Writing to the market is certain death because what you THINK people want is not necessarily what they want. You have to start by satisfying yourself– making something that pleases you. [Read more]

Recently:
   Luna Digest, 1/11
   Monday Chat with Phoebe Wilcox
   Checking In With Good Men Project
   Fictionaut Five: Murray Dunlap

I had been in a horrific accident (including a coma and a wheelchair) so I was entirely undone and lost. Then Kevin Watson of Press 53 and I began talking, one thing led to another, and the next thing you know I had about 3,000 stories in my in-box.

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

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

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

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

I used to worry I’d run out of material, characters, and/or imagination. That I’d have no more “good” stories to tell. That I would indeed get blocked. I don’t worry about any of that anymore. The words, characters and stories are endless. The challenge, I’ve learned, is to pick the right word, the right character, the right story. [Read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut in The Writer Magazine
   Checking in with Used Furniture Review

No tricks, just will power. Work makes me a better person. I live to work. Not vice versa. So I work even when I don’t feel like working. It improves me to do so. [Read more]

Recently:
   Monday Chat with Foster Trecost
   Checking in with Trailer Park Quarterly

I’ve been to writing classes where people sit around and wonder what they want to write about and I thought, are you kidding me? Look around… everything’s interesting. [Read more]

Recently:
   Checking In With Dire Reading Series
   Fictionaut Five: James Robison
   How to Subscribe to Fictionaut on Your eReader
   Monday Chat with Kathy Fish

Before you can be a writer you must make it new and the only way to do that is to run a harrowing, fearless, ruthless self audit. A psychological, emotional, moral inventory. You must know who you are, without delusions or self-deception, and what you find is apt to scare the spit out of you. [Read more]

Recently:
   How to Subscribe to Fictionaut on Your eReader
   Monday Chat with Kathy Fish
   Checking in With Blue Five Notebook