Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a former journalist, whose work has been published by numerous magazines and newspapers throughout the United States. In the late nineteen eighties, I wanted to do more creative writing, so I signed up for an undergraduate poetry class at San Francisco State University. One of my poetry professors encouraged me to apply to the Creative Writing Program, which I did, and was accepted. While working on my M.A. in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing, I switched my focus from poetry to fiction.
I have published four books, including three short story collections, From Here to There and Other Stories (Paraguas Books); The First to Disappear (Spuyten Duyvil), Finalist in the International Book Awards, Best Book Awards, and National Indie Excellence Awards; and Hairway to Heaven Stories (Cherry Castle Publishing); and one memoir, Even When Trapped Behind Clouds: A Memoir of Quiet Grace (WiDo Publishing), Honorable Mention in the Reader Views Literary Awards. I received Honorable Mention in the Women’s National Book Association Contest, was a Finalist in the Adelaide Voices Literary Award for Short Story, have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and the storySouth Million Writers Award; and had an essay selected as Notable for Best American Essays 2014.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Hairway to Heaven Stories, a linked short story collection set in what has been a predominantly African American neighborhood that is beginning to gentrify. I was inspired to write this book because I have been both a victim of gentrification, having to move out of San Francisco because I could no longer afford to live there, as well as a gentrifier. I have moved around a lot in my life and have lived in several neighborhoods like the one I write about in Hairway to Heaven. Many of the characters in the book were inspired by people in the neighborhood where I previously lived in Portland, Oregon.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I suppose the most unusual writing habit I have is that I need to have the lights turned down very low in the room when I’m working on initial drafts.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Many books and authors have influenced me, but especially Julio Cortazar, Gloria Naylor, Aravind Adiga, Kiran Desai, Salman Rushdie, and May Sarton.
What are you working on now?
I am working on some personal essays and preparing to get back to work on a novel set in a six-flat building in San Francisco. The novel will focus on the lives of the diverse characters living in the flats, as well as being a bit of a love story about San Francisco.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The best promotion for my books has come from editors of journals who have published my work.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write every day and revise, revise, revise. Remember that the first draft is just the beginning, not the final product.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
While it’s become a bit of a cliché, I still think “show not tell” is the writing advice that has helped me the most.
What are you reading now?
Barkskins by Annie Proulx.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m hoping to finish this novel.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Tough to pick only three to four, but here goes. The Snow Leopard, by Peter Mathiessen; Journal of a Solitude, by May Sarton; The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx; and The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai.
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