Fictionaut Blog

Two Fictionauters walk into an inbox. One says to the other, “Nice sentence.” The other one says, “Ah, writing. Life sentence.” BADA-BING. Susan Tepper and Gary Percesepe wrote a book together. I kept thinking the Dori was painter Dori Ashton but it’s not which I’m glad we cleared up in this interview, among other things Gary and Susan enlightened me with.

Have you a collaborating active? Holla at me, but after you read this work, which is a take on perspective, gender, time, art, reality, conscious. The usual.

Q (Nicolle Elizabeth): Hi Gary, Hi Susan. You’re both Fictionaut oracles and now you have a new book out together and that is very exciting. Please update us with what’s new, how things are going and what the new book is all about?

ST: Our new book is a steamy love story told in letters exchanged between the artist Jackson Pollock and a fictional young woman we named Dori G (the G to make her sound more mysterious, and also anonymous, which is kind of how Jackson likes her, though he states otherwise in the novel.)

GP: Yo, Nic, here’s the thing that people don’t understand about being an oracle, ok? The pay is lousy and somebody always wants something from you. But on the other, sure, what Susan said. Except the character Dori is probably more “mysterious” and “anonymous” to Susan and to readers than she is to me, for two reasons: I wrote her (from the inside out), AND I based her on a girl from New Jersey who was my almost girlfriend back when I used to troll the Garden State. (Met her mother too, I think she liked me.) So anyway, I wrote this novel to see if I could find this girl from Jersey who in my mind has not aged a day-still a willowy blonde with green eyes sitting down to breakfast with me in a quiet corner of a dark house. I’m hoping she will find the book and meet me a reading somewhere in Jersey, or maybe down the road at the Bada Bing, up on that pole. See? I’m saying I wrote the damn book to get Dori back, Jackson Pollock be damned.

Have you always been interested in the lives of painters?

ST:  I have always been incredibly interested in painting and the lives of painters.  Before I was doing any writing at all, I saw this Woody Allen Movie where Nick Nolte plays a wild expressionist painter.  I was mesmerized by the character and never forgot it, and that was a pivotal moment where I began to change course, moving from being an actor to a writer (at least in my mind).  I did a few plays after that but had also begun writing seriously.  As for Jackson Pollock, well, for me, his work is like no other.  He forever changed the course of Modern Art.  And that is no small feat.  So when Gary changed the game-plan (last second) and told me to write Pollock– YIKES!  At first I argued strenuously against the idea.  But Gary has a persistent nature and so I gave in and wrote Pollock and he wrote Dori.

GP: Who is Jackson Pollock?

What advice can we fiction writers and readers learn from also paying mind to non-fiction?

ST:  Well anything that jiggles your mind, stays with you, be it a story or something non-fiction, something in real life, well that is always a help toward your fiction writing.  Life is just a bowl of cherries (as someone said) and so you get to cherry-pick which parts scream to you and that shows up in the work.

GP: I cannot believe Susan is misquoting Erma Bombeck and jiggling. Anyway, I read and write a lot of non-fiction. I wrote four books in philosophy, back in my addled youth. I read widely in philosophy, medicine, law, physics, eye surgery manuals, theology, and geography. Mostly to pick up women, it is true. Dori, are you listening? Fuck Jackson Pollock, I’m the one you want.

Anything else you’d like to tell us here. I have an inner ear infection from swimming in a lake so I see two computer screens. Trippy.

ST:  It was an amazingly cool experience doing this book.  I literally felt “taken over” by Pollock all during the writing, as if Pollock wanted this book to be written.  I know this sounds crazy, but it is what I truly felt.  Because I was writing a voice that was so new to me, and a male voice of a famous painter (I’m not a painter).  It’s kind of mentally confusing to analyze:  a woman writing a man who is in love with a woman.  And vice-versa (Gary): a man writing a woman who is in love with a man.  If you think that can’t jangle your brain a while, well, believe me it did.  But we love our characters so much.  And when Gary wants to manipulate me, he writes me emails from “Dori.”  It makes me want to strangle him!  But Gary can be persistent.

