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?

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

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

The woman is at a crossroads. The person she wanted to seduce left with someone else. The party is a disappointment, a burden, and an obligation. I think of it as a fairytale – the two staircases are paths in her journey.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Ben Loory

Every time I sit down to write a story, I’m surprised (and sometimes terrified) by what comes out. And then all the stories just kept on coming; it was like discovering I had a library in the basement.

I’m very wary of waiting for the perfect writing moment, because I know from experience how horrifically rarely those moments arrive.

Recently:
   Monday Chat with Jack Swenson
   Checking in with Lyrics in Search of Tunes

I like to give the writing workshop a list of settings, settings that are unusual, settings both realistic and nonrealistic, settings that allow for good interaction, etc. When I was younger I always rocked my setting long before I had any notion of the story or the characters. Setting grounds the characters and creates mood. Not making the most of it is a missed opportunity.

Recently:
   Checking in with The Lost Children Challenge
   Fictionaut Five: Yuvi Zalkow
   Monday Chat with JP Reese

Usually, I get stuck when I’m overwhelmed with the challenge of a task. So my solution is to try and forget my agenda and just get a sentence down. And then another one…. I act like I plan to throw away the writing when I’m done. Sometimes I do end up throwing it away. But occasionally this disingenuous trick helps me produce something decent.

Recently:
   Monday Chat with JP Reese
   Front Page: September

I like to invent odd situations, like a scholar who forges the diary of a Confederate soldier who never existed; a group of children bringing home an old man that wandered away from his nursing home; a young woman who donates her used piano to a priest who befriends her.

Recently:
   Checking in with Like Birds Lit

I like to go people watching. My favorite place to people watch is Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. Go to a train station or any place of arrivals and departures and you’ll be shocked at the people– their fashion choices their display of emotions their contrived state of being. People are wild. But some people make it so that you have to write about them.

Recently:
   Monday Chat with Darryl Price
   Checking in with Zero Faves