About Me

The heading of this section that was given me by the template says "My work." I think that is a good place to start. I have been re-engaging with writing in the past two years after ten years of post-college journalism and sometimes long-form non fiction and essays. After this spree of reporting, creation, and sometimes experimentation I joined the professional ranks. And now I am back into writing, this time with an emphasis on fiction. Much of what happened, work wise, in the transition times was an inner process I call "Building Imagination," a phrase I took from a short film by Mark Potts. 

The idea of building a body of work, while enjoying a kind of more creative life, is at the core of my recent phase. A story about a soccer player was discovered on a holiday trip from work to Marfa, TX. If I've been nestled in my current home, sometimes a story will reveal itself on my back patio or at my local coffee shop one paragraph at a time. This happened with a story about Television News last year. These stories I then re-work and chisel a few times. 

What inspires me to write? Memories. Something I see in a film. A conversation with another novelist. A friendship. Writers and artists from times past. The way life looks and feels, and the way it's always hard to crystallize those unexpected sensations. Great stories that do compel an audience. (Yet.. The Tyranny of Story is a real thing, a phrase antithetical to the recent scramble for content making and streaming). 

I am attempting to journal more, so just after reading at my first real "gig," at a creative writing festival in Ada, I will set to journaling what that specific experience was like. Who did I meet? How did I conquer nervousness? What invaded my thoughts when I had a clear goal and hope at hand? 

I am interested in people, unexpected relationships. I am interested in the public space, what with a background in journalism and education. I like the mystery and moment-to-moment discovery of art, but am always cognizant and intrigued also by the ways in which seen and unseen social forces, namely race and class, affect life tremendously for the individual person. 

I will soon send stories to various journals and hopefully find pieces (resources) also for a narrative film soon. I had a few poems to read at a festival open mic, but the party ended early. 

I am currently inspired by watching a bunch of writers speak at podiums in Ada, Oklahoma. Many things can inspire writing, and it often changes.