I found myself writing a literary thriller, which meant that the novel was both character- and plot- driven. Perhaps accordingly, I simultaneously wrote, outlined, and researched. It was a push-pull: what I discovered while writing would sometimes push forward the outline, and the outline would sometimes pull the writing along.

Recently:
   Monday Chat with Gay Degani
   Front Page: January

I’m not entirely in love with technology. Social media, for example, can be wearying.

Recently:
   Introducing Editor’s Eye

Radiohead always makes me feel more creative. Shostakovich helps me access my dark side. Sometimes if I need a pick up, I listen to the Black Eyed Peas, which either gets me to write or gets me to dance around in my living room–both of which seem productive.

I go for the sentences and phrases which feel most alive and vital and “new”, and ask the writer to remove the rest, even if it changes the “meaning” of the work. Meaning doesn’t matter a great deal to me as an editor: a feel for language and imagery is what attracts me. The strongest writing is what I want, not a pre-ordained message which the writer is attempting to embody. I think writers generally need to divorce their writings from their personae.

Recently:
   Monday Chat with David Ackley

I tend to edit and revise as I go (I’m a turtle), so when I get a first draft “done,” it’s more like a sixth or seventh draft. Then I’ll go back and take another pass (or two or three). I’m a constant tinkerer, and it’s difficult for me to consider a story ever being finished, even if I’m lucky enough to get it published.

Recently:
   Checking in with Thrice Fiction
   Front Page: December

It’s funny that one of the words we use for prose writing in general is also used for one of its constituent elements: story. It kind of rigs the game, you know?

Recently:
   Monday Chat with Kari Nguyen

Yes, yes, yes, what to call me? Even the politically correct phrase “learning different” has its problems. At any rate, I’ve come to learn that there are as many advantages to being neurologically different as downsides and I couldn’t imagine giving up those advantages just to be considered “normal.” How boring.

Recently:
   Monday Chat with Andrew Stancek
   Checking in with Occupy Earth

It’s not like every day of my life is a magical party of creativity. Some days I sit at my desk and transcribe interviews or fill out invoices, taking time in between to work on my fantasy-football teams or play online poker. Inspiration is overrated. When it’s time to work, you’ll work.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Brock Clarke
   Front Page: November
   Monday Chat with Gill Hoffs

A writer’s plumber, or plumber’s snake, is other writers–an analogy, and a sentence, that I really wish I could blame on someone else.

Recently:
   Front Page: November
   Monday Chat with Gill Hoffs

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