Volume 3 Issue 2

Laura Dennis–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

My creative space would be my head.  I have notebooks in all my bags.  If something strikes me, I’m ready.

What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?

I like coil bound notebooks.  But I have used paper napkins, envelopes, post its.  I always write out the poem.  When I’m ready, I type it up.  I prefer a pen over a pencil.  But when needed, will use whatever.

What is your routine for writing?

I wish I had a routine.  But I don’t.  I write when something sparks me.

How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?

I have been writing poems since I was 14.  So almost 40 years.  I didn’t realize I was a poet until I was an adult.

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?

I write for myself.  I hope people will like my poems.

What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?

I am inspired by little moments.  A teaser of a memory.  A bolt of lightning.  I try not to think about it too much if it’s been a while since I`ve written.  I always have things rolling around in my head.  I have a notebook full of sentences that intrigued me.  Things I heard in a movie or in conversation.  Sometimes I will pull it out and see what strikes me.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

My advice would be to own it.  By that I mean, say “I am a poet.”  or “I am a writer.”  Whatever it is that you are.  To me the importance is not if I am published or not (although I always love when I am), it is more about the satisfaction of a good poem.  One that I know is good.

Check out Laura’s work in Volume 3, Issue 2.

John Timothy Robinson–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

My creative space is wherever I’m comfortable to get the lines down on paper.  I usually work on the front porch in warmer weather.  I live in rural West Virginia, though just a couple minutes from a new four-lane highway.  Still, mornings here are quite secluded and quiet.  I sit with coffee and watch the sun rise.  I listen to the birds.  There are several hay-fields around the house.  Sometimes I jot lines down or make notes of ideas when they come to in thought or experience, though I don’t think I’ve ever made it any practice to write in public, like in city parks or anything.  When I was younger I would take a small, pocket-notebook with me, though now I always keep activities separate.  Work is for home or sometimes in the woods.

What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?

I use a combination of writing and typing in Word documents.  I use the lag time between for a kind of gestation of material.  You can work on something too much and stifle the creative drive.  Allowing the work to sit a while is good practice.  Horace even said that in Ars Poetica.  I like the idea that I can change things radically on a computer, though return to my previous draft with no alteration if I don’t like my changes.  Word is typically also used for visualizing and revising line breaks.  I prefer writing the ideas and having the ability to scribble and revise on paper.  Computers are amazing machines, though I don’t feel so at ease with carrying a laptop everywhere I go.  I guess I’m just old fashioned.

What is your routine for writing?

Jung said that artists should create just after waking or shortly before sleeping.  The condition of being tired and therefore relaxed, opens your unconscious and increases one’s creative potential.  I always do work right after breakfast.  If I don’t work, I do some related activity; reading, note-taking or file work.  Often though, I find that in the routine course of doing something completely alien to the creative activity there will come thoughts or ideas.  This frequently happens on walks in the woods or during manual labor outside.

How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?

I have been writing in the academic tradition, that is, reading the critical/craft essays and the poetry of the poets I like since 1993-1995 after my first college workshop class in creative writing; poetry at Marshall University.  I had written in high school, though I held a superficial understanding and an undeveloped knowledge of other ideas directly relevant to the act of thinking about and writing poetry.

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?

My intended audience is the academic reader, though sometimes the reader of average intelligence with little knowledge of theory or poetry may find enjoyment in the work.  I enjoy writing about certain ideas some would consider intellectual or topics usually the material of modern or postmodern writing.  Much of my work can be described as mainstream free-verse with an interest in the formal poetic challenge.  In one way, I write for those of similar interest.  However, first and foremost I write for me.  Writing is always that kind of dualistic activity; you write from the self to create and share your thought and work with a larger community.

What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?

