Marcelina Vizcarra

Goldfish Grimm: If we could peek into your office (coffee shop, kitchen table, wherever you write), what would your writing process look like?

Marcelina Vizcarra: My third child was born in the last year, so my process is frazzled, stuttering, and discombobulated. I do have a dedicated writing space, which I never use but thought I needed. Now, I just tuck in a few moments whenever and wherever I can find it. Sometimes, I have to write with a hand raised to stall interruptions, and I’ve developed near-hieroglyphic handwriting due to speed/distraction, but I’ve discovered that like that phenomenon of rearranging all the middle letters, I can still read my scribbles if enough pieces land in the right spots.

GFG: Was there anything in particular that inspired “Utopia with a Handle”?

MV: It started with admiring Sergey Tyukanov’s wonderful work, and then I was doodling umbrella houses, and the story grew from that.

GFG: What’s your favorite type of weather?

MV: Fickle weather. Packing for a Midwest excursion is almost an exercise in the absurd. We can’t take good weather for granted, so beautiful days are treated like spontaneous holidays with people spouting greeting card verse and forming human fountains in the cornfields.

GFG: What is the part of the writing process you enjoy the most and why?

MV: The beginning, when the pen is like a lightning rod for ideas, and you’re impressed by the fulgent god-hammers of your mind. Until editing time, that is.

GFG: Do you have anything you’d like to plug or promote?

MV: My stories can be found in Mad Scientist Journal, PANK, The Colored Lens, and other publications.

Marcelina Vizcarra

Marcelina Vizcarra lives in the Midwest where she raises people, paints, and loses an average of two umbrellas per year.  Other work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Colored Lens, Word Riot, and Vine Leaves Literary Journal.