Thankful yet somewhat bewildered

I find myself different from the young Ron Yates in outward manifestations, but the roots are the same. Is it true that our personalities are fully formed by age seven? Maybe. I feel like I’m changing constantly, but it’s probably a sense of dumb wonder that makes the experiences of each day seem new and different, even the lessons that I know I’ve learned before.

I started writing at an early age and always enjoyed my English classes. I majored in English in college and earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s from the University of West Georgia. I taught high school English and journalism for many years in the west Georgia area.

I ran an automotive repair shop for five years and made forays into the business world on several occasions. These ventures were not very successful. I always felt I should be writing.

After waiting too long to begin, I finally earned an MFA in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte. The experience of working with other dedicated writers and the amazing faculty at Queens was life changing. It’s possible to achieve success as a writer without earning a formal degree in the field, but for me doing so was a giant step up and served to validate my dream as well as hone my skills. These studies made it painfully obvious that I had much to learn.

I’ve gone on to publish work in various venues and journals including Hemingway Shorts; KYSO Flash; Serving House Journal; Shark Reef; The Writing Disorder; The Oddville Press; Still: The Journal; Bartleby Snopes; Rose & Thorn Journal; and Prime Number Magazine.

I’m very pleased to announce that I’ve signed a contract with The Ardent Writer Press of Huntsville, Alabama to publish a book of my stories. The working title is Make It Right and Other Stories. The collection features eight short stories, along with its eponymous novella. The selections fall, more or less, into the Southern Gothic genre.

The aesthetic components that drive my work are as follows: a desire to create crisp, character-driven prose and to evoke place in a way that furnishes and textures the fictional dream. I strive to write honestly about humans, not