Inspiration is part being moved by life experience to share feeling, thoughts or emotion and the urge to create a work of art.  The will to create always exists, though I don’t force creativity.  If I sit down to work and the thoughts aren’t there, I do something else.  It is usually not the poetry of other poets that inspires me.  I recently read James Wright’s unpublished poems in A Wild Perfection and I was driven into that kind of awe and modest envy that poets have when they read good work that has influenced them.  I knew when I read him that I was that kind of poet; a similar material and similar mindset.  This kind of inspiration is different from the every-day inspiration to work.  That kind of inspiration is a little more difficult to pin down.  I think you can do things to invoke the right attitude or mood, though I honestly believe you often have to forget that such a thing is what you’re doing.

What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?

I am a novice printmaker and work in the techniques of monotype and monoprint.  My print images have appeared in The Diagram and The Tishman Review.  I work in non-toxic processes for etching, lithography, woodcut, and collagraph.  I recently completed a creative dissertation in poetics.  I write critical/craft essays on poetry.  I’m also a novice fruit tree grower and grafter.  I only slow dance, and I’ve never learned how to golf.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

I enjoy the entire process; beginning with an idea or a line and then just going with the flow of thought until a cluster evolves in the activity.  I like the moment when words move somehow from thought to lines and seem to originate from nowhere.  You have to enjoy the puzzle of the whole thing.  Right now, a favorite part of my poetic process is seeing my work in print.  I have published 56 poems in 46 journals and websites since August 2016.  This is a new experience for me.  Previously, eighteen years ago, I had published in POEM, The Distillery: Artistic Spirits of the South and Feelings.  I never really made any significant attempt after that.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Trust your instincts, though read the critical work you like, that reinforces why you write the way you write as well as what you think is conceptually different.  The internet and the concept of free submissions to literary journals have made the possibility of getting published a more realistic and accessible goal.  I am living proof that Submittable and Outlook email can be an effective platform in submitting to varied publications on an international scale.  Not only are there more electronic literary journals today that publish poetry, there exist more journals of sub-genres which address readers and issues of varied types.  Read, write, revise, submit.

Check out John’s work in Volume 3, Issue 2.

 

Check out John Timothy Robinson’s work in Volume

John Grey–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

These days I work strictly in my tiny, beyond-cramped study.

What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?

All of my writing is done by typing in the computer. I’m one of those who still remembers composing on a typewriter, and I have no wish to go back to those days.

What is your routine for writing?

Mondy to Friday, I write (and perform all the secretarial work involved) from 7.00 in the morning until 7.00 at night with a couple of breaks in between. On weekends, I’m more flexible. In other words, I do my best to maintain a happy, healthy marriage.

How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?

I started writing as soon as I got hold of a pencil and began scribbling stories in the margins of my big sister’s books. I’ve been doing it, off and on, for more than forty years.

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?

I like to think I write for an intelligent audience that’s appreciative of good poetry.

What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?

I guess I’m one of the fortunate few who doesn’t suffer from writer’s block. I’ve just developed so many of what I call triggers over the years, and my study is full of them.

What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?

I enjoy travel and eating at restaurants from the fine kind to the local diner. My wife and I are also walkers.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

Sometimes it’s completing a work I’m proud of. Other times, it’s receiving an acceptance from a site or magazine that I admire.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Find your voice, keep at it, develop a thick skin, take advice, and ignore advice.

Check out John’s work in Volume 1, Issue 1, and Volume 3, Issue 2.

John Tustin–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

I usually write at home, in front of my computer. If I am at work or out I will write on scrap paper—sometimes I can only write a few lines and when I get home I try to complete it.

What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?

I like Microsoft Word. It’s quick and easy to add or edit lines.

What is your routine for writing?

I sit at the computer and listen to music. I will also read poetry and/or argue with people on Facebook debate pages. When I am off from work the next day I will sometimes drink 12-20 beers as I read, listen to music and try to write.

How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?

I began writing poetry when I was fourteen, before I had any interest in reading it. I have a short attention span and tend to see things in glimpses, like snapshots. That led to poetry being the only writing medium I could handle.

When I got married nearly twenty years ago I stopped writing. I started again nine years ago (and filed for divorce a few years later.)

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?

I almost always picture a single person reading what I have written. Most often, it is the woman I love. Sometimes it is someone else I know but when often it is a faceless stranger. My mass intended audience is probably someone who does not think poetry is interesting.

