quarterly conversation

robin slick
...a conversation about early mornings, thinking, laughing, google searches and how writing can save a fortune in meds...

Joyce Carol Oates has said that “ideas have come from the strangest of places.”  Where do your own ideas for stories come from?

Oh, I eavesdrop a lot in bars and restaurants but I also feel compelled to go off and have little adventures just so I can write about them. My stories tend to be about dysfunctional families or relationships so that modus operandi works well.  


If you were to give advice to a beginning writer, what advice would that be?

This is advice that was just recently given to me and it’s rather obvious. Just let yourself fly…pretend that you’re talking to a good friend when you write and you’re telling him/her the story or writing them a letter.

Being too “writerly” is a common mistake for beginners and it shows. Their work is stiff and too full of uninteresting similes and metaphors.


Why do you write?  What motivates you to keep the words flowing?

I write because I must. I know that sounds crazy, but yeah, I admit it, I’m not only crazy, I’m driven. I wake up at 4 a.m. every morning because the house is quiet and I’m most productive then…and the minute I sit down at the computer the words just spill out onto the page, whether it’s a novel or short story on which I’m working or even just a daily personal journal entry.  


Here’s another quote:  “To be at peace with ourselves, we need to know ourselves” (Caitlin Matthews).  Does your writing help you in the ongoing process of knowing yourself?  If so, how?  

Yeah. It all comes out in the writing -- all the insecurities, complexes, craving affection and attention.

Hahahahaha – especially after writing a novel about being the daughter of a cold, drug addicted jazz musician, I blame everything on my father now. I’ve probably saved myself a fortune in psychiatric help and meds by writing about it instead.


What do you hope to accomplish with your writing?

I want to make people think and laugh and enjoy themselves. And I guess selfishly, leave a little piece of myself behind for posterity.


What does your writing hope to accomplish with you?

Oh god, my writing is going to do something to me? I am in VERY BIG TROUBLE.


One last quote:  “The world is made up of stories, not atoms” (Muriel Rukeyser).  What stories make up your world?

I am going to go out on a limb here and mention names of authors not many people will know unless they read lit mags and/or do a Google search and I hope this interview accomplishes that. I know as writers we tend to be like broken records reciting the same wonderful names: Raymond Carver, Alice Munro, Lorrie Moore, etc. So I’m going mention authors I have the pleasure of knowing who write about real life and real people and aren’t afraid to take chances. These authors aren’t household names (yet) with apologies to anyone I accidentally omit: Alicia Gifford, Jim Ruland, Susan Henderson, Tom Saunders, Eric Bosse, Kathy Fish, Jordan Rosenfeld, Ellen Meister, Myfanwy Collins, Gary Cadwallader, Bob Arter, Denis Mahagin, Ronald F. Currie, Jr., Dave Clapper, Leslie Van NewKirk, Kay Sexton, Lisa McMann, Gary Glauber, Liesl Jobson, G.W. Cox, Joseph Young, Richard Taubold, Thea Atkinson, Debbra Mikaelsen, Daphne Buter…oh god, somebody stop me…


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ROBIN SLICK is a fiction writer living in downtown Philadelphia when she's not a roadie/groupie traveling across the world paying homage to her two rock star kids. Her new novel, Three Days in New York City, is in the hands of a publisher while she crosses her fingers and prays that the final revisions she just sent off are in fact final and she will soon have a firm publication date. The short story from which this novel arose is curently nominated for a Best American Short Story Award and appeared in NFG Magazine. Other short stories have been published in Small Spiral Notebook, In Posse Review, Yankee Pot Roast, Word Riot, Flashquake, Insolent Rudder, Reading Divas, Hackwriters, Fiction Warehouse, Storyhouse, and Nagoya Writes. Upcoming fiction will appear in two print mags: Spoiled Ink and Graphology. For more information and the latest news, visit her website at: http://www.robinslick.com