Top Five: Alex Grover

Top Five Writing Monstrosities (In No Order)

1. Expectations of men based on Christian Grey
2. Expectations of women based on the Bible
3. Expectations of working-class wizards based on Harry Potter
4. Expectations of vampires based on Twilight
5. Expectations of me to write this list

— Alex Grover

(more…)

Top Five: Bruce Killmer

Writing-Related Top Five

1. The works of Joyce Kilmer (no relation) are intriguing and deserves more attention.
2.  Short and to the point articles.
3. Inspired fantasy to make children chuckle.
4. Written history makes one appreciate the persons who lived it.
5. The end should not end but begin another phase.

— Bruce Killmer

(more…)

Top Five: Sonia Usatch-Kuhn

“My list of words related to writing are contact, release, disconnect, authenticity, and relatability.” — Sonia Usatch-Kuhn

(more…)

Top Five: Rory Fleming

Writing-Related Top Five

1. somnambulist writing
2. writing + lobster bisque
3. writing in webdings
4. Australasian dialects in writing
5. writing my name on a blank page

 — Rory Fleming

(more…)

Top Five: Rick Lamplugh

Writing-Related Top Five

1. I like writing in nature, whether that’s my backyard or fifteen miles into the backcountry.
2. I like finding a place, paying attention, and writing what I see, hear, smell, touch, and taste.
3. I love when after writing for a while an “Aha” arrives and a bigger theme magically appears.
4. I enjoy writing, rewriting, cutting, and shaping an engaging story out of that natural writing.
5. I love when the story puts a reader right there with me!

— Rick Lamplugh

(more…)

Top Five: Suzanne Cope

Top 5 list of phrases I have banned my freshman composition
students from using in their essays: 

1. “The legendary…”
2. “In conclusion…”
3. “For all of my lifetime…”
4. “In this paper I will write about…”
5. “… (noun) (verb) like …”

— Suzanne Cope

(more…)

Top Five: Helen Wallace

Writing-Related Top Five

1. a glass of good wine
2. any splinter, unknown but insistent
3. the smell of wet horse
4. filigreed light
5. a well-placed spondee

 — Helen Wallace

(more…)

Top Five: Diane D. Gillette

My Top Five Excuses for Not Writing

1. I couldn’t find a seat near an outlet at the coffee shop.
2. Pandora kept playing songs that didn’t fit my station and ruining my groove.
3. The latest book in [insert any addicting series] came out today.
4. Instant streaming TV is truly an evil invention.
5. The cat took a three-hour nap in my lap.

— Diane D. Gillette

(more…)

Top Five: Forrest Anderson

In terms of my top five list, I want to rip off some writing rules I cobbled together from a character named Carrie in Kevin Moffett’s “Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events.” I call them, “The Only Rules That Matter: Carrie’s Rules of Fiction”:

1. It’s executed as vigorously as it’s conceived.
2. It isn’t false or pretentious.
3. It doesn’t jerk the reader around to no effect.
4. It lives by its own logic.
5. It’s poignant without trying too hard.

— Forrest Anderson

(more…)

Top Five: Stuart Lishan

“Top 5 list of anything related to writing: 1. Having a nice place to nap; 2. Knowing how to use ‘Save as’; 3. A writer’s handbook; 4. A portable tape recorder to play back lines and sentences; 5. Having a tough hide.” — Stuart Lishan

(more…)

Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.

Upcoming:

03/23 • Kenneth Pobo
03/30 • Roberta Allen
04/06 • Avril Shakira Villar
04/13 • TBD
04/20 • TBD
04/27 • TBD
05/04 • TBD
05/11 • TBD
05/18 • TBD
05/25 • TBD
06/01 • TBD
06/08 • TBD
06/15 • TBD
06/22 • TBD
06/29 • TBD
07/06 • TBD
07/13 • TBD
07/20 • TBD
07/27 • TBD
08/03 • TBD
08/10 • TBD
08/17 • TBD
08/24 • TBD
08/31 • TBD
09/07 • TBD
09/14 • TBD
09/21 • TBD