Fictionaut Blog

New Sun Rising does have a purpose! It is for the charity anthology, New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan. It’s a book we’re putting together to raise money for the Red Cross to aid Japan after their recent series of disasters.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Sarah Salway
   Checking In With The Fictionaughties
   Line Breaks: “Diversion” by Meg Wolitzer

I watch a lot of musicians performing via YouTube just to get that sense of what it’s like to be completely involved - body and mind - and to put it all out there, 100%. That’s what I want to be like when I’m physically writing - albeit just with the computer.

Recently:
   Checking In With The Fictionaughties
   Line Breaks: “Diversion” by Meg Wolitzer
   Fictionaut Five: David Abrams

What makes us so naughty? Well, aside from the rag-tag group of miscreants we are, we aren’t your “average” writers, per se. We are eclectic, diverse, sassy, and some of us have been known to throw in some toilet humor into the mix. I’m not naming names.

Recently:
   Line Breaks: “Diversion” by Meg Wolitzer
   Fictionaut Five: David Abrams
   Monday Chat with Sam Rasnake

Line Breaks is honored to feature Meg Wolitzer, a selfless & generous mentor to countless writers, and one of the most talented novelists working in America.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: David Abrams
   Monday Chat with Sam Rasnake

Remember that scene on board the Millennium Falcon where Obi-Wan blindfolds Luke with a helmet then instructs him to hit the little flying droid with the light saber, saying, “Your eyes can deceive you; don’t trust them — stretch out with your feelings”? That’s the kind of mentor I’d like to have: the gentle, sage advisor who urges me to look within to see beyond.

Recently:
   Monday Chat with Sam Rasnake
   Fictionaut Five: Robin Antalek

I’ve always been drawn to writers who approach their art from this other place - writers such as Jelaluddin Rumi, Hart Crane, William Blake, Jane Hirshfield. I really connect with them.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Robin Antalek
   Fictionaut Five: Michael Czyzniejewski

Let go, stop editing yourself. If you feel like a door is closing, open it and let your characters and your readers go there with you. If it feels scary, keep at it. That’s where the real writing begins.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Michael Czyzniejewski
   Monday Chat with Susan Gibb

I spend a lot of time thinking of ideas, of first lines. I’m a big fan of throwing that situation out there in the first sentence, just giving the exact premise and conflict in the first line

Recently:
   Monday Chat with Susan Gibb
   Fictionaut Five: T.J. Forrester

I’m not the type to have the concept of story before writing something down. If I try to do that, it usually comes out forced and rather unimaginative.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: T.J. Forrester
   Fictionaut Five: Mona Simpson