Meet William Alton, Author of Girls and Other Stories
BBB: What inspired you to become an author?
WA: I started writing while I was locked in a psychiatric hospital as a teenager. I was in the hospital for two and a half years and found that the girls there paid me more attention when I wrote poems for them. After I was released, I had an English teacher who challenged me to write every day. As I got older, I found that I was prone to telling people stories and one night, a friend told me that I should write them down. Since then, I spend at least an hour writing every day. It’s the only way I can do or say the things that crop up in my mind from time to time.
WA: I started writing while I was locked in a psychiatric hospital as a teenager. I was in the hospital for two and a half years and found that the girls there paid me more attention when I wrote poems for them. After I was released, I had an English teacher who challenged me to write every day. As I got older, I found that I was prone to telling people stories and one night, a friend told me that I should write them down. Since then, I spend at least an hour writing every day. It’s the only way I can do or say the things that crop up in my mind from time to time.
BBB: How did you come up with the idea for your book, Girls?
WA: It kind of out of nowhere. I was writing a poem a day, experimenting with prose poetry and after ten or twelve of the poems, I noticed that I was writing along a theme. I explored flash fiction and started thinking of the women I’ve met over the years. At first, I wanted it to be a memoir, but then I realized that my memory often elaborated the stories so I quit focusing so much on what I remembered and wrote what came to autobiographic or not.
BBB: Tell us about your main character.
WA: There is no real main character except, maybe, for me. Each story explores a different woman, either a woman I knew in real life or a woman I wanted to meet.
WA: It kind of out of nowhere. I was writing a poem a day, experimenting with prose poetry and after ten or twelve of the poems, I noticed that I was writing along a theme. I explored flash fiction and started thinking of the women I’ve met over the years. At first, I wanted it to be a memoir, but then I realized that my memory often elaborated the stories so I quit focusing so much on what I remembered and wrote what came to autobiographic or not.
BBB: Tell us about your main character.
WA: There is no real main character except, maybe, for me. Each story explores a different woman, either a woman I knew in real life or a woman I wanted to meet.
BBB: What are you currently working on?
WA: I’m working a fantasy women in which a female warrior develops a relationship with a man no one else can see. The people around her think she’s lost her mind until she gets pregnant with her invisible lover’s child. I’m using a lot from the myth of Eros and Psyche and the apocryphical stories of Mary Magdalene.
BBB: How can readers discover more about you and your work?
WA: Readers can find my book Girls, the collection of flash fiction which came out on September 5, at http://www.unsolicitedpress.com/published-authors/william-alton. The book is also available from Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. Readers can also email me at billalton@msn.com with thoughts or ideas for books. I love getting comments, even negative ones. It helps me build better worlds in which my characters can grow.
WA: I’m working a fantasy women in which a female warrior develops a relationship with a man no one else can see. The people around her think she’s lost her mind until she gets pregnant with her invisible lover’s child. I’m using a lot from the myth of Eros and Psyche and the apocryphical stories of Mary Magdalene.
BBB: How can readers discover more about you and your work?
WA: Readers can find my book Girls, the collection of flash fiction which came out on September 5, at http://www.unsolicitedpress.com/published-authors/william-alton. The book is also available from Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. Readers can also email me at billalton@msn.com with thoughts or ideas for books. I love getting comments, even negative ones. It helps me build better worlds in which my characters can grow.
