I have a bundle of written-on receipts and post-it notes in my pockets at any one time, covered in crayoned titles, snippets of description, and first lines that *might* go somewhere when I’m not running about with my 4 year old.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Ayelet Waldman
   Line Breaks: “Alteration” by Steve Almond
   Checking in with Shred the Safehouse

I have four children and am thus so absurdly busy that I don’t have time for writers block. If I waited for inspiration, I’d never write anything else as long as I live.

Recently:
   Line Breaks: “Alteration” by Steve Almond
   Checking in with Shred the Safehouse

So here’s “Alteration.” You will notice that it sucks. I can’t figure out who I’m imitating here, though it’s not George Saunders, because I wouldn’t read him for another five years. Probably I’m trying to channel Ignatious J. Riley.

Recently:
   Checking in with Shred the Safehouse
   Fictionaut Five: Greg Olear
   Monday Chat with Christopher Allen

Our site gives people the opportunity to “fess up” and write about actual experiences and feelings that are true to them. Almost like a public diary but under the guise of beautiful works built out of words.

Fiction allows us to delve into the depths of who we are without hurting those close to us or being bound by the more inelegant elements of truth. In that sense, fictional people can be more real than real people — certainly we are able to learn from them, from their mistakes, their successes and failures, just as easily as we can from an actual person. But how many actual people can be know as intimately as we know, say, Leopold Bloom or Emma Bovary or Jay Gatsby?

The micro “Three-handed Bridge” is adapted loosely from an unpublished novel of the same title.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Mark Wisniewski
   Checking in with Horrortap
   Front Page: October

There’s a certain level of dishevelment that’s ideal for writing. Too much and I feel like a hoarder of crumpled drafts–too clean and I feel like a beginner.

Recently:
   Checking in with Horrortap
   Front Page: October

The Four a.m. Feeling is that something has shifted, and reality is not the way you had left it minutes ago. And it’s most assuredly four a.m. at Horrortap.

Recently:
   Front Page: October
   Fictionaut Five: James Whorton Jr.
   Monday Chat with Marcelle Heath

Sheldon Lee Compton’s story collection, The Same Terrible Storm, is forthcoming from Foxhead Books. Stories by Susan Gibb, Con Chapman, and Gill Hoff are at Pure Slush. Meg Tuite’s “Prevailing Winds” is at Fwriction Review.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: James Whorton Jr.
   Monday Chat with Marcelle Heath

Keep paying attention. Look at what is in front of you. Keep looking. You don’t really have to be creative much, if you can get something down half accurately.

Recently:
   Monday Chat with Marcelle Heath