What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do.

My real life and the poetry of others inspires me. Also music, my surroundings.

When I am blocked I drink copiously and just sit in front of the computer, reading poetry and waiting for something to happen. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.

What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?

I have little spare time. Reading and listening to music is my primary respite outside of writing.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

I love actually writing. The feeling of an idea becoming something outside of my own head that others can read. I can be writing a poem for ten minutes or two hours and it feels like no time has passed. Watching the page (actually computer screen) fill up with my words is exciting.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Listen to criticism—weigh it and think about whether you should implement it or discard it. Never let the criticism change what makes your unique and don’t write for other writers. It’s best to impress yourself.

Check out John’s work in Volume 3, Issue 2.

Jack D. Harvey–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

I work at home.

What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?

I write by hand with a pen and when the poem gets close to its final form, I type it on Word on my computer.

What is your routine for writing?

I don’t have a set routine and write at all times of the day or night.

How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?

I have been writing some sixty-odd years, from the time I was about sixteen.

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?

I don’t have any intended or ideal audience. Basically I write because I feel compelled to write.

What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?

Not sure what inspires me; the Greeks and the Romans had the idea that the muse breathes in (cf. the English word inspire- through the Greek- pneo, Latin spiro, “breathe in”) to you; in other words, there is some outside influence at work when you create something. I am not really sure whether this is true or not, but sometimes, while writing, words or thoughts come to me. From where, who knows? If I am blocked, I stop writing and come back to the piece later.

What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?

I study Chinese, go to the gym daily and walk daily with my wife.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

Writing the piece and the usually laborious process of getting it to a final form.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Write as often as possible and read as much as you can; try to read the old masters—they are rarely wrong and you can learn a lot from them.

Check out Jack’s work in Volume 3, Issue 2.

Jesse Minkert–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

I have an office which was supposed to be a second bedroom, so it has long, shallow closets along one wall. The left one has a filing cabinet, two guitar cases, scraps of Foamcore, and a low rolling cabinet on which rests a Braille embosser. That’s a printer for Braille that creates bumps on heavy paper. The right closet is where my clothes and shoes are piled up. One or two folding card tables on the floor. My desk is by the door to the hall. A bookcase holds racks of Blues CDs and reference works. Under the windows are short shelves crammed with books, journals, and a boom box.

What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?

I work at home on most of my tasks. I submit a lot, so that happens on the computer. I’m revising a novel, near the end, which means probably no more than one more year. That also happens on the computer. I started out as a visual artist, so I find myself still drawn to the flow of ink onto paper. I transcribe my notes once a month, create files of stages of editing, and with some luck, eventually, arrive at some poetry that doesn’t embarrass me.

I’ve been experimenting with different sizes of pen recently. Arthritis has made my thumbs almost useless. I’ve tried several ways to hold them so that thumbs are not necessary.

What is your routine for writing?

I’m terrible at maintaining routines. I start the mornings with submissions. I bounce back and forth between poems and the novel. Usually, more often than not, I think of something that interrupts the regular pattern, so I have to look into that immediately. I read too much news. After lunch, or at lunch, I go out with my spiral notebook and read and write in burger joints and Starbucks along Broadway on Capitol Hill in Seattle. With the release of Rookland, I’ve stepped up my attendance at open mics around town. I hustle spots as a featured reader. Performing before audiences is crucial to me. I write for the mood. I revise for the sound.

How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?

That story is too long for this questionnaire. Short version: as I mentioned, I was a visual artist. I got an M.A. as a sculptor in 1981. I moved to Seattle and my eyes started bleeding inside. Diabetic Retinopathy is a primary cause of blindness. Treatment was a matter of laser beams being shot at my retinae, over 1800 per eye. I came away with most of my vision, and with a resolve to find art to do that didn’t depend on vision. I started to write, for radio, stage plays, short stories, and poems. Figure I started about 1985. That’s 32 years.

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?

