Why write for literary magazines? ​

I’m not sure I write *for* literary magazines, but they are lush and diverse places to discover new writers and test out your own stories. I’m writing short stories now because they fit best into my daily life. Writing a novel (in my experience, anyway) requires larger blocks of dedicated focus time. And when those aren’t available, reading and writing shorter pieces is a way to stretch my muscles. The unplanned bonus is the opportunity to experiment with tone, form, and voice without disrupting a larger narrative. 

 

Why comics? What attracted you to them, and what surprised you about writing them? 

​Another writer gifted me a sticker I have near my desk that reads “We don’t do this because it’s easy. We do this because we thought it would be.” That sums up a lot of my life, especially comics. I once drafted short story I called my “New Yorker story” because it revolved around unspoken social cues at a brunch. It was terribly boring. So I added werewolves. That helped. I tried a few other stories in that world (one of which I published in “Gay City 5”), and someone commented, “Huh, this one would make a good comic.” 

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I don’t draw scary things well, and I didn’t know enough about comic creation at the time to realize I couldn’t just hand my short story to an artist and *poof* get the comic I envisioned. But since I have the good fortune to live in Columbus, Ohio, finding an artist and a whole community of comic creators turned out to be the easy part! I joined a diverse group of comics writers and learned how to draft a script that an artist could use. 

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I attended local conferences, just as CXC was kicking off, and met tons of creators following their passion. I realized that the con scene wasn’t going to fit into my life, but I could still create an online comic to share with others. I was so fortunate to meet the incredible MR Neno and thrilled that he agreed to draw my comic for me. He even encouraged my idea to host the panels on Prezi, rather than traditional page layouts, to try to take better advantage of the digital format. 

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I love the way they turned out, and I realized that I still prefer writing straightforward prose. But I still may come back to do more comics one day. 

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Did you know your house was haunted when you moved in? 

​I was hopeful! It’s a Queen Anne style house from 1895, so I would have been terribly disappointed if it wasn’t! 

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Most of our experiences have been friendly or at least interesting. When my kiddo was little, for example, I found that no matter where we rolled a ball, it would come back to her. Sometimes, it would take wild turns to do so! 

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There are a few spots in the house that consistently give me the creeps. Dark spots from which I divert my eyes when passing at night. But mostly, I welcome the daily creeks and bumps and even voices that fill the house. Most of our experiences have made us feel more welcome here, not less. 

 

What drew you to magical realism? 

​I don’t think I’ve ever once sat down to write a magical realism story. I just have trouble making sense of the world without a little magic. As my writing shows, I don’t follow a strict definition of the genre. Ghosts, anthropomorphic telephones, vanishing tombstones, moths that smash pumpkins, working moms who pop like bubbles… nothing’s off limits. There’s nothing that fills my heart like watching someone be uniquely, happily weird, and sometimes a little magic helps that along. 

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The same is true for my reading habits. You can’t mention magical realism without props to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the master. But I’ve also loved the unreal bits of Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, Borges, as well as Virigina Woolf (I once killed a book club by insisting on Orlando) and Shirely Jackson. Jackson’s a great example, because even though her short stories don’t include a lot of “magic,” there’s a lot of un-realism that make them fascinating. 

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The power of writing groups

​Between getting my writing degree at Florida State University and moving to Columbus, Ohio, I lived for a few years in Washington, DC. Although that city has a huge creative culture, I wasn’t able to break into it on my own. When I moved to Columbus, I happily learned that the spouse of my boyfriend’s coworker was in a writing group, so I went out of my way to get invited to a party and stalk her. By the end of the evening, I had an invitation to a group, which turned out to be a perfect writer’s family for me. Our Naked Workshop meets regularly wherever makes sense to workshop, socialize, and take quiet writing time among friends. We just scheduled our 16th annual summer writing retreat, out in the woods with no WiFi and extra atmosphere. I credit these beautiful people with keeping me writing and engaged, even when life wants to get in my way.