Bill’s stories, plays, and comedy sketches have been published and/or produced in Canada, the U.S., Bosnia and Herzegovina, Holland, India, Ireland, and the U.K. Recent stories were published in Slippage Lit, Alien Station, 365 Tomorrows, Yellow Mama, Revolute, and Across The Margin, and he has stories forthcoming in Black Petals, Jokes Review, Defenestration, Antipodean SF, The Bookends Review, Schlock!, Evening Street Review, and the Horrified Press anthology, “Twisted Time”.
How long have you been writing and what got you started?
I’ve written all of my life except for the first few years. Recently I came across a journal that we must have had to keep during Grade 5 – essays, stories, observations. There was a lot of emphasis on aliens, monsters, and superheroes, so I think it was inevitable that I would end up writing strange stuff.
What is the best piece of advice you have for new writers?
I have 3 pieces of advice. 1. While writing, write down everything that comes to mind. Don’t worry about any outline that you’ve prepared. Don’t worry about going off on a tangent you might think won’t lead anywhere – your mind might surprise you. Don’t censor yourself. You can always edit later. 2. Don’t edit your material when you’ve been drinking. Often, you won’t remember why you wrote something and you take it out, and it’s only the next morning during a hangover that you remember why you wrote it in the first place. 3. Play blues music in the background.
Are there any writing resources, such as books or websites, you’d like to recommend?
The website “Six Questions For…” – https://sixquestionsfor.blogspot.com/ (which is where I found “Theme of Absence”). For over ten years, Jim Harrington has been interviewing editors about their magazines and what kind of material they’re looking for. There’s an extensive list of magazines listed on the site that writers can submit to (although many of the magazines are now defunct).
What is your favorite type of fiction and who are your favorite authors?
I read any type of fiction except for the dreary plodding self-indulgent bad-news misfortune-after-misfortune fiction that seems to be everywhere today. My favorites are Gabriel Garcia Marquez, James Tiptree Jr., Wolfgang Borchert, Dorothy Parker, Raymond Chandler, Terry Southern, Stanislaw Lem, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Ray Smith, A. A. Milne, Berke Breathed.
Are you an outliner or discovery writer? Or somewhere in between?
I’m somewhere in between. If I’m writing a very short story, I usually know what the ending is when I come up with the original idea, so I write toward the ending and try to be as succinct as I can. If I’m writing a novel, I usually have a few scenes plotted but I try to allow my mind to just wander and see what happens and hope I get “in the zone”. As my novels are all comic, it’s more fun to write that way.
How do you deal with rejections?
I don’t worry about rejections because I’ve had too many to count (although I remain mystified when stories of mine I really like keep getting rejected). I’ve had stories accepted after several rejections (such as “The Ties That Bind”), so I just assume I’ve finally reached an editor with good taste… Recently I had a story accepted at another magazine and the notes from the editor suggested that he didn’t really understand the plot, but I’ll take the acceptance!
Were you taught anything about creative writing in high school or college that just didn’t work for you?
I was told that Ernest Hemingway was a great writer. I don’t get it. His female characters were so poorly written that I wonder if Hemingway just didn’t understand women, and his macho hunting-bullfighting stuff is just objectionable.
In your opinion, how important is a writing degree or MFA when it comes to achieving success in writing fiction?
I don’t think degrees are important in achieving success, but I think they’re valuable in that you get to spend a lot of time writing and associating with like-minded people who can give you feedback, both helpful and unhelpful. The unhelpful feedback may even be more valuable to you because it tells you how your writing is perceived. To paraphrase someone else, the meaning of communication is the response you get.
What book are you reading right now?
“Life and Fate” by Vasily Grossman. It’s a fact-based sprawling novel about the Soviet Union during World War II. Completed about 1960, it wasn’t allowed to be published in the Soviet Union and was smuggled out to the West in 1974, where it was published in 1980, 16 years after Grossman died. It’s a brilliant book.
Is there anything you’d like to plug? Feel free to share a link.
I’d like to plug a short story I had published recently in Slippage Lit from Sarajevo, “Party Balloons” – https://www.slippagelit.com/party-balloons. It was fun to write and has made a lot of readers say, “Huh?”