Always a tricky question. My novel audience may not resemble my poetry audience at all. Ideal audiences don’t exist. Real audiences exist, so I like them the best. Poetry on the page is one way to look at poetry, but poetry coming from a human mouth and into human ears is more exciting, more seductive, more terrifying. I work on page form, I take the look of a poem seriously, but I can’t imagine getting my blood to surge because of the shape of a poem on a page. I live for the microphone. Actually, I don’t need a microphone. Just listeners.

What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?

I’m inspired to write from the fact that I have an expiration date. I need to get as much done as I can before I turn sour and undrinkable. Some days I walk away with a blank page. Some days I fill a page with useless crap. I have my box of tricks, some I learned in design classes in art school. It all comes down to three actions: transform, reshape, and rephrase.

What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?

I operate a nonprofit corporation called Arts and Visually Impaired Audiences. I create access projects to the arts for blind and visually impaired people. I’ve slowed down in recent years, but I still work with an organization called the Jack Straw Cultural Center on workshops for very young students, blind and sighted, to create projects related to installations in the Jack Straw New Media Gallery, and to train the staff and gallery artists on how to effectively interact with blind and visually impaired people. In the summers for the past 21 years, I’ve worked with kids 9-18 in audio production workshops. I lead the radio theater, or audio storytelling, section. It involves writing, teaching kids about what goes into stories, performance, production, and how to work with coaches and engineers.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

In prose, I like the moment when I realize the sentence I’ve worked an hour to rebuild can now be reasonably spoken. In poetry, it’s that rush after the reading is done. Sure, sometimes people say nice things, good job, I loved that thing you read, etc., and I can’t say I don’t like that, but before that is the spinning head and the thumping heart. Okay, Minkert, they say, you really set yourself on fire this time.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Go over every phrase you have written down. If you believe you might have stumbled across it anywhere other than out of your head, cut it. Make up some phrase that nobody has ever heard before, and put that in its place. When reading to an audience, embrace the fear. If you find yourself reading with total confidence, you are screwing up. Fear keeps you honest. Fear means you are taking the risks you need to take. Submit a lot.

Check out Jesse’s work in Volume 3 Issue 2, and check out his book ROOKLAND here.

Hailey Hudson–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

I work at home at my desk. Occasionally I’ll go to my local library or coffee shop, but I’ve found that I can’t get any quality writing done in public—I’m too busy people-watching. So I stick to my bedroom!

What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?

I use a MacBook Pro for almost everything I write. There is a special kind of magic that comes with writing by hand, though, so I’ll occasionally use a spiral-bound notebook and a Bic mechanical pencil. I’m not sure why the pencil has to be Bic, but I can’t stand any other kind.

What is your routine for writing?

My daily routine for writing is more or less as follows: in the morning, I spend a few hours working with the fitness websites that I freelance for. Then I’ll work on my novel—I’m currently in the editing stages of a YA dystopian novel. By then it’s typically lunchtime, and I don’t do any writing in the afternoon; I go to work (I work for a local nonprofit), run errands, or spend time with friends. Late at night, I come back to my laptop, browse Pinterest, and play around with ideas for flash fiction pieces.

How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?

I wrote my first “story” when I was five, but I didn’t get serious about writing until I was in middle school. During my senior year of high school, I became even more focused and began applying for freelance jobs and submitting my fiction to various publications.

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?

With my freelance jobs, I write to a very specific niche of people who own CrossFit gyms. However, my true love is fiction. I write a lot of YA, so my ideal audience is teens, but I like to think that all ages would enjoy my stories!

What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?

Visiting new places, whether it’s an ethnic restaurant in my hometown or the mountains of South America (where I love to hike!), always floods my mind with ideas. If I’m running on fumes, I step away from my laptop in favor of a change of scenery, which normally fills me right up.

What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?

