Amy Minato, author of Siesta Lane, speaks on Sunday, October 11, at 1 P.M. on the Beyond Words Stage.

My writing process is to stretch out on my bed with pillows everywhere, a cat purring on my back, clutching a bowl of snacks (snacks are key) in one hand and a pen in the other. Lying down tricks my subconscious into thinking I’m asleep, which coaxes it to wander the dark hallways of my mind until part of it stumbles out onto the paper. I do this for hours, not even getting up to stretch or answer the phone (woe to anyone who knocks on my door during the voodoo-writing time) and usually rushing late to pick up my kids with a weird glaze to my face, muttering nonsense.

My current book began as a diary during the time I lived on Siesta Lane. I wanted an intentional journal of my experiment in simple living, a chronicle where I could digest my day. The inspiration for my experiment was a combination of wanting to live a more ethical life and the desire to save my soul from our consumptive society.

What jazzed me was learning about the natural world, observing the different folks in the community and the resonances between both worlds.

It took awhile for readers to be interested in voluntary simplicity. Now we all have involuntary simplicity because of the economy. Also, increasing awareness of global warming has folks accepting more environmental lifestyle changes.

The book is set outside Eugene. I now live in Multnomah Village near Gabriel Park. It’s the closest I could get to a rural community in the city. We see coyotes here sometimes!

I’m reading The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd about an ex-patriot British woman in Japan in 1900 who pretty much gets screwed by patriarchy. I like reading about women in different times and cultures, to learn about where we’ve come and what still goes down.

My favorite new author (new to me) is Luis Urrea. My book club just read Hummingbird’s Daughter which you should run out and get right now. I think he will win a Nobel prize for his other work on the Mexican/American border. Check out Devil’s Highway.

Siesta Lane is a bow to Thoreau and my favorite poet these days is Richard Jones who also lives next door to my folks in Glenview, Illinois on Lois Lane where I grew up. (The prequel to Siesta Lane should be Lois Lane).

My favorite food is chocolate ice cream. I have a small bowl of it EVERY NIGHT with a little milk stirred into it. No wonder I can’t lose weight.

I’m polishing up two poetry collections and diving into a novel about an imaginary town in northeastern Oregon where the landscape and community greatly influence each other in humorous, heartbreaking ways.

Not big on [favorite] websites, sorry! Too much computer makes me need even more ice cream….