GP: It’s true, Susan regularly tries to strangle me, and this may be the first book tour in history where co-authors try to kill each other. As for the rest, I have no idea what she is talking about, all this man-woman-man literary stuff. It’s creepy. Sounds like bad porn. Here is what actually happened, how I wrote my part of the book: I would get a letter from Susan-as-Jackson. I would ignore it. I would then write a new letter based on my feeling for Dori (who is frickin’ HOT!) I mean, I tried to get inside her, in every way, and this is the honest truth. Nothing literary about it. I want to do a reading at the Bada Bing. If Dori shows up I am a happy man. Or Marisa Tomei. Up on that slippery pole, sure. I can see the future.

Folks, buy the damn book. It is so HOT. Support your local Fictionaut oracles. We cannot make it without you. Plus, will pay my cover charge at the Bing. The book is available NOW!

Sean Ferrell is the author of Numb (HarperPerennial, August 2010). His short fiction has appeared in The Cafe Irreal and won the Fulton Prize from The Adirondack Review. He lives and works, in no particular order, in New York City. You can find him online at www.byseanferrell.com

What story or book do you feel closest to?

This is a tough question. I don’t think I can bring myself to one definitive answer. So many swirl to the top of the list only to be replaced by another piece just ast good. “Perfect Day for Bananafish” by Salinger is up there. Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. Gravity’s Rainbow. The later works of Philip K. Dick. The First Man by Camus, and The Plague. I have to stop there, or I won’t be able to stop.

Do you have a mentor?

Do you mean an actual, “Hey, I know you exist”-mentor, or a “This person may even be dead but I have chosen them in spirit”-mentor? The former, no; the latter, many. Not all of them are writers. There are painters, musicians, directors, actors in there as well. Anyone who demonstrates talent harnessed with practice and focus.

How do you stay creative? What are your tricks to get “unstuck?”

I write every day. As long as I keep myself in the practice of writing something always comes out. It may be garbage, but it comes. I may not use it, but it comes. And I actually enjoy getting myself into a corner, having to really puzzle my way through something, which is the opposite of the type of “stuck” I think you mean.

I think the kind of “stuck” to which you refer is the nothing coming out of the pen kind of stuck, and I was there about ten years ago. I handled it by becoming horribly depressed. That was fun. I came out of it by realizing that I would only ever be a writer if I wrote, so I started to write.

To keep the pump primed I read, dabble (horribly, unsuccessfully, and excitedly) with drawing and painting. Walking is part of my habit. Most of the time you see me on the street I’ll be talking to myself which is how I find my way through dialogue and plot issues. Nothing like acting crazy to get your characters sane.

What are your favorite websites?

Millions, The Nervous Breakdown, Twitter, Fictionaut, Rumpus, Electric Lit.

What is new? Tell us about your novel?

What novel?

Oh, right.

My novel was just released. It was tagged, so we’ll track it and see how it interacts with the other novels out there. It was good to finally have it leave the nest–it was getting tough talking about it being out instead of just having it out. I’ve also been working on new stuff and so Numb was feeling kind of old to me. Having it come out has reawakened my love of it, which is nice. I’ll be at the Brooklyn Book Festival in two weeks and doing an event with Jess Walter, which is making me nervously excited. So far it’s all been terrifying and fun.

Other new things: My son just had a birthday. He’s five. Heads to kindergarten in a few weeks, so clearly I am old. Summer vacation was a rain-washout. Non-vacation days have been dry, high heat, blistering and beautiful.

I’ve been working on edits to a new novel called The Man in the Empty Suit, and another, Invisible Towers, is undergoing some early revisions.

The Fictionaut Five is our ongoing series of interviews with Fictionaut authors. Every Wednesday, Meg Pokrass asks a writer five (or more) questions. Meg is an editor at Smokelong Quarterly, and her stories and poems have been published widely. She blogs at http://megpokrass.com.

