Autumn Prompted Issue

Following the launch of each of our issues, we cajole one or more of the contributors into a mini interview with the Trash Cat.
Here they will reveal some writing wisdom and tell you what trash critter they identify with most. Important stuff like that.

Today, we have Keith Woodruff with his beautiful, emotionally punching flash, The Light is the Boy.

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Q: What piece of writing advice/ crafting rule would you trash?

A: Hmm. I guess write what you know seems like BS to me. I think I could write a pretty convincing paragraph/story about a house burning down without my house having burnt down, or about being a lovesick lepidopterist, or a fish even though I am, as of yet, not a fish.

Q: Which writers and magazines do you go to to find treasure to read?

A: I mean, there are so many. A few come to mind: Ghost Parachute and Bending Genres. I have all the anthologies they’ve put out, and am really drawn to the weird – weird in general, not necessarily speculative fiction but I like that, too. I aspire to move in that direction with my own writing and have a few things I am kicking around. Really enjoy Does it Have Pockets? as well and Rawhead. Especially am loving anything in the hermit crab sphere.

Q: What trash animal do you most identify with?

A: I am deeply drawn to deer and have always lived in places where they are a presence; that is why they keep walking in and out of my writing. My mother had a nice home in the country in Michigan years back and I would often wander off into the woods and just sit by or along a deer run.  I met a lot of beautiful deer that way. So, yes, deer.

Q: When your writing mojo is trashed, how do you recharge?

A: I really feel as though stuck is my baseline. To get unstuck (yay Cure) I primarily read. There is an insanely fun and inspiring book titled Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia Tufte where she shares examples of syntactic goodies like parallelism, short sentences, noun phrases, etc. Also, I always go back to the Best Microfictions and Best Small Fiction anthologies.

Q: If you could offer three tips to writing short treasures, what would they be?

A:  
1 – Probably a no brainer here but read poetry if you don’t already — especially classic haiku: Basho, Issa, Buson; the compression and imagistic nature of haiku have really informed my prose.

2 – Read your work aloud to yourself. It will rat you out every time and show you where awkward sentences are and flow is stumbling.

3 – Lean into place. I often call  up my childhood in Michigan. I lived in the country on a small hobby farm for quite a few years. Let place, if you have a place that spoke or speaks to you,  be a character. The textures, the smells, the flora and fauna – for me it all provides a map where I can visualize the story taking place even if I am not showing the place literally in the story. When I am really rolling, it is almost like being in conversation with my memory of the place. Hello dear barn, I remember you fondly.

Q: What is one thing, if spotted in a crowded charity shop/thrift store, you would just have to buy

A: I cannot resist writing notebooks. Whatever is weirdly colored, gaudy, bold, pretty — all of it. I have many I have not even begun to write in, but yes, more please.

Keith Woodruff lives in San Antonio, TX with a backyard full of moody tomato plants. His poetry has appeared in Sundog Lit, Rawhead, and New World Writing Quarterly. His flash/micro appeared in lovely places like Wigleaf, Does it Have Pockets?, HAD, Pithead Chapel, FlashFlood, Roi Faineant Press and Your Impossible Voice. He has work forthcoming in Dishsoap Quarterly and is a 2027 Best of the Net nominee. Read him in Best Small Fictions 2017 and 2019. He was awarded a 2018 Pushcart prize. www.keithawoodruff.com