What drew you to submit your work to RED SKIES?
I was interested in submitting to your press anyway, but what drew me specifically to RED SKIES was its focus on the many crises humanity has faced in 2020. A lot of my work focuses on my own mental health struggles in relations to things like extinction, climate change, human-caused disasters, fascism, and all the other global terrors that feel impossible to address on the individual level. Those things threaten to drown me on a daily basis and I know they overwhelm others as well; I thought maybe my words could offer some comfort, not as hope for a better future but as a reminder that none of us is alone in the darkness. At the very least, I hoped they could find a home with your press because their dark subject matter has made them hard to place elsewhere. What writers have inspired you?
I owe my greatest debt of writing gratitude to Ray Bradbury. I've taken so much to heart from his work - the way to weave sentences together like long rivers of poetry, the skill of withholding details until just the right moment, the ability to fit horror and heartbreak into the smallest of stories or the barest of phrases. Most of all, though, his work can always rekindle the flame of passion within me when it has guttered out because of self-doubt or failures or plain ol' depression. Bradbury has saved me on countless occasions from giving up on writing completely. However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of my contemporary inspirations, authors I love and have sometimes even been honored to communicate with online - Kathe Koja, Ellen Kushner, J Tullos Hennig, Tamsyn Muir, and so many others. What projects are you currently engaged with?
I don't really have any WIPs - my work is all so short and fragmented that while I often have a handful of in-progress pieces waiting to be completed, I don't really have an overarching project in the works. I write whatever comes to mind and try to complete it quickly before I lose the inspiration or that dreadful self-doubt comes creeping around. How have you spent the year 2020?
In chaos, it feels like! Just about every aspect of my life has come unravelled in some way - my mental health, spiritual practice, physical health, family connections, on and on and on. That's been everyone's 2020, though, I think. For me, at least, it's been an extremely painful year of pre-transformation shadow work, like the way a caterpillar has to dissolve into goo before it can become a butterfly. That's it, yeah - 2020 has been goo. You have spent the pandemic a little differently than most people have. What has it been like working in the emergency management field? It has been an incredibly long time since March, it seems. How do you feel your life and work has changed, in order to meet a different world? And, how do you balance this kind of work with your creative passions?
It has been WILD. I had only been with the state for about 8 months when the pandemic began. Before that, everyone told me we only activated the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) for things like wildfires, floods, and storms, and that activations rarely lasted more than a few days or weeks. We've now been activated for the pandemic for 10 months straight with no signs of deactivating any time soon. (We were also activated simultaneously for the summer wildfires, as well as some of the ongoing protests.) For me, that essentially means I do my "normal job" (tsunamis!) for two weeks and then the third week I'm in the EOC assisting on the pandemic response in my assigned role. Lather, rinse, repeat. It's exhausting, honestly, but we're rolling with it because that's what you do in emergency management. Just like every state, we've had to adapt quickly and frequently to a situation no one has really handled before so it's all hands on deck, do what you can, and try to take care of yourself and those around you. I'm really proud of my coworkers and colleagues - despite also being humans existing in a terrible pandemic, they're giving their absolute all to help the people of our state and it's both humbling and inspiring to watch. My writing (and other hobbies) have definitely taken a toll this year! Stress-induced brain melt makes producing quality art almost impossible, it seems. I've taken up doodling, though, which has proven a nice change of pace. There's something about drawing mushrooms that I find weirdly relaxing. What is the one thing you miss the most about 2019, or any point before COVID-19?
I miss bookstores! I miss browsing bookstores or metaphysical stores without feeling pressured to leave quickly, or to not touch anything you don't plan on buying, or in general just feeling like you shouldn't be there even though they probably need the patronage. You can't just skim a bookstore in 10 minutes and go - you need a few solid hours if you plan to really look at everything! And you gotta carry a big armload of books around while you do it so you can consider which ones you want. It's been almost a year since I've spent a reasonable amount of time in a bookstore and I'm really feeling it. :( What is your personal creative process?
"Process" is probably too formal a word for what I do, honestly. Usually I'll get an idea for something while I'm listening to music or driving or daydreaming and try to jot down as much of it as I can as soon as I can. Then when I have time to actually sit down, I'll try to flesh the piece out and determine what it wants to be - poetry or prose, any particular tense or style, etc. The "fleshing out" part mostly involves me staring at the unfinished piece for many, many hours, maybe typing a lot of things I immediately delete, possibly consulting Dictionary.com because I can't think of the exact precise word I want to use and none of its synonyms will suffice. It also usually involves opening my drafts document with the intention of working on it, then immediately getting distracted by Twitter and Picrew. If the piece by some miracle actually gets completed, it goes up on my blog so I can consider it "done" and will stop editing it to death. Kids, don't be like me. Is community important to your work? Are there any magazines or small presses that you feel particularly fond of?
It is! My blog is hosted on WordPress and I used to be really active in the WordPress community when I had more time to dedicate to reading others' work. I don't so much anymore, unfortunately, but since I started my writing Twitter account I've become active in the writing community on Twitter instead. I actually had no intention of submitting work to lit mags or small presses, but there are so many on Twitter that are active, engaging members of the community that I've come to really appreciate their presence and want to be part of what they're doing. I'm especially thankful to those who have published some of my humble pieces, including Queerlings, The Tide Rises, Stone of Madness Press, and Tealight Press. Aside from those, and your own of course, I'm also particularly fond of those who seek to publish work that may be too weird, dark, or out of the ordinary for other presses. Us weirdos have to stick together, right?