All posts in Interviews

August 12, 2021

Interview with Author Abigail George

Editor’s Note: I had a chance to chat with one of our Featured Writers from 2020, Abigail George, about why she began writing and her writing life right now. She’s recently published a book about Emily Dickinson, available on Amazon. —Mike The Fictional Café: What made you choose to be an author? Abigail George: I didn’t grow up wanting to be an author. Life happened, took me down the road less travelled and kind of anchored me in a dysfunctional family life. Now I write all the time. I am inspired by many, many things. Mostly poets. Other writers. Nature, competition, psychology, science, the facts of life fascinate me endlessly so how I can ever run out of things to say, become bored or suffer from writer’s block? These days I have turned back the…

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July 17, 2020

Jarrett Mazza and Michael Piekny Q&A

Posted by Mike Rochester in Interviews

At The Fictional Café we love writers and love the written word. We want to showcase the best contemporary writing and give our subscribers innovative, thought-provoking works across a whole range of art forms. When it comes to fiction and poetry, every so often one of our Baristas really connects to a certain work and goes the extra mile to help showcase it to our global audience. This was the case with yesterday’s featured story, Knowing, by Jarrett Mazza. One of our Editorial Board members, and Fiction Barista, Michael Piekny, really connected with Jarret’s writing and reached out to see whether Jarrett would be interested in working together on a developmental edit of the story. Jarrett was on board and the two of them worked closely together over several weeks to fine-tune this story of…

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July 1, 2020

Former FC Art Barista Steve Sangapore Interview

Posted by Mike Rochester in Fine Art, Interviews

Today we are sharing an interview with former Fictional Café Visual Art Barista Steve Sangapore. Fountain Street Gallery, located in SOWA the artistic hub of Boston, presents this interview in their series LIVE AT FIVE on Instagram. LIVE AT FIVE features a 30 minute interview of Boston based artist Steve Sangapore who will talk with Tatiana Flis about art, life, and his most recent painting series titled New Eden. You can follow Steve on Instagram at @stevesangapore. INFO:WEDNESDAY, JULY 01, 2020 | 5:00–5:30 PM EasternLIVE AT FIVE w/Fountain Street GalleryJOIN US ON INSTAGRAM LIVE@fountainstreetgallery

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May 8, 2020

“Atlantis: The Lost Empire” — An Audio Arts Interview

Posted by Ruby Fink in Audio Arts, Interviews

It’s been two decades since the Disney animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire first hit theaters and for twenty years, writer Tab Murphy, believed that the classic steam-punk animated film that he created was a flop. While he couldn’t deny that he had enjoyed the writing and brainstorming process, it hadn’t done as well in the box office as he would’ve liked, causing him to believe it had been a failure. . .up until now. Recently, Tab came in contact with “Atlantis: The Lost Empireposting,” a Facebook group completely dedicated to reliving and reposting their favorite scenes, lines and characters from his movie. Surrounded by so many people of different ages, from different walks of life who had all been inspired and entertained by the film he had helped create, Tab was finally able to…

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April 12, 2020

Arya F. Jenkins — An Author Interview

Posted by Mike Rochester in Interviews

Editor’s Note: We asked author and FC member/contributor, Arya F. Jenkins, a few questions about her book of short stories. Interview with Arya F. Jenkins Author of Blue Songs in an Open Key Short stories published by Fomite, 2018 When did you first get the idea to write this book? I was in the midst of a long love affair with jazz when I first started writing fiction with the idea of having it published. I decided to do something a little different and interweaved my love for that music into a story. My short story, “So What,” was inspired by the first cut in the seminal album by Miles Davis, Kinda Blue, and won first prize in a fiction contest in Jerry Jazz Musician, a jazz-based zine run by Joe Maita. That was in 2012, and subsequently I was asked to write more stories for Jerry Jazz Musician, which I did, at…

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September 30, 2019

How To Succeed In Your Writing Career

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Interviews, Member Writing & Art, Writing

