AK 2010, Days 12 & 13: Newsy News & Craft Thoughts

[Note to self: Chance encounters with the elusive Alaskan male species are not unlike chance encounters with Alaskan moose—both are equally enchanting and unpredictable.]

My 23-minute interview with Aaron Stander for the Michigan Writers radio show aired today on Interlochen Public Radio. It’s an hour-long show that interviews 3 different writers. Mine is the second interview and the host started with a great intro, solving the mystery of the vintage Volvo station wagon with a giant lobster claw. The show airs again on 8/29 at 1pm EST and you can stream it over the web at that time (adjusting for your time zone) by going here. By the end of August, it will be archived permanently here.

In other news, the Literacy Council of Alaska has agreed to sponsor a reading by author Karen Button and myself, this coming Monday, August 30th at 7pm in downtown Fairbanks at Forget-Me-Not Books. Audience members can anticipate vivid, informed, crafted storytelling in nonfiction and fiction from various perspectives involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The title of the evening reading is “Personae of War.”

[Full moon over Fairbanks]

Two weeks into my trip to Alaska, and this has been the single most productive fiction writing time in my life. Since August 12th, I have written 37 new pages of fiction, including 12 new short-shorts, all in the personae of war. I never new that I could write one or two new pieces each day, let alone maintain that for this many days in a row.

Generally, I write pretty slowly, and while short-shorts are quick, they also deal with beginnings and endings in rapid succession, which is one of the more challenging tasks on the page. It’s an affirming experience for me, as I put so many hours into the war research this summer. Likewise, it makes me really feel that there is moment and power in this collection, and I’m highly motivated to share it and get it out there in the world.

(More on craft when I’m not sitting in a grove of low bush cranberries, fingers freezing, trying to mooch off another cabin’s wi-fi.)