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Hey dude, do you remember being twelve? Liz does, and she takes us back to that awkward time in her story “Smoke Rings.” In this flash-fiction piece our two main characters share an unspoken understanding; but like any true story teller, Liz just couldn’t leave the story. After you read Liz’s flash-fiction entry, skip on over to her blog site to read the “novel excerpt” version. Then, come on back for an interview with Liz Tucker, writer and poet.

Liz is a graduate of the San Francisco State University Creative Writing program. Her short stories can be found in Transfer Magazine and soon in Tahoe Blues, an anthology to be published by Bona Fide Books at the end of 2011. Her poetry can be found in Red River Review and soon in the 2011 issue of The Aroostook Review. Liz is a sixth-generation Californian who lives in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Lake Tahoe where much of her writing takes place. When she is not writing, she can be found anywhere outside with her husband and two children or hacking away at the cello when the weather isn’t cooperating. To read more of her works please visit Liz at her blog, http://liztucker.wordpress.com/

WOW: Hello Liz, congratulations on placing in the WOW! Spring 2011 Flash Fiction Contest! I have to say, I skipped on over to your site and lost all sense of time. You have quite an impressive selection of offerings there; your love for fiction is obvious. When did you first begin writing?

Liz: It was in 2002; one of those rare epiphany moments that we get to experience in our lives and then actually seize upon. One spring day over breakfast I decided that after briefly dabbling in the art form, fiction writing was going to be my gig. Trouble was, I had only a faint idea of how to craft a proper story. Instead of playing around with the writing process, I knew I needed a solid foundation in the craft. I needed discipline. So by that afternoon I submitted my application to San Francisco State University’s Creative Writing department and started writing in earnest that summer. I have been writing ever since, but many days still feel I have only the faintest notion of how it’s done.

WOW: You write both poetry and fiction; share with us a little about your relationship to both forms.

Liz: I consider myself primarily a fiction writer, but I am particularly interested in the intersection of poetry and fiction; how powerful language, imagery, symbolism, voice, themes, etc...is used to propel a story forward. Perhaps I will get lambasted by more established, professional poets, but I believe the two forms essentially strive for the same outcome--to evoke fresh, powerful emotions in our readers; to make our readers think.

Whether you are talking about poetry, flash fiction, short stories, novellas, novels, they all lay on the same continuum of story telling. Poems, in my mind, are the tightest of these forms. Each word, each image must count. There cannot be any excess. We fiction writers, however, are given more opportunity as we move up the story-telling

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