Read aloud to yourself and to anyone who will listen, both while revising and once a piece is finished. At open mics or group readings, there’s something truly satisfying about sharing a complete story that is short enough to fit within the time limit.

“I get my best ideas when I’m pounding the local trails and parks. Running gives me the same effect as I imagine others get from meditation – I can shut my brain off for a bit.”

“online reviews are full of happy accidents of syntax and spelling and punctuation and comedy and earned emotion. I like to write how people talk (try to at least), and online reviews are how people talk.”

“The first book I wrote was dystopian science fiction. It took place in an imaginary planetary system with mutants and aliens, and some of them could read minds. I wrote it to get away from the world I knew, and go back to the childhood pleasure of making things up..”

“Honestly, I’m not good at following rules. If it feels right, I’ll break or bend any and all of them. I’ll use the same word a few times, I’ll confound the ‘rule of three’, make up words.”

Spring Pop-Up – Collectors & Collections 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.…