Fictionaut Blog

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

It seems to me that story telling is a lost art. When I was a kid, I loved to be a mouse in the corner when my parents had friends over. They told stories. It was great fun. Now at a get together, it’s mostly chit-chat and gossip. I’m bored to tears.

Recently:
   Checking in with Lyrics in Search of Tunes
   Fictionaut Five: John Minichillo

I don’t play an instrument but I can hear the orchestra or choir in my head. Of course the few times I’ve actually heard a song of mine sung, it was nothing like I expected. That’s the great part about collaborating with another artist, it’s never what you expect.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: John Minichillo

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

I think most artists have a desire to be heard that stems from an early need. I was the firstborn and had a wild imagination that’s never left me. I won’t say I had a hard childhood because I know many who’ve had so much worse.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Yuvi Zalkow
   Monday Chat with JP Reese
   Front Page: September

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

The poem is set in a real place, on the beach outside a house owned by my nephew in Mexico. A whale washed up there some years before, and by the time I visited, it was simply great ivory rib bones rising from the sand. My children would play inside them, embraced by the skeletal remains.

Recently:
   Front Page: September
   Fictionaut Five: Anne Leigh Parrish
   Checking in with Like Birds Lit

Ann Bogle’s book, Country Without a Name, is available at Lulu. Kathy Fish’s collection, Wild Life, is available through Matter Press and Amazon. Robert Vaughn’s “Nowhere in Sight” and Andrew Stancek’s “Goat Fate” and “Flight” are at Pure Slush. Estelle Bruno’s “Immobile Car Immobile Phone” and Linda Simoni Wastila’s “Poison Pill” are at Every Day Fiction.

Recently:
   Fictionaut Five: Anne Leigh Parrish
   Checking in with Like Birds Lit