Goodreads asked Michael Dickel:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Michael Dickel The Palm Reading after The Toad's Garden began in a way through intersections with another writer. I had been reading Flash Fiction, and in particular the work of Meg Pokras, in preparation for an interview and article I was writing about Meg and her work. I very much found an affinity with her work, which suggested to me a hybrid between prose poetry and short narrative forms.

As a poet who also writes some short stories, I decided to play with the form. The first story in the book came from a list of five prompt words Meg posted online. The woman with a beard, the "main character" in the first section of the book, emerged in this piece. I have always been interested in the Dadaists, Surrealists, and automatic writing, so I started a social media experiment — asking for five free-associated words from followers of my blog, on Facebook, and on Twitter. I would use several of these to write a new piece 2-3 times a week, which I posted on my blog. The woman with a beard kept insisting on her presence in each piece, and then a toad with a garden joined her.

I've continued to write flash — hybrid experiments, sometimes with non-fiction, sometimes with poetry and narrative (or prose, no narrative) — for about five years now. The Palm Reading after The Toad's Garden collects this work. The first half follows the woman with a beard and the toad, in and out of his garden. The second half begins with a palm reading that has a tangential connection to the woman with a beard, and moves out into a collection of very short readings on contemporary life, society, culture, gender, and, occasionally, politics.

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