Shantih Journal | Page 17

great portion of my day. I'm not complaining about that, but this means I only ever have a couple of hours tops each day to work on my writing. And some weeks I'm just exhausted and want to stop thinking for awhile and just put on a movie or something. So putting in the work required is the hardest part for me. Incidentally, this is another area where submitting your work regularly can come in handy. Most journals have submission deadlines, and deadlines go a long way to keeping me on target and keeping me working on my writing regularly, if not every day.

11) What is the most rewarding or satisfying part of writing or the writing life?

Oh gosh, every time you get even the tiniest little bit of feedback that something you've written has affected someone somehow, it's the most rewarding feeling. That you can make a connection with an audience, no matter how small, even just an audience of one in a lot of cases...not much else in the world can compete with that feeling. And also to see my progress as a writer. I'm better now than I was a year ago and light years better than I was five years ago. To see that progress and to assume it will continue that way and to know that you're improving at something you love is also quite rewarding. A great deal rewarding.

12) Where do you see yourself going as a writer? How do you set goals for a story? For your body of work?

I'd like to see myself have enough of a collection of polished fiction to compile a chapbook within a year or two. That's my current sort of personal goal. My flash fiction has certainly been of a definite theme of late and I

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