I want to thank Sophia, another TOO MUCH contributor, for answering my questions!

What kinds of writing do you do?

What kinds of writing do you wish you did more of?

In what ways has academia shaped the way you think about writing?

Academia has helped me to understand the idea of drafts. It used to take me longer to write because every thought I wanted to communicate had to be edited or perfected during the creation phase.  Now I understand that writing is a process with multiple steps and drafts… I just let it flow, and then I really start to work the ideas and try to connect them afterwards.  I also use fewer words.  Writing so many papers for school helped me to understand the power of scope, having a point, and sticking to it.  I choose words more carefully now.

I observe everything around me. This is a really hard question for me to answer without writing a novel… I have so many influences, but at the center of it all is the philosophy that I should be honest. This tends to keep me away from writing fiction. I love writers like Chuck Klosterman and Charles Bukowski for their honesty. Being a mother and musician, working in retail/customer service for half my life, going through divorce, going back to college as an older adult, meeting the love of my life–all of these things have shaped who I am today, and these experiences definitely shape my writing.

What was the first piece of writing you did that you remember being happy with?

What happens when you’re not happy with your writing?

Could you tell us a bit about your contribution to the TOO MUCH anthology?

I was trying to think of themes where the words “too much” had relevance in my life.  I felt like I had a story to tell about the downward spiral of a relationship, losing my identity, and feeling overwhelmed.  It was probably the unhappiest time in my life, but I definitely learned from the process.