Together the narrator and the cat go on a journey with soothsayers, dust bunnies and every oddball healer you can imagine. [Read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Jane Smiley
   Monday Chat with Marcus Speh

Write everyday, just to keep in the habit, and remember that whatever you have written is neither as good nor as bad as you think it is. Just keep going, and tell yourself that you will fix it later. [Read more]

Recently:
   Monday Chat with Marcus Speh
   Checking In With Myself
   Fictionaut Five: Daniel Handler

I do believe that fiction ought to be moral. Perhaps there’s no a priori reason why we carry this gift of writing but if we don’t throw our weight behind life, decency and humanity, we’re nothing but word clowns. [Read more]

Recently:
Checking In With Myself
   Fictionaut Five: Daniel Handler

While many of the groups are thriving, I figured I’d re-go over the groups concept for new members before the new year. [Read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Daniel Handler

Character is bunk. There is plot, and there is voice, and they conspire to create an illusion we call “literature.” [Read more]

Recently:
   Checking In With Pure Slush
   Fictionaut Five: Michael Knight
   Monday Chat with Julie Innis

I am interested in clear communication. Clever language can get in the way of communication at times. Frankly, some of it’s just wank. I think Australians have a well-deserved reputation for a low tolerance of bullshit, and the Wank-o-Meter is always on at Pure Slush. [Read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Michael Knight
   Monday Chat with Julie Innis
   Fictionaut Five: Charles Baxter

It’s sometimes hard to convince people that laying around in the middle of the day reading is a vital part of my process but I really have found that if I just keep reading good fiction, good writers, I’ll eventually come across some perfect image or airtight scene, something that strikes the necessary chord and sends me running back to my own work, that makes me excited about writing again. [Read more]

Recently:
   Monday Chat with Julie Innis
   Fictionaut Five: Charles Baxter
   Checking in with CZP / Rannu Fund For Writers of Speculative Fiction

I’ve read a lot of writers who talk about discovering the story as they go. It always seemed like something that would happen to other people, but not to me — like being crowned Prom Queen, or getting a reality TV show. So when it happened with this story, this ending that yes, exactly as you put it, flung itself at me, I thought Finally, now I am a real writer and big things are going to start happening. [Read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Charles Baxter
   Checking in with CZP / Rannu Fund For Writers of Speculative Fiction
   Fictionaut Five: Ethel Rohan
   Fictionaut in The Writer Magazine

What’s exciting about the present time is that screen culture is in a pitched battle with book culture; there are all kind of people who want to kill off books, who really want them dead. It’s frightening to watch. [Read more]

Recently:
   Checking in with CZP / Rannu Fund For Writers of Speculative Fiction
   Fictionaut Five: Ethel Rohan
   Fictionaut in The Writer Magazine

Fiction Writer and Fictionaut Member Cami Park passed away yesterday. I was personally inspired by her. She will be missed. [Read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Ethel Rohan
   Fictionaut in The Writer Magazine