Jane Hammons gave us some time.

Q (Nicolle Elizabeth): Jane what is up with the Noir Group here at ye olde Fictionaut?

Cynthia Reeser is the Editor-in-Chief and founder of Prick of the Spindle. She writes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and literary reviews. Her poetry chapbook, Light and Trials of Light (Finishing Line Press) and an award-winning nonfiction book on publishing for children, were released in January 2010. Her book on publishing  for the Kindle is anticipated in late 2010. Cynthia is also a visual artist, whose work can be seen at www.cynthiareeser.com and on various book covers. She is the founder and publisher of Aqueous Books.

What books do you feel closest to?

Very nicely phrased–”closest to”–I do have some books that I’ve read and immediately felt a connection with, and they aren’t necessarily books that I’ve read over and over again, just works that struck a chord and stuck with me. I guess those would be Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel, anything by Peter Ackroyd, At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien, and The Maytrees by Annie Dillard.

How do you stay creative? What are your tricks to get “unstuck?”

I don’t find myself getting stuck anymore; oddly, I did sometimes feel stuck until embracing a more comprehensive view of creativity. For me, that’s painting, editing, graphic design, writing, and music (playing and composing). When I’m doing all, each one feels less shackled down and freer to be itself, if that makes any sense. If I stall on one thing, I go to the next, but after a while of doing it every day, you find a flow and continuity that comes with focus on the thing itself (the art, the craft, the structure, or design) rather than the doing of it.

What are your favorite websites and resources for writers?

NewPages, Duotrope, Zoetrope, Meg Pokrass, other lit journals, Fictionaut.

Talk about “How to Write and Publish A Successful Children’s Book”! What is own story, your background in this world, how did it come about? Tell us about how the book has done!

How to Write and Publish a Successful Children’s Book: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply was my first published book and was a finalist in its category (writing and publishing) for the 2010 Indie Book Awards. It was released through Atlantic Publishing, a publisher that I can’t say enough good things about. That book was written under contract, so I was on a grueling schedule which involved me living and breathing the manuscript. I was at it every day, all day, without fail, from first thing in the morning until well after I’d tucked my children into their beds at night. It was very well worth the effort, and something I am proud of.

Tell us about Aqueous Books!

Aqueous Books came to me in a dream (no really, it did) as if it was meant to be. I’m loving every minute of it, and it feels like a natural next step. Right now, I’m spending my time in reading and acquisitions, print specs and editing, designing and contracts, marketing and publicity. I have a feeling that when I stop to take a breath and look up, I will start to see what I’m building. I’m like a kid with a giant Lincoln Log set, completely engrossed in building a fortress. To me, that’s what life should be like.

What else (as if this isn’t enough!) is happening right now in your (publishing/writing) world that you would like to share?

Well I just built this website for an awesome collaborative flash fiction collection (Naughty, Naughty) by one Meg Pokrass and her sidekick Jack Swenson… Other than that, waiting for my next publication to release from Atlantic Publishing, planning the reading for AWP, and editing/web/graphics for the next issue of Prick of the Spindle, which is due out Sept. 23. I’m also thinking lately it’s about time I went back for a master’s degree, so am taking steps toward that goal, slowly but surely. I finished a new painting this weekend and started a new one, and just got my Yamaha keyboard hooked up to my computer, so now, it’s anybody’s guess.

The Fictionaut Five is our ongoing series of interviews with Fictionaut authors. Every Wednesday, Meg Pokrass asks a writer five (or more) questions. Meg is an editor at Smokelong Quarterly, and her stories and poems have been published widely. She blogs at http://megpokrass.com.

Glass Coin took some time out of their busy workings to share some deets. Yet another excellent publication here at the old Fictionaut spaceship, gov’nah.

Q (Nicolle Elizabeth): Jo what’s the Glass Coin group all about? Tell us everything.