An Interview with Fictional Cafe Barista Jason Brick In this wide-ranging, 30-minute conversation about today’s writing and publishing environment, Jason shares his knowledge and experience as a writer, an author, and a publisher with curious Fictional Cafe writers who wish to create a sustainable business and income from their writing, rather than its being a hobby in which one indulges in his or her spare time. Jason Brick is a professional writer, martial artist, travel addict, and dad whose work has been published across multiple genres and formats. He has contributed over 3,000 articles and short stories to print magazines and online sites on topics ranging from home improvement, to health and wellness, to cocktail recipes, to small business management. Some of Jason’s top-level corporate clients include BlackBelt and Thrillist magazines, American Express, Intuit, and Mint.com. Jason has ghostwritten more…

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June 27, 2019

“The Age of Light” – Reprising Our Interview with First-Time (And Very Successful!) Author Whitney Scharer

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Book Reviews, Interviews, Member Writing & Art, Writing

A little over a year ago, we published an interview with Whitney Scharer, whose novel had landed her a million-dollar book deal. Only problem was, we had to wait another year to read her book. At the time, we wrote: “Barista Rachael Allen meets the novelist everyone will be talking about. Whitney Scharer and her fierce protagonist are set to take the literary world by storm! At this time next year, Whitney Scharer’s debut novel, The Age of Light, will stare up at you from your nightstand. The book will not stare at you so much as, potentially, display a woman staring into the distance, anonymously cropped at the neck, with scenic Paris blurred behind her. As much as she hopes for something different, Scharer says wryly, audiences are familiar with this kind of book…

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June 8, 2019

An Interview with Ana Clements, Voiceover Artist

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Interviews, Member Writing & Art, Video, Web Video

Creating an audiobook is hard work. Maybe harder than writing, but it’s similar, too, in that the work must go through several revision cycles. You can simply listen to a recording to catch errors, or you can listen and follow along in the manuscript or the book. But neither is a guarantee you’ll catch all of the audio flubs. As with a book manuscript, you’ll need to review it again and again. Believe me. So it wasn’t until I was listening to the sixth audio revision of my latest novel Anarchy that I noticed a particular character’s voiceover just wasn’t quite good enough. The character was Miss Caitlin Dugan in Chapter 7. (By the bye, that chapter is entitled “A Reading at the Fictional Cafe, a doubly fictional coffee house in New York City, which…

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October 15, 2018

The Jane Friedman Interview: Writing Because You Can’t Imagine Doing Anything Else

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Interviews

Jane Friedman is quite possibly the most influential voice for the writer today. Her career spans over 20 years as a writer, editor, consultant, professor and speaker. “I sit at the intersection of several communities, which gives me a 360-degree view of the changes now shaping writing and publishing,” she says. “People working inside the industry see me as as an expert in digital and self-publishing, while independent authors see me as a traditional publishing figure. The university and MFA community see me as very commercially minded, while the business people see me as literary and academic. I would have it no other way; I prefer to serve as a bridge.” Jane granted Fictional Cafe the following interview, focusing primarily on how a committed individual can build a career as a writer by taking a businesslike…

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July 14, 2018

The Fictional Cafe’s 500th Member!

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Interviews

Last month – actually, the day before our fifth birthday bash on Facebook – the Fictional Café membership rolls hit a magic number: 500. Therefore, we would like to introduce you to Zipporah Kuteesa, our Number Five Hundred member of the Fictional Café Coffee Club! Zipporah was kind and gracious enough to grant us an interview. Read on! FC: Please tell us as little about yourself, Ms. Kuteesa. Z: I live in Entebbe, Uganda. I am 20 years old. I am a student pursuing a B.A. in Mass Communications at Uganda Christian University-Mukono. I work with a humanitarian NGO called Mercy Hands Uganda. FC: Are you a writer, an artist, or media auteur? What do you create? Z: I am a writer, but I also do other forms of art like painting, songwriting, music, and others….

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