5 Questions from the Porch Swing for Lori Myers

What have you written? I write in a variety of genres: fiction, creative nonfiction, plays, and essays. My creative nonfiction has appeared in many national and regional magazines, my fiction in literary journals and anthologies, and my plays have been produced for the stage nationally. Writing is writing to me and each style speaks to all the others. My story, "The Kindest Cut" was just included in the anthology Bad Neighborhood (you can find it on Amazon). Plus my short story collection, Crawl Space, is with a publisher and in the editing process.

What do you read? Many of my short stories are dark fiction, so I tend to read novels and collections of that ilk. I also love women's fiction and literary fiction. Currently, I'm reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and Landfall by Ellen Urbani. The "bottom line" for me is that the writing and story have to be of good quality. There's so much garbage out there. If you read enough, you instinctively know the good stuff from the bad.

Lori's story, "The Kindest Cut,"
appears in this anthology.

Why do you write? I love words, sentences, and stories. I could read before I started kindergarten and I couldn't get enough of books. I've been jotting down stories since I was a little girl and when I wasn't creating characters on the page, I was acting them on stage. Theater and writing are intertwined creative efforts for me, and they've served me well throughout my career.

Fun writing factoid (not technically a question, I know): Long walks have a way of sparking creativity and resolving plot issues. If a story isn't working for me, I'll take a walk and somehow, some way a writing solution will appear. Needless to say, I take a lot of walks!

One more thing: Thank you, Lisa, for being a great literary citizen and featuring other writers on your blog. It's something all writers should do for each other.

My pleasure! It's lots of fun hearing about everyone's projects!

Thanks for joining me, everyone! 

Next week, I'll return to my usual Wednesday posts.