JM Prescott: The Glass Coin is an online flash fiction, flash prose, poetry and spoken word zine. Every month we have a new split-them that explores two sides of an idea. Beginnings & Endings, Cup & Saucer, Heroes & Villains, just to name a few. Each Monday we post two pieces, poetry or flash, one for each side of the theme.

The Glass Coin Fictionaut Group is a place where Fictionaut writers can get a little inside look at the zine and some guaranteed feedback from an editor. Anything can be posted to The Glass Coin Group and will receive honest and constructive feedback. At times this has led to us inviting a writer to submit something to The Glass Coin and we have published writers this way.

Spoken word is involved somehow? Ooh how loud. I like loud. Why SW what’s the deal? Do you host spoken word readings anywhere? I miss Def Poetry Jam.

The louder the better! Some pieces just demand to be taken off the page (or screen) and performed in all their passion. We love spoken word at The Glass Coin. Not every piece is meant to be preformed but we hope writers will lend their voice to their words, or even branch into short film.

We had hosted a Poetry Slam at our launch in June. You can see the winning piece, “Alone by Truth” Is, in our back issues, as well of some highlights from the event on our Facebook page. August 30th I will debut Tea & Sympathy at the Glass Coin - my very first spoken word piece.

Someone should really publish an anthology of spoken word and slam handwritten notes to self from poets, that would be cool. Talk about the differences in spoken word vs. poetry straight up no olives here.

I got my start in visual arts, my co-editor at The Glass Coin, Sairah Saddal, started in debate competitions. So we both see the words leap off the page. Not taking anything away from the written word - we are both passionate about reading - but human beings respond differently to different media. A picture can say a thousand words, our covers and banners add something to each theme that the written word doesn’t achieve alone. In the same way, the human voice is something we respond to on a basic emotional level. Spoken word allows the author to lend her (or his) voice to the words and connect with the listener in a way they might not connect with a reader. Compound that with the visuals of the performance and you give the viewer a surround sound experience that might be missed if the words were just typeface on the screen.

This is where the internet shines. I love books, but paper can’t hold the power of a spoken word piece being preformed. And what a simple recording lacks it the freedom to post comments. The Glass Coin is the next best thing to the live Poetry Slam. We give opportunity to the author, the performance and the interaction. The next step is definitely to accomplish all this in book form. I’m a sci fi writer - you’ll forgive me for believing this will be possible soon.

Tell us about you. Be bold.

I’m not very good at bold, except when I write. I have been writing all my life, in fact, I learned to read by writing. I have reached a place in my life where I am lucky enough to write full time and, to sometimes, even get paid for it. To me words are in themselves pictures and beautiful.

Writing is like archaeology. When I write, I change history and the future and myself. I discover new truths through fiction - which is just a pretty word for lies strung together to make us face things we would rather deny.

Aside from The Glass Coin and my freelance work, I run a weekly writing dare on my blog. I’m usually reading half a dozen books and working on a half dozen stories at any given time.

In real life, I live with my husband and a cat named Monet in a flat overrun with books and too much dust. You can never have too many books. To that end, my chapbook, Leaf & Lizard, co-authored with Sairah Saddal, is available through The Glass Coin.

Nicolle Elizabeth checks in with Fictionaut Groups every Friday.

Kyle Hemmings lives and works in New Jersey. In his spare time he talks to disillusioned cab drivers and combats internal fire dragons. Right now, he’s reading a book called The Art of Syntax. He’s been published in or will be published in Scythe, YB, Lonesome Dove, Ranfurly Review, Staccato Fiction, Fractured West, Girls with Insurance, Pank, A Capella Zoo, and elsewhere. In the next life, he wants to be one of The Monkees.

You have how many (approx) stories and poems published under the pen name Kyle Hemmings? Sorry, but I am mind boggled, give me a ball park number of HOW MANY (my guess is hundreds)…

Really it’s closer to about a hundred, more or less. I don’t keep a strict count and some of the zines I’ve been published in have folded or have gone on indefinite hiatus.

