I want to thank Misti for answering my questions! These are definitely some of the sauciest answers I’ve gotten back for a Meet the Writer feature. Like me, Misti is a contributor to the TOO MUCH anthology, now available from Unknown Press!

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

I write the occasional poem. I was much more prolific when I was a housewife/stay-at-home mom living in rural Texas. Now I’m in the big city (San Antonio), a cougar on the prowl, a part-time single parent (I share joint custody of my six and a half year old son with my ex-husband) and a full-time student at UTSA. I am brainstorming a novel entitled Fuckerbutt Happy Time. I wish I wrote more short stories because there’s money in that. I just received a $100 check for three micros. Also, I wish I could write genre specific stuff such as fantasy, erotica and sci fi because there is more money in that, as well. I wish I were a prolific hack, basically.

In what ways has academia shaped your writing? In what ways has life outside of academia shaped your writing?

Academia has taught me to write more critically. Academia has not helped me with the creative writing. I can write fine creatively all day long without any help from academia, thanks. Most of my life HAS been spent outside academia…in the context of marriage, motherhood, poverty, bullshit entry level jobs and the trials and tribulations of being a single woman with loose morals in 21st century Texas America.

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

The first piece of writing that I remember being happy with would be my first published poem. “Morning Musings,” published in the campus literary magazine at Texas State University when I was nineteen or twenty. I won $150 for that poem.

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

When I’m not happy with my writing I put it aside and work on something else. Collages, paintings, photography, masturbation. I just discovered the wonderful world of vibrators in 2010. The honeymoon isn’t over yet.

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

I contributed a true story to the anthology. It still makes me laugh, the fact that my boyfriend at the time was so alarmed when I told him I’d watched 8 Mile three times in a row. He soon learned that my watching a film three times in a row was the least of my insanity. The best was yet to come, alas.