I play softball at a competitive level. I also work with a nonprofit that tutors underprivileged kids, and I’m obsessed with theater.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

My favorite part of the creative process is either the very beginning, or close to the end. I love coming up with new ideas, starting from square one, and plotting how to make them happen, but I also love that moment near the end when all the puzzle pieces are beginning to fit together and I can see what I’ve created.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Don’t sit back and wait to be discovered. It’s completely possible for you to be published, but you have to be proactive and get your name out there. Submit to as many places as possible—and before you do so, edit again and again!

Check out Hailey’s work in Volume 3 Issue 2, and check out her blog here.

 

Gary Beck–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates
  1. I work at home, or at Bryant Park
  2. I write by hand because I am a poor typist, and I use ballpoint pens.
  3. I’ve been writing for a long time in various cycles, determined by my work in theater when I focused on playwriting and translations of the classics.
  4. My intended audience is adults, ‘or older,’ ideally who enjoy issues, storytelling, and a commitment to literature.
  5. I have an urgent need to communicate with audience,s and I’m concerned with the state of the nation and the condition of the world. I have too much to do.
  6. I mentor some young people and play speed chess.
  7. The actual act of writing and the mental state when it just flows out of the pen.
  8. If it’s vitally important to you, persevere, no matter how you’re scorned or rejected. Never accept family or friends comments as objective assessment.

Check out Gary’s work in Volume 1, Issue 1, Volume 2, Issue 1, and Volume 3, Issue 2.

Ellie White–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

It varies. Sometimes, I am able to work at home. Other times, I have to make myself go somewhere like the library or a coffee shop. It really depends on how difficult it is for me write at the time. If I’m in a period of inspiration, it’s no problem for me to write at home. If I’m struggling to create new work, home is too comfortable. It’s too easy to get distracted there. I have to force myself into a public space where I am less comfortable to get anything done.

What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?

When I started writing, I usually wrote by hand. I spent a lot of time at various writing groups, open mics, etc. and my laptop was very heavy to carry around. Now that laptops are much lighter, and I usually write alone, I type everything.

What is your routine for writing?

To be honest, I don’t have one. I write when I feel like writing, and if I don’t, I work on other creative projects. If it seems like it’s been a long time since I’ve written, I’ll push myself to write a few new pieces. But I don’t think I’ll ever be someone who writes every day. My writing comes in spurts.

How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?

I started writing in the fall of 2010, so about 7 years now. I always joke that I was peer pressured into becoming a poet because I used to attend poetry slams as a spectator, and a group of poets convinced me to attend their writing group, and then they convinced me to get on the mic, and so began my journey. I slammed for about 2 years, took a few workshop classes in undergrad, and then got accepted into an MFA program. I sometimes think about trying to slam again now that grad school is done.

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?

I’ve asked myself this question a lot. Ultimately, I think I am writing for anyone who may feel alone or misunderstood in their feelings. I write a lot about trauma, but I like to think that I write from a place of hope. My hope doesn’t necessarily look the way some people think it should. When you experience trauma, going back to “normal” afterwards isn’t really an option. You are different. The world looks different to you. There are times when you truly feel haunted by shit. But you are still alive in your little haunted house. So, I often write about living with my various ghosts.

What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?

I find inspiration in the strangest things. Roadkill has inspired a number of my recent poems, as have some of the not-so-sexy realities of having sex. Life is messy, and I guess I find the mess inspiring. When I can’t write in my primary genre, which is poetry, I usually turn to something else. I sometimes write nonfiction. I also have a comic called “Uterus & Ellie.” I’m terrible at making comics since I can’t draw or use graphic design software worth a damn. But I have fun with it. I recently made a collage type thing because I’m blocked. It’s weird looking. I think I’ll hang it on the wall.

What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?

Well there’s the comic I just mentioned. Besides that, and my thrilling day job in insurance, about all I do is try to exercise enough to counteract my horrible diet. Around the time I turned 30, I started freaking out about my cardiovascular health. I ran outdoors for about 18 months, and then my knee started giving out about 5 months ago and it hasn’t healed. So, no more running. I was swimming for a bit, but then I developed a rare skin condition. So, no more swimming. I just joined a gym, so we’ll see how that goes.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

I love writing the endings of my poems. I’ve got a thing for endings. I like for them to be unexpected, and I get really excited when I come up with something super creepy.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

This is difficult because I never set out to become a writer. It just sort of happened and I ran with it. So, “run with it” maybe? Also, don’t freak out and think you’re not a writer anymore if you go through a period in your life where you don’t write much. Don’t let the people who have their daily writing routine set in stone make you feel like that is the only way to do this. Being a writer looks different for everybody. Do it on your terms, not someone else’s.

