Ask the Author: Tom Gillaspy
Answered Questions (3)
Tom Gillaspy
Experience is an important source of ideas. New places, new people, new sights, sounds, and smells all add to my idea list. Wherever I am, I look for the ghosts or spirits of the place. New suburban developments or generica have few ghosts, so I avoid those places. Mountains, forests, lakes, Peru, Kenya, Mexico, central cities, abandoned places, rural farming areas in population decline all are filled with ghosts with stories crying to get out.
Tom Gillaspy
I am always working on new poems. They just happen. I draft them and then let them sit months (sometimes years) later and edit. I am also working on a children's story from the point of view of a 5 year old African orphan at a school visited by strange beasts from another world (Americans). I also have draft outlines for a book on the Impact Demographic and Economic Trends (the real world does creep in occasionally).
Tom Gillaspy
My best advice is to have paper and pen with you, always. Sometimes the best ideas just come. Write them down so you don't forget. Some of my favorites are odd statements I hear wafting in the air, disembodied. Those are precious gems for a writer.
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