You are prolific, David, and I am a fan of your work. Do you use exercises, prompts.. do you thrive on deadlines…etc.

I belong to private writing “rooms” at Zoetrope Virtual Studio, and the like, and there’s always the prompts which help. I truly find them helpful, more often than not. Deadlines do drive you to push yourself and it may surprise you what you’re capable of doing in a short amount of time. It’s really hard to say what inspires me to write. Sometimes it’s a song, a film, a memory, what someone said the night before. What really drives me to write is the haunting sense of an unlived life and an even more haunting sense of the one I’ve lived. Unlike many writers who keep drawing upon their childhoods (and I do the same at times), my formative period was the nine or ten years I spent on the streets of New York, my descent into the nighttime underground. But that’s another story.

Tell us some of the better known lit. zines you’ve been published in. The reason I am asking is that you have really covered ground in terms of broad publication online, and it is fascinating to me…

Okay.

• Vestal Review
• Smokelong Quarterly
• Nano Fiction
• Prick of the Spindle
• Noo Journal
• Everyday Genius
• Spork Press (an amazing zine, really)
• Storygossia
• Apple Valley Review
• Elimae
• Dogplotz
• Mudluscious
• LA Review
• Mad Hatters’ Review
• Arsenic Lobster
• Aphelion
• Dark Recesses
• Kaleidotrope
• The Lorelai Signal
• The Horror Zine

I also have upcoming work in Decomp and some new stuff in a great zine called Scythe. I love Juked, and I think editor, J.W. Wang is terrific to work with.

Name the ten strangest sounding lit. journals you have published in. I love the name of these journals. You are the king of the underground lit journal scene (IMO)

Okay.

• Ten Thousand Monkeys
• Spooky Boyfriend
• Pineapple War
• Negative Suck
• Poor Mojo’s Alamack
• Camel Saloon
• Bastards and Whores
• Dog Eats Crow World
• Disingenuous Twaddle
• Amphibi.us
• SillyMess
• Used Gravitrons

Is that enough?

I never did manage to break into Alien Sloth Sex. It will remain the bane of my existence.

How is it, to work in a conventional field which you do… and to have a sort of “other life” in the indie lit. magazine world writer?

In my case, one complimented the other or provided a relief valve from the other. My day job puts bread on the table and without food, I can’t write. Sometimes writing can be stressful, and it’s nice to go back to your day job, into the world of that “other” reality. In a similar vein, writing for me is a chance to escape myself, my surroundings, which can be stifling at times.

And also there is this thing about using a pen name, Kyle Hemmings. I like the idea of inventing an author, of hiding behind this person. I think in the future when I start submitting more artwork, I will invent a name, like X3BC.

What are your favorite websites?

• Juked
• Chiroscuro
• Narrative
• Storyglossia
• Smokelong
• The Dream People

The list could go on and on

Talk about music, if you will. What do you love?

Anything by Arthur Lee or Brian Wilson. I love late sixties’ music. I love early seventies and derivatives of garage, including some forms of punk. I also like techno and house. I love Jeck Beck’s guitar playing. I love mostly everything from the psychedelic period when I was growing up. I love any music that stays with me for years and years. I liked some of the old Grand Funk Railroad. It just amazes me that some of these old rockers can still play so good, some better than before. I’m also a big fan of Danny Kalb, a founding member of the Blues Project, who still plays acoustic blues at the age of what… 67? He’s amazing. I love music from the summer of 1966. An amazing time to be alive if you owned a transistor. That summer’s roster: The Stones, The Troggs, The Critters, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The McCoys, The Zombies, The Standells, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Beatles, The Beatles, The Supremes, Donovan. Now that was an endless summer. My guitar heroes were (besides Jeff Beck) - Randy California, Danny Kalb, John Cippolina, Randy Holden, Neil Young when he puts down his accoustic, Rick Derringer…

The Fictionaut Five is our ongoing series of interviews with Fictionaut authors. Every Wednesday, Meg Pokrass asks a writer five (or more) questions. Meg is an editor at Smokelong Quarterly, and her stories and poems have been published widely. She blogs at http://megpokrass.com.

