.
The combination of Susan’s experience in interiors writing with the attention she places on the practice of writing has made for a fascinating look into her creative space.
Just before we dive in to the interview with Susan, I have included a short update on my own writing space below…
My atelier update.
Last time I wrote, my writing space was filled with seed trays on every available surface. Since then, they have been slowly potted on and placed outside in the garden. A few seedlings (namely the sweet peas) still need to be moved into the ground and supported properly but I am holding off for fear of sending them off to be decimated by the glut of slugs and snails in the garden at the moment…wish them luck!
One update from my space is that I have finally managed to get two pieces of artwork on the wall (hooray!). The artwork that sits behind my desk is a line drawing by one of my favourite artists Venetia Berry, a piece I was able to get my hands on via a ‘Drawing a Day’ challenge Venetia took part in on Instagram in 2018 — so it’s only taken six years to get it on the wall…!
It was well worth the wait though and it feels like this is the place it was always meant to be — the painting celebrates the female form and I love the soft, swirling, curvaceous lines in blue ink washed in a warm, watery palette, it feels very dreamy and flow-like to me…(qualities I hope will find their way into my writing practice!)
Whilst I continue to gather inspiration and add to my moodboard for the space, I am collating insights into how and where others create, and the rituals they intentionally adopt to elevate the space for creativity. This gathering of inspiration and ideas led to the idea for the ATELIER series…
ATELIER, noun, [French atuh-lyey].
a workshop or studio, especially of an artist, artisan, or designer.
Tell me about yourself and your creative life.
Hi, my name is
and I'm a late-diagnosed ADHD author. I started writing online in 2010, initially because I needed a creative outlet after becoming a mother for the first time. My writing snowballed from there. My blog Old Fashioned Susie was often featured in the top five interior blogs in the UK and in 2015 it was one of the award-winning blogs recognised at the Amara Interior Blog Awards.A year or two later, I began to feel disenchanted with the interior blog world. I felt like I was encouraging disposable, trend-driven consumerism. Although I always worked with brands that I liked and would buy from anyway, the rise of influencer culture roped me into a grouping I wasn't comfortable with.
What had begun as a hobby had morphed into something where I no longer felt like my own boss. I wanted complete autonomy and creating my own worlds writing fiction fulfils this need.
I self-publish my books because I LOVE being my own boss and having the final say in everything. I wrote Earthly Bodies in 2018-2019, originally thinking I was writing scifi. It's only when an editor said it was eco-horror that it all clicked. I edited it through the pandemic and published it in 2021.
Dark Is the Water came out a year later and is a much shorter book holding bitesize stories of the strange and unusual.
I'm working on another novel, which I'm hoping will be out later this year.
Where do you write?
I'm very privileged to now have a room of my own to create. Previously, I've worked at the dining room table and a fold-up desk in the corner of the bedroom.
How do you like to approach a workday?
My days revolve around my home life and my two daughters' school hours. So, providing everyone is well and it's term time, I'll walk my youngest to school, come back make a cup of tea then begin. At the moment I'm editing. I'll often use a timer to help me remember to take breaks. This doubles as giving me a sense of urgency too which helps my brain want to get things done.
I'm more creative in the morning so I try and avoid emails and admin until the afternoon when I've run out of steam and my brain needs a different type of activity.
I make time for reading every day. Usually, I have a few books on the go, a mixture of nonfiction, perhaps some research I'm doing for a story, and fiction. Although the genres I tend to work within tend to lean toward the weird, uncanny or horror, I do read widely, and will often notice that horror is prevalent in many books that aren't marketed as such.
Are your surroundings important to you?
Even though I don't blog about interiors anymore, they are still hugely important to me. I need to feel right in my home, it's where I spend most of my time. My husband also works from home. With two probable neurodivergent daughters, it's crucial our space feels safe and meets everyone's needs.
How do you like to feel whilst you are working?
While working I need to feel like I'm not going to get interrupted, especially during edits. I find I need to go much deeper into the work during editing and I need time and space to do this. I find drafting much easier because I can get words on the page very quickly and in short chunks of time; interruptions are less of a problem. ADHD has helped me write because I can hyperfocus on the work and I get a dopamine hit from meeting my target word count each day.
How do you set the tone and energy of your environment?
Sometimes to set the tone of the work I'll light a candle, usually a tea light in a burner. If it burns out I know I've been working for too long!
During drafting, I'll have a playlist, for certain scenes, I might need help to get into the mood of them. Sometimes silence is better, I think it often depends on how I'm feeling when I'm sitting down to begin. I've been part of an online cowriting group and this was brilliant because it took away the responsibility from me to set the mood… I could allow someone else to do that for me.
Do you have one place dedicated to your work/creative pursuits, or do you move around?
I tend to work in my study most of the time, but if I'm struggling with endometriosis pain I might move into the bedroom for a day. Often ideas will come when I'm not at my laptop, so I'll add these to my notes app on my phone or record using Otter, which also transcribes for you.
When I'm doing other types of creative work I tend to work downstairs where we have a large dining table. These other kinds of work might never be seen by anyone other than my family, but I love to draw, collage, and paint, generally making something from nothing is my jam.
Where do you source inspiration?
My creative inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere. I'm hugely interested in science and the world around us. The geography of a place, the mythology of a place, all the things we can't see. Only 4% of our universe is stuff we can actually see, the rest is dark matter and dark energy.1
My background is in art and it's the curiosity about the world that artists share with us through whatever mediums they work in. Artists, especially female artists, are hugely inspiring to me. Against all odds, they are compelled to keep going and keep communicating. Even now the art world is weighted towards men, despite women being in a higher percentage on art courses in higher education. Hilma af Klint is a great example of this.
Do you have any rituals around your work?
The only ritual I have around my work is one where I tell my Inner Critic to shut up. This is easier said than done. Having lots of rituals can hinder me rather than encourage me. I need to be able to work under any conditions. It's difficult enough for me to carve the time out sometimes, I don't need extra criteria to also have to be met. I'd just be creating more obstacles.
What would your dream creative studio space look like?
I'm loathed to suggest I'm not in a brilliant space now because I really am! But, if I had to improve on it, I'd say a whole attic/loft space where I can do writing in one area, art in another, and room enough for a large sofa or daybed. Views of the sea in Whitby would be the cherry on the cake!
Susan Earlam has been writing for a variety of media outlets since 2010. She pivoted to fiction when the call of the strange and unusual grew irresistible.
Susan procrastinates by writing shorter, and weirder, stuff. Her novel, eco-horror Earthly Bodies, came out in 2021 and won one of the Reader's Choice Awards at the Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards (2021). Earthly Bodies was also included on Reedsy's Greatest Indie Books List. Her horror flash fiction collection, Dark ls The Water, came out in 2022.
She is currently working on a second novel.
Find her at Susan Earlam | The Wild and the Quiet.
I love how Susan is inspired by both the unseen and visual arts in her creative life and how she has filled her space with art.
I’d love to hear if you have art in your creative space? How does it make you feel?
Thank you for reading — as always, your thoughts are very welcome in the comments.
Thank you for reading! This is an entirely reader-supported publication and I really appreciate any time you ‘like’ or choose to share words that you have felt a connection with — it means a lot to know that you are finding something of value here. Your insights create a beautiful spiral of ideas to form in my mind and help to nurture a supportive community which feels important to me.
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Thanks for having me here, Lyndsay! I wish you luck with your planting. Mine has been mixed this year, half doing okay, the other half too cold or been eaten by slugs!
really enjoyed this, susan your work sounds awesome i look forward to reading more :)