Author Name: Travis West
Title of your AJOW story: The Errandsman's Folly
Synopsis: A king's errandsman leading a caravan to deliver supplies for the princess's wedding gets more than he bargained for when he's also tasked with harboring an urchin.
What inspired you to write this story? I had an image in my head one day of a man leading a caravan of toad riders. Then I started thinking of how jarring it would be to ride a hopping toad all day, so I changed toads to salamanders. The thought of little people riding amphibians put me in mind of Monty Python for some reason, and I knew the story had to have obvious comic elements
How long have you been writing? I started writing in high school. Creative writing in English class was always my favorite. My sophomore English teacher even wrote my parents a letter, asking them to encourage me to continue writing. Which I did until graduation. We don't always make the best decisions in early adulthood, and writing was forgotten although I still read all the time. Two years ago I sat down one night and wrote the beginnings of a story and I'm still going.
What genre do you usually write in and why? I don't write with genre in mind. I'm currently (and slowly) working on a novel about the beginnings of a rock band in the early eighties. However, I've found that most of my short stories are speculative in one form or another. So I definitely see myself writing novels in the literary fiction genre, and my short stories can be a bit more fantastical.
What else are you working on? My novel, which is currently untitled. I think I tried to jump into novel writing too soon, and I've spent the last nine months or so concentrating solely on writing shorts. It's really helped me to improve my writing. A Haunting of Words may be the last ". . . of Words" collection I participate in for a while because the time feels right to finish the novel. Those characters are still very much with me and they need to speak their piece.
What advice do you have to give new writers? Beyond the advice to keep writing, don't ever be afraid to let others read what you've written. Insight from other minds is tremendously underrated as far as I'm concerned. There's no rule saying you have to use anyone's advice, but just hearing other opinions can spark ideas in you that you might not have been able to reach on your own.
How can people discover more about you and your work? My blog, which currently needs some attention:
travisjackflash.blogspot.com
And at: Facebook.com/traviswestwrites