Meet Holly Lyn Walrath.
Hi Holly! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us a little about yourself.
Holly Lyn Walrath is the author of Glimmerglass Girl (Finishing Line Press, 2018). Her poetry and short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, Luna Station Quarterly, Liminality, and elsewhere. She holds a B.A. in English from The University of Texas and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Denver. She is a freelance editor and host of The Weird Circular, an e-newsletter for writers containing submission calls and writing prompts. Find her online at http://www.hlwalrath.com or on Twitter @HollyLynWalrath.
Social Media Links:
http://twitter.com/hollylynwalrath
https://www.instagram.com/holly__lyn/
https://www.amazon.com/Holly-Walrath/e/B01KVVE6HA
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14395887.Holly_Walrath
The Interview.
If you could describe writing a flash fiction story in just five words, what would they be? Go!
Pure imagination distilled to electricity.
Lately I’ve noticed how much my ‘editor’ voice annoys my ‘writer’ voice. Do you have difficulty separating the two? If yes, how do you make peace between the two different roles you have?
This is always a struggle for me. I’ve noticed this not intersecting with my writing so much as my reading. Since I began writing and editing full-time, I realized that I can no longer suffer through writers who I don’t like or that have annoying tics. If a book isn’t well-edited, it just doesn’t get my time anymore. I’m much more willing to put a book down and move on.
I find revision terribly dissatisfying. Even though I’m a professional freelance editor, I still have to get feedback and edits from someone else on my work. It’s hard for me to see my own writing from the editor mindset!
Share with us the background of your newsletter “The Weird Circular” and how it came to be.
About two years ago I decided I wanted to do an author newsletter. However, I didn’t want it to be some boring thing that people didn’t care about receiving. That’s how I got the idea to do a newsletter that was mostly informative. It curates submission calls from select markets, writing prompts that I come up with, and other strange tidbits for writers. I focused on “weird” because I wanted a word that conveyed the content in the circular was going to be for speculative writers, but also for writers who feel they are on the fringe of things.
What is the weirdest writing prompt you ever tried to write for?
Oh, I love weird writing prompts. My favorite prompt I stumbled across recently was to write a story using a title from the Pulp Sci-Fi Title-O-Tron (https://thrilling-tales.webomator.com/derange-o-lab/title-o-tron.shtml#titleotron) . It has some fantastically strange titles, like this one: “Ensnared by the Thing of the Asteroid.”
If you could live in only one of your pieces, what piece would it be and why?
I’d love to know that the world of The Joy of Baking (http://www.hlwalrath.com/thejoyofbaking.html) existed. An afterlife where you are greeted with cake and given the time you need to sort out your issues before moving on. It’s kind of something I think we all wish we had in our real world—space to deal. It’s ninety percent wish fulfillment, ten percent chocolate sprinkles.
What is an average day in the life of Holy Walrath like?
Chaos and words! On a regular writing day, I try to wake up early and get in front of my desk. I read for a little bit (usually from SFF magazines) and then try to write. But after that bit of writing time, most of my day is spent working with clients, on phone calls, self-promoting, going to community literary events, and sometimes actually getting to edit! It’s a constant juggling act, but one I am beyond grateful to star in.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with the readers today?
Be sure to check out my latest chapbook, Glimmerglass Girl (https://amzn.to/2MGh3aS). It’s a collection of poetry and images about womanhood and femininity.
Raven C. Eckman 