From Ben Greenman (”should vanish in a hail of fire before [it] poisons our species further“)  to Judith Lawrence (”like throwing a gem into the ocean“),  opinions on Twitter are split to say the least, but we’ve found the ubiquitous microblogging service a great way to keep up with readings, publications, contests, and other goings-on in the Fictionaut community. Now, we’ve put together a handy list of Fictionaut members who use Twitter. Check in occasionally or subscribe — and if you’re missing, let us know and we’ll add you!

55 words group is great. I decided to write this intro in 55 words. Then I decided to make it into a palindrome. What the hell, I said self, live some. Some live, self said I, hell the what. Palindrome a into it make to decided I then. Words 55 in intro this write to decided I. Great is group 55 words.

Including the 55 that’s actually 62 words. 55 words is no simple writing exercise, it’s a call, how much can you say in 55 words? How much does one word mean to you?

Q (Nicolle Elizabeth): Hi Judith! You’ve founded a 55 word short stories group here at Fictionaut. Please tell us about the group, how it’s going, and why it was started.

A (Judith Lawrence): Hi Nicolle,

Thanks for the interview. Great questions!

The group is expanding daily to my delight. I have been playing with the 55 word story form for some time now. The form originated with Steve Moss in 1987. He was the founder of New Times, an independent newspaper in San Luis Obispo, California, and ran a short story contest of 55 words. He went on to publish a couple books of 55-word stories. Fictionaut seems to be a perfect place to bring this form, and have fun with it.

Everyone has a different take on the matter, divorces have occurred from this whamo of a question: What is your opinion regarding the controversial line between Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry?

The argument between prose and flash fiction will likely continue long after we’re gone, but more and more I see a marked difference between prose and flash fiction. Prose may dazzle with poetic metaphor, imagery, rhyme, rhythm, references, and tell a story that may start in the middle and end at the beginning, whereas flash fiction tells a story, beginning, middle, and ending, and does not necessarily rely on poetic imagery.

Do you think technology such as Twitter, and other websites which ask writers to communicate with concise economy are contributing to the rise of Flash gaining the mainstream popularity it had in the 1980s? Flash for life, holla. (I personally dislike Twitter but there are journals popping up all over the place whose major guidelines are restrictions on character length in submission, for example, some of which are doing interesting things, I think, maybe I don’t know everyone’s torn. Argue with me here, please.)

I don’t believe “Twitter” is contributing, nor is it a natural vehicle for good Flash Fiction writers, or for that fact most writers, as it is like throwing a gem into the ocean, and expecting anyone to find it. Although, “Twitter” works well for chatterboxes, and reminds me of the café I went to for breakfast this morning, so much din, and nothing heard. :-)

Please tell us about you, your work, and your projects here. (Anything else you’d like to mention which I may have skipped over.) What is your favorite Stevie Nicks quote?

About me? I spent most of my life waiting to do what I love, (not complaining, but like many other creative people, marrying, working, raising children was a priority for many years. Now it’s my time…to paint, to write, edit and publish River Poets Journal, publish Lilly Press books, and run a writer’s group. I guess you could say I’m a late bloomer. Even now, I get so caught up in my editing/publishing work; that I forget to throw some of my own work out there. It is such a pleasure to receive comments on my work, in the process collect some 55 word stories from the group for an anthology, and read for pleasure alone the works of so many other great writers dotting your landscape.

I had not been aware of the popularity of Stevie Nicks quotes so went on a search. My favorite so far (as I can certainly relate to it), is: “He and I were about as compatible as a rat and a boa constrictor.” -Stevie Nicks

Nicolle Elizabeth checks in with Fictionaut Groups every Friday.

