Q & As About this Blog

1. Why are you writing this blog?

Washington, DC has a literary inferiority complex. Would-be writers flock to New York City, or LA, or Chicago. Policy wonks, politicos, and do-gooders flock to Washington. Yet Washington is full of people like me: over-educated bureaucrats and creative non-profiteers who scribble away in their free time, creating stories and novels and just plain good writing. Washington is also a fantastic place to be a writer, even better than New York or LA or Chicago: free world class museums, beautiful parks, eight universities, the largest library in the world, a vibrant theater scene, an undeserved number of independent books stores, and enough coffee to drown a multi-national corporation full of baristas. Plus, more people with college and grad degrees than anywhere else in the nation.

2. What independent book stores? And where are they?

Here’s a helpful list.

3. What will you post here?

I’ll post a calendar of literary related events, although I won’t re-post things that are available in Citypaper or The Washington Post. Instead, I’ll high-light great events that perhaps don’t receive the publicity they deserve.

I’ll post musing about being a writer related to the process of writing and being a writer in Washington DC.

I’ll post my reviews and opinions about books, other writers, and literary happenings in Washington and around the world.

4. Can I send you information about my event/book/reading/lit journal/e-zine/blog for you to post?

Yes. But I can’t promise I’ll post it. Here’s my email: aportablesnack@gmail.com

5. What will you NOT post here?

Novel excerpts and short stories: mine or anyone else’s.

6. Who Are You?

Here’s a quick bio:

I was born and raised in suburban Pittsburgh. I attended Saint Vincent College outside of Pittsburgh, and moved to the Washington area for grad school at George Mason University, where I received an MA in English.

I’ve been writing fiction my whole life, and I’ve worked as a professional technical writer and editor for eight years.

I’ve studied with various writers in Arlington, VA, and at Georgetown University, and I helped found a writing group in Arlington. I’ve also taught writing and composition at community college and through Arlington County Adult Education.

I was the judge of the inaugural fiction competition for the Washington Writers Publishing House in 2000.

I’ve been published in Generations, the Saint Vincent College literary magazine, and in the inaugural issue of Lines and Stars. I’ve also published a non-fiction piece in the Current newspapers here in Washington.

I’ve completed at least three novel manuscripts and have many more in various stages of completion. I’ve sent them to many publishers and agents, who are very encouraging but not ready to bite.

I live in the U Street corridor with my artist wife.

7. What do you write?

I write literary fiction, both novels and short stories. While I think such things as mysteries, thrillers, and science fiction are fine things as far as they go, I have no interest in writing them. The reality I see every day is enough to keep me writing for many life times.

8. Who do you read?

I don’t read anything I can get may hands on. That would be a waste of time. I don’t read mysteries, thrillers, spy novels, or science fiction, because they bore me. To give you an idea, in the past year I’ve read Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, The Captive and the Fugitive by Marcel Proust, Humbolt’s Gift by Saul Bellow, If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi, One of Ours by Willa Cather, Prague by Arthur Phillips, Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carer.

I can’t say if I’ve been influenced by the following authors, but I deeply enjoy their work: Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Jane Austin, George Orwell, Frank O’Connor, James Joyce, and Edith Wharton, to name a few.