a desire to tell stories, to create. Art plays off itself and has a definite snowball effect.
6) How important is reading other outside work to the creation of your own craft?
It's essential. One of the best tips I've ever received is that there is no such thing as writer's block. If you find yourself unable to work, you just need to do more research. You need to get to the library and start reading more, pick up something related to your subject and learn more about it. Reading a great piece of writing is profoundly inspirational to me. It makes me want to strive to be a better writer. Conversely, reading something that doesn't work very well inspires me to tick off the areas where my writing does work and reinforce it. So I'm influenced by all kinds of outside work, good, bad, and otherwise.
7) Who are your favorite writers? Who are you reading now?
Sam Shepard is my absolute favorite. I've long admired his plays but it was only within the last decade or so that I realized he'd written a great deal of fiction and poetry as well. Actually I'm currently reading his collection "Cruising Paradise" right now. Last year I re-read Hemingway's short stuff again, chronologically, and it had been a long time. I had this impression of the macho Hemingway that's popular in the contemporary media. But it was astonishing just how feminist the stories could be read. One of his earliest, Up in Michigan, portrays what would eventually be known as a date rape and is sympathetic to the victim and does not defend the aggressor. Plus I was surprised to see just how vulnerable macho men in the stories actually were. I
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