For this special installment of the Fictionaut Five, regular interviewer Meg Pokrass turns the questions on herself and collaborator Jack Swenson. Together, they are releasing Naughty, Naughty, a collection of erotic flash fiction.

Meg Pokrass is an editor for Smokelong Quarterly and her writing appears in Gigantic, Gargoyle, Wigleaf, Annalemma, among others. One of Meg’s stories was selected for Wigleaf’s Top 50 Flash Fiction 2009, and recently again, two stories in Wigleaf’s short longlist 2010. Meg has been nominated for Best of the Web and the Pushcart Prize. Her new collection of flash fiction, Damn Sure Right by Press 53 comes out in 2011. Meg loves lobsters and lives with her creative family and seven animals in San Francisco.

Jack Swenson was born with a pencil in his hand. He has been scribbling one thing or another for many years. He lives in Fremont, CA, where he also teaches a writing class at the local Senior Center. His age is a secret, but he is no spring chicken. His stories have appeared in Pindeldyboz, Ghoti, Wigleaf, Metazen, Staccato, and many other online and print journals.

You can read sample stories from Naughty, Naughty, and the book can be purchased here: http://www.megjack-books.com

Q: You two met here, yes?

J: Yes. We hit it off. We think alike. We agree on a lot of things. I read a lot of flash fiction, and I have been a reader of Meg’s work for years.

M: Yes. We hit it off. We’ve met a few times now as well. We continue to hit it off. I’m an avid reader of Jack’s work, I have three of his books and I cart them around with me everywhere - and I would not have found his work if it hadn’t been for Fictionaut.

Q: How did the idea for this book come about?

J:  We noticed that we both have some stories that veer toward the erotic side of life. At first we just chuckled about it. Then the flash bulbs went off. Let’s make something.

M: I met Jack whose stories were as naughty as mine and got very inspired to do something as a team…

Q: Why do you people enjoy stories about fictional people misbehaving?

J: People like sex. They like doing it and reading about it. And talking and thinking about it. Personally, I like writing about it, too.

M: I’ll blame it on my training as an actor (I studied acting from ages eight to twenty-six). Acting teachers taught us to always “find the sex in a scene”.  They drilled it into me!

Q: How did the idea for a vintage look…

J: Well, I did the cover design, and I have this large online file of vintage pix of naked ladies, so I thought of that when we started talking about making a book. I can’t remember which of us first used the term “naughty,” but it seemed like an appropriate word for what I write-not always, but some of the time. I think you’d agree that some of Meg’s stories might raise eyebrows, too.

M: Jack’s cover ideas blew me away. We met for lunch and he took out about eight cover ideas to show me. I could hardly decide, but there was something about the 1920’s vintage naughtiness combined with the negative image (Jack’s work) and the lovely picture of that gorgeous woman with her alluring…er… necklace.

Q: What has it done for you personally…

J: I love Fictionaut. I was laboring in obscurity. I posted a story and got a big welcome. And yes, it was a naughty story! Then I began to get some idea of who “you” are-some of the best writers on the planet. Fictionaut flat out works. It’s a forum. It’s a group of people who are knowledgeable, helpful, and kind. Not Boy or Girl Scouts, certainly, but nice. I don’t know where else I could get the same level of support.

M: At the risk of sounding corny, Fictionaut has changed my life. I have met and gotten to know writers and readers that I never would have known. This is such a great time for writers, we are so much less isolated than writers have been in the past. I have come to know many kindred spirits through Fictionaut. Recently, I’ve met some of them in person. One of the biggest prizes for me was meeting Jack Swenson.

Q: What is your relationship to flash fiction? When did you first become aware of the form? What is your perspective about this form historically, and how do you feel about where it is now? Is flash coming into its own?

J: As an undergrad in the fifties, I read the short short stories of Isaac Babel and poet William Carlos Williams. Wow! I thought. That’s what I want to be when I grow up! My teachers thought otherwise. They dismissed my stuff as “vignettes.” Took me a long time to recover from that.

