Gale Massey

How did you become a writer?      

Having been raised in a hyper-religious family I was introduced to Bible stories early on. The misogyny clearly evident in many of those stories enraged me but I learned the power of words and storytelling. I began writing to find a voice that could speak my personal truth to power, and to make sense of the world.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Flannery O’Connor, Truman Capote, Connie May Fowler’s Before Woman Had Wings, and of course, Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone.

When and where do you write?

I write in the mornings, sometimes I’ll have another afternoon session. I have a studio out back where it’s quiet. Quiet is a must for me. The only music I will listen to while writing is Spanish guitar.

What are you working on now?

A magical realism short story and a second novel. Sometimes I’ll revisit a short creative nonfiction piece I’ve been working on for about a year.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

All the time. For me, it’s part of the territory.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

“Keep your head down and keep moving forward.” Michael Koryta

What’s your advice to new writers?

Kill your expectations and expect a rough ride. Understand that no one cares more about your work than you do. Hire a lawyer that has only your best interest in mind. Say thank you, a lot. Be kind to others.

Gale Massey’s first novel, The Girl From Blind River, received a 2018 Florida Book Award and debuted in the time-honored Book of the Month Club. Her award-winning stories and essays have appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, Sabal, Seven Hills Press, and other places. She has received fellowships at The Sewanee Writers Conference and Eckerd College’s Writers in Paradise, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Massey, a Florida native, lives in St. Petersburg.

Josh Rosenblatt

How did you become a writer?

When I was 28 years old I was unemployed and broke and I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I’d been raised in a family of grammar sticklers and figured I could probably do all right as a proofreader, so I started calling around to local newspapers and magazines looking for work. Having no experience, though, the only offer I got was an unpaid internship at Austin’s alternative weekly newspaper, the Chronicle. As luck would have it, once a year the Chronicle would give its non-writing staff the chance to write previews of movies that were screening at the South by Southwest festival, and my first year I was assigned an unintelligible eight-hour avant-garde documentary that hadn’t been shown in a theater since the 1960s. I watched the entire thing that night and spent the next five days agonizing over a 200-word review that I wouldn’t get paid for, of a movie that no one was going to watch. 

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

My biggest influence, the one I don’t think I’ll ever shake, is Philip Roth. His ability to balance cynicism, moral seriousness, and a visceral sense of humor, combined with his capacity for creating a sense of rolling energy with words, has always been something I marvel at. There’s just so much life in his writing. I have other influences but they’re all fighting for the No. 2 spot in my heart.

When and where do you write? 

Unlike other writers who have to begin and end their writing sessions at particular times and particular desks, I tend to take a pretty impromptu approach to working. When I’m in the middle of a project, ideas can appear at any time—while I’m watching a movie or riding the subway or sleeping—and when they do I always try to stop what I’m doing to write them down, knowing from hard experience that nothing will engender self-loathing quite like losing a great idea.

What are you working on now? 

I loved everything about writing my first book, and more than anything I want to write a second one. Unfortunately that means having an idea, which I currently don’t. So right now I’m working on coming up with one—a scientific process that consists primarily of staring at walls.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

I don’t think I’ve ever suffered from true writer’s block, the kind that leaves you worried that you’ll never write another good sentence again. I’ve gone through rough patches, of course, agonizing my way through passages and paragraphs and even entire chapters only to toss them out in disgust. But I’ve never felt debilitated.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

I remember reading somewhere that Philip Roth taped to the wall above his typewriter a piece of paper with the words “Don’t Get Up” written on it. That seems like pretty good advice for a writer, though I don’t follow it myself. I get up all the time.

What’s your advice to new writers?

I don’t think there’s anything I could say that would help.

Josh Rosenblatt is the author of Why We Fight, published by Ecco. His work has appeared in VICE, The Austin Chronicle, and The Texas Observer, among other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Julie Langsdorf

How did you become a writer?

I was an incessant reader as a child, and started writing as soon as I learned how to string words into stories. I plotted out a few novels in elementary school, and wrote short stories during my teenage years. When I graduated from college, I worked as a features writer for magazines and newspapers for my day job, and wrote fiction after hours. I’ve tried to give it up a few times, but it’s like any addiction…

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

I’m a huge fan of, in no particular order: Evan S. Connell, Elizabeth Stout, Richard Yates, Tom Perrotta, Kate Atkinson, Jess Walter, Alice McDermott and Meg Wolitzer among countless others.

When and where do you write?

I am a morning writer. I work at an antique, Mission style desk in front of French doors with a view of a beautiful tree and the gorgeous old coop across the street. I often get distracted by the birds on the branches--cardinals, blue jays, or, the other day, a dove who sat on the railing about two feet away from me and stared at me till I got back to work.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a new comedy set in another fictional Maryland town. This novel, like White Elephant, is told from multiple perspectives and deals with a topical issue.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Yes. Even thinking the words “writers block” makes me tremble. I think it’s just a form of anxiety. Every time, I panic that I’ll never write again, but it always passes. Sometimes I need to stay at my desk and ride it out, but other times I need to step away from the computer for a while, to just live my life, experience all the world has to offer, and to trust that the words and ideas will flow again. 

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Well, I didn’t get this advice directly from the source, but I think Henry James had it right when he said: “Try to be one of those on whom nothing is lost.” It’s important to pay attention to the texture of life, to notice the particulars, to find the humor and poignancy in the world around you if you hope to get it right on the page.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Put your phone away.

Julie Langsdorf’s debut novel, White Elephant, was published by Ecco in March.