Anything you would like to share with our readers about the inspiration for these flash pieces?

Before I begin to write a story, I try to envision a scene.  It might be serious or comical.  
The scene decides which.  The scene I imagined, before writing “Rash,” was a hospital waiting room where a young man sits nervously crossing and uncrossing his legs.  Is someone he loves dying in one of the rooms?  Is he burdened with remorse?  Leaning towards a serious story, I was distracted by the man’s impatient fidgeting, pacing, and the funny rolling of his eyes.  I decided this called for a comic flash.  What if the man is waiting to hear about a patient who isn’t there?  What if she’s not there because of him?


Do you have a writing schedule you adhere to and/or any tricks you might want to share with your readers?

I write everyday for about six hours.  Retired now for three years, it’s much easier than when I taught school and wrote for only two each day.  Writing is fun.  Why wouldn’t writers spend time at it?  A poem, a story, a letter to the editor, a chapter from a novel, a blog entry--just write something every single day!


What book are you reading at this time?

I am read several books at once.  Stephen King’s On Writing; John Sanford’s Phantom Prey; Mickey Spillane’s Black Alley; and Chuck Hogan’s The Town.  As I finish reading one, I replace it with another, so there are always four.


Name the top two or three most influential writers of your writing career and maybe a line or two telling us why.

Ray Bradbury, Frederic Brown, and Leonard Cohen.  Bradbury for his poetic prose and adeptness at writing powerful flashes, short stories and novels.  Brown for unforgettable stories of science fiction and mystery.  As for Cohen, the Canadian poet, his poems have inspired me for fifty years!