Flash is a new term but an old form. Think folk tales, Bible stories. Flash has been popular in Asia for centuries. I think they’re called “palm-of-the-hand” stories over there. Yes, flash is coming into its own here and everywhere. Check out the number of journals on Duotrope. It’s a digital world, my friends. Short is no longer a dirty word.

M: I fell in love with the form when reading Amy Hempel in the early 90’s. Still, I didn’t try my hand at it until two and a half years ago.

It’s been around for a long long time. Authors who have written flash fiction have included Anton Chekhov, O. Henry, Franz Kafka,  Ernest Hemingway,  Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., William Carlos Williams.

Flash is coming into its own. I believe that is because of the internet, and how easily flash can be read online these days. Flash fiction has a blinding kind of momentum right now. And it is growing in academic acceptance.

The Fictionaut Five is our ongoing series of interviews with Fictionaut authors. Every Wednesday, Meg Pokrass asks a writer five (or more) questions. Meg is an editor at Smokelong Quarterly, and her stories and poems have been published widely. She blogs at http://megpokrass.com.

For the past year we have been asking readers, writers, and editors to chime in about Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in the independent presses. This week, Dorothee Lang—editor of BluePrintReview and Daily s-Press—talks about “The Complexities and Effects of Categorization“:

Going through the different viewpoints again, I felt that there are two currents: on the one side, there is more awareness of the racial/ethnic/minority theme, while on the other side the internet tends to move those personal characteristics to the background. Online literary magazine are accessible from all places of the world, and in return, are frequented by writers from different nations—and looking through magazines, if you wanted to “group” or “classify” authors, it would be easier to approach this from the formats they work in.

Seems FictionDaily editor David Backer is a KGB addict. Read his reports of recent readings at KGB Bar hosted by lit mags Anderbo and InDigest. (I’m curious: Is KGB the most literary bar in NYC?)

Vaughan Simons, editor of Writers’ Bloc, says they will cease publishing new content:

After eight­een months online and some seventy-four art­icles, stor­ies, inter­views, flash fic­tions, poems and mis­cel­laneous other forms, I’ve decided to close Writers’ Bloc. I feel that it’s run its course and, to be bru­tally hon­est, I no longer pos­sess the enthu­si­asm required to keep it run­ning, read­ing sub­mis­sions and put­ting up new material…

Sue Apfelbaum interviews Stack America editor Andrew Losowsky, one of our biggest proponents and promoters of great indie mags. For those new to Stack, here’s Losowsky’s description of the project:

Think of it like a curated magazine club: in each mailing Stack America sends out at least one piece of remarkable, independent publishing, along with other unusual magazine-related ephemera. The hope is that, if you love one of the magazines, you’ll subscribe, spread the word and help keep great independent magazines alive. Each envelope is a surprise, containing fresh perspectives and new ways of storytelling.

Finally, on the topic of indie mags, Zine-Scene is slated to be a new website covering them, with three main sections:

1. Zine-Profiles - A space where zines (online publications) will be reviewed. But these won’t be standard reviews. Instead we will do an in-depth analysis of the recent past and present issues of the spotlighted zine. Additionally, an interview with the zine editor will be conducted and posted.

2. Author-Profiles - A space where authors who have published prolifically in zines will be spotlighted. This will include a review/analysis of the available works of the author as well as an interview with said author.

3. The Reprint - This is a quarterly zine devoted to reprinting content from print literary magazines.

Zine-Scene is set to go live October 4, 2010—until then, you can read a lengthy discussion about it at Artifice magazine’s Facebook page, with Zine-Scene founder Richard Mocarski responding to questions.

Every Tuesday, Travis Kurowski presents Luna Digest, a selection of news from the world of literary magazines. Travis is the editor of Luna Park, a magazine founded on the idea that journals are as deserving of critical attention as other artistic works.