Why War?

 

Today, the May issue of Bookslut was released, featuring their interview with me. Some of my fave questions from them include:
1) Were there any books you looked to as examples for how to structure or even write Flashes of War?
2) These stories definitely tug on the heartstrings, but never in a
cheap or maudlin way. Achieving that balance is one of writing’s
perpetual challenges, but did you find it more difficult to achieve in
this book due to the loaded subject matter?
3) For one thing, the imagery in these stories is stunning. What
do you think it is about metaphor that speaks so loudly and makes even
stories that take place in far-off lands hit home with readers?  

Check out Bookslut and the full interview here.

Last week, author Alan Gratz published his interview with me about Flashes of War. Here’s what he asked:
1)
Why flash fiction? How does the form fit the material?
2)
How did you research the experience of the soldiers before, during,
and after the war in the Middle East to be able to write so well
about it?
3)
You not only tell stories about Americans, but about people of
Afghanistan/Iraq. How did you learn about their experiences enough to
be able to write about them?
4)
You often write about children. Is there a children’s book writer
inside you trying to get out?
5)
You say in your epilogue that you chose to write about war–and this
war specifically–because you wanted to understand it better. To get
to know what it was like from the inside out. What did writing
Flashes of War teach you? What answers did you find? 

The fourth question was the most interesting to me, and the most surprising. Read the full interview here.

And in other news, I’m single again. Ugh.