Check out Ellie’s work (Pushcart nomination) in Volume 3 Issue 2.

Ed Higgins–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

I have a loft above our old farm house’s kitchen. My extensive library’s there as is my MacBook—with internet connection. (Also, I taught fiction writing for years at my university & whenever there was an in-class writing session I’d also write/draft along with my students.)

What kind of materials do you use? Do you write by hand or type? What is your favorite writing utensil?

For some years now I’ve written exclusively on a MacBook. Before that by hand on legal pads. Once I have a word-processor draft of something I’m working on I generally do a printout & work on that by hand before returning to the Mac file & updating the revision. Mostly the work then continues on the revised draft file—but sometimes another printout before once again returning to the computer file. I like the ease of on-screen revision, but the printouts let me go back to an original version for review or recovery of something that’s been otherwise lost when I’ve frequently “saved” the on-screen version.

What is your routine for writing?

Time for writing has to be stolen from other intruding and/or necessary life activities. So I don’t write every day. But I do try to dedicate at least one-day-a-week exclusively to writing: some daytime hours, some late nite slogs—especially late nite slogs if something seems to be coming together (a poem, story, essay). I also carry with me a small note pad and will often jot down a thought, image, response to something I’ve seen, read, had a conversation about—to later follow-up on.

How long have you been writing? When did you start writing?

I started writing in college almost 50 years ago: really bad poetry; really bad fiction. But I kept at it, kept reading other writers, and eventually became better at seeing how poetry/fiction worked as craft.

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you write for?

I generally don’t have an intended audience (unless I’m writing genre fiction/poetry; say, for science fiction). Mostly, I write for myself, for the kick I get out of playing around with words, characters, plot, emotion: the challenge of making something out of words that results in “Whoa, I did this & it’s pretty good!” I like the creative ‘click’ of affirmation that something worthwhile has come together—if the initial affirmation click is only from me!

What inspires you to write? If you are blocked, what do you do?

I’m more compelled than inspired as a writer. Compelled to make meaning(s) of this singular experience of our being—and being drawn to explore through words the many facets of living that catch my attention. I’m seldom “blocked” as a writer, but if something seems to be “stuck” I move on to something else in my shitty-drafts/unfinished file. Or I just go outside and play frisbee with my whippet. Or read: poetry, fiction, novels, catch-up on the too many magazines I subscribe to.

What other things do you do besides writing? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?

I’m small-acreage organic farmer with usually half-a-dozen steers, three pigs, a herd of chickens, a smaller herd of turkeys, and a Manx barncat to daily feed/water/care-for. And in summers I make hay (literally), plus other farm-related chores. While retired from full-time university-level teaching, I still teach a couple of World Literature through the academic year. I’m also Asst. Editor for an online journal, Brilliant Flash Fiction. And I belong to a 6-person writing group that meets bi-monthly to share in-process draft work.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

Giddy to have finished something! While I like the getting-lost-in-to-completely-wrapped-up-with when I’m engaged on a writing project, completing a piece gives me the satisfaction to keep flagellating myself by pushing words around to make them happen into something I’m not self-embarrassed by.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Be persistent. Write, write, write. And read, read, read—especially your contemporaries who are putting out stuff you want to be a part of. And submit, submit, submit your work to journals you admire work in (there’s a horde of really fine online literary journals out there—read, read, read, then submit!). Don’t be discouraged by rejection: if the piece seems to need more work/polishing, do it; if you think as-is is still good, submit elsewhere. Finally, join a writing group: one that will give you honest, supportive feedback.

Check out Ed’s work in Volume 3, Issue 2.