New ventures tend to inspire misplaced confidence, so when I set out to write my first story, I felt that I could do exactly what Fitzgerald had done. In retrospect, it wasn’t the worst idea––if his prose grasped my attention like that, then surely, if I wrote that way, my stories would hold readers too.
My Slide Into Fiction
I often paint my characters into a corner and surprise myself about the way they get out or not.
Non-Traditional Realism
In short, as I am saying "What do you think you'll order for dessert?" my mind is churning with reaction to surrounding activity—talk, laugher, clatter, people rushing past, etc. Much but not all of this churning is conscious, much is subconscious. But, if you wanted to dig deep enough, perhaps a novel could be dug from those twenty seconds.
Writing is My Breathing
Reading is like a sea. If we’re pushed into it, we learn to survive — just like Pi Patel. If we jump into it willingly, we swim. Either way, we change significantly.
The Art of the Word
I grew up in a town that boasts one stoplight, a grassed-over train track, and an abundance of barns. With woods that range from scenic to scary, depending on the time of day and the whereabouts of the neighborhood fisher-cat, we had all the trappings and small-town sentimentality of a Hallmark movie set, or a Stephen King backdrop.
Life Imitates Art
...I can’t help but notice the stark detail in all of their work. It is so real that it hits you in the face. It makes me think that in one way or another, it must have been real to them too.