I've worked as a sportswriter, an educator, a custodian and even a restaurant mascot. I won silver medals in the shot put and discus at the 2000 Prairie State Games and am a member of the Roscoe Rush semi-pro football Hall of Fame. I attended the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and graduated Rock Valley College. POOKOO is my first novel. I live in Northern Illinois. I am a Christian.
PODCAST: http://dougshiloh.podomatic.com
web site: http://www.dougshiloh.tumblr.com
I write because I need to; I have a better day if I write, and if I don't, it's not the same. As far as fueling my creativity, anything can, so you have to be aware and open to receiving whatever you take in. All that stuff is put through the filter that is You.
I used to want to be the next (Put In Other Author Name Here) but as I get older it's enough to be me and to use writing to tell a tale. I don't even know if my favorite authors would like what I do, and wonder if they see the influence in my work. But a great story or book can have an effect on me.
I began fiction writing with H.G. Wells as a favorite, then in high school moved to Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and in college John Irving, Jim Harrison, Tom McGuane, Richard Brautigan, Vonnegut, Jay McInerney and Dirk Wittenborn as favorites. Emily Dickinson, Carl Sandburg and AE Houseman and Edward Arlington Robinson are my favorite poets. Bob Dylan one of my top lyricists, and Paula Cole.
Favorite books?
The Bible, The World According to Garp, Dante's Inferno, Voltaire's Candide, Warlock by Jim Harrison, Panama by Tom McGuane.
No one has written on Doug Shiloh's wall.
No one has written on Doug Shiloh's wall.