Flannery O’Connor is probably my favorite writer of all time. But there are a whole bunch of writers that have stories or whole books that make me kind of tingle with excitement from the sentences. [Read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Faves, 6/14
   Checking in with Flag Day Challenge
   Fictionaut Five: Scott Garson
   Luna Digest, 6/8

You didn’t say ‘writer’s block,’ but can I tell you why I have no patience for that term? It makes it seem like you’ve caught a cold — like you’ve had some bad luck that you have to wait out. [Read more]

Recently:
   Luna Digest, 6/8
   Checking in with Word Riot
   Fictionaut Five: Ben Greenman

My book has fourteen stories, all united by the notion that people spend most of their lives trying to connect with others and most of their lives failing. [Read more]

Recently:
   Checking in with John Reed
   Fictionaut Five: Thaisa Frank
   Fictionaut Faves, 5/25: Two for David Ackley

I can go for days without writing and then work nearly around the clock. I tend to work by generating a lot of fragments, half-baked stories, and phrases. So I always have something I can do. But there are times when I spin my wheels and feel totally worthless. [Read more]

Recently:
   Fictionaut Faves, 5/25: Two for David Ackley
   Checking in with 52|250

I ran smack dab into the work of some fine writers when I was an undergrad. [Read more]

Recently:
   Luna Digest, 5/18
   Checking in with Dark Sky
   Fictionaut Five: Dan Wickett
   Line Breaks: “Moving Day” by Robert Olen

Butler

I wondered why there wasn’t a National Short Story Month and decided screw that, there should be, and so, declared it to be so. [Read more]

Recently:
   Line Breaks: “Moving Day” by Robert Olen Butler
   Checking in with Negative Suck

I listen and write. I listen, then write. My approach is the same with film. I watch a film, gather ideas, emotion, awareness of place, sound, people, action – and then I write. [Read

more]

Recently:
   Luna Digest, 5/4
   Nicolle

Watched the New Yorker Fiction Editor Moderate a Panel, It Was Fine
   Fictionaut Faves, 5/1

I learned about decorative hermits on a TV show called The Worst Jobs In History, and it stuck with me until eventually I managed to wring a novel out of it. [Read more]

Recently:
   Luna Digest, 4/27
   Fictionaut Faves, 4/26
   Checking in With Smash Cake

The major under-current of my novel concerns the abandonment of technology, whether by choice or by force. Consciously, I’m far too dependent on digital media these days and would love, if a little more successfully than my characters, retreat a bit from being constantly connected. [Read more]

Recently:
   Luna Digest, 4/20
   Writers: We’d Love to Hear Your Success

Stories
   Line Breaks Bonus: “The Chair

of Rejection” by Stacey Richter

Social media is not free attention. You’ll only succeed if you enjoy doing it. [Read more]

Recently:
   Luna Digest, 4/13
   Fictionaut Faves, 4/12
   Checking In With AWP