Kurt Newton

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

Kurt Newton: A mess. My creative process is about as organized as a hundred car pileup on a foggy freeway. My Grand Central is a simple desk and laptop. Sitting alongside the laptop are loose pages of works-in-progress. These pages can be easily mistaken for grocery lists or the manic doodles of an asylum patient.

GFG: What is it actually like?

KN: I mostly write in longhand with pencil and paper. That paper can be anything from the backs of recycled/edited stories to the backs of envelopes–bills, mostly. My desk is just the last stop where the bulk of the ideas are typed in and organized into a legible form. Before reaching Grand Central, I can be found anywhere–on lunch breaks at my workplace, sitting outside on the deck at home, or upright in bed with the reading light on–taking notes or writing the next scene of my latest story.

GFG: Was there anything in particular that inspired “Lady With An Ax”?

KN: Yes. A friend and fellow writer, Mercedes Yardley, once used an avatar on the Shock Totem message board that depicted a finely-dressed lady with an ax at her side. The juxtaposition contained in that image struck me and the story was born.

GFG: The Lady With an Ax and the Man With Wings take what is most precious to each other. However, the Lady’s reaction is much stronger to her loss. What differentiates their pain, do you think?

KN: Wow, that’s a good question. My guess is while the Man’s wings were precious, in that they made him special, the Lady’s ax was her crutch. Take away a person’s specialness and they simply become like everyone else. But take away a person’s crutch and that person will fall. When I look back on it, it was sort of mean thing to do…but necessary for the two to come down to earth, so to speak.

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

KN: Yes. I have two novels, POWERLINES and THE WISHNIK, coming out this year from Gallows Press. POWERLINES will appear in April; THE WISHNIK, later in the year. Both will be available through Amazon.com. I also have short stories scheduled to appear in the pages Dark Discoveries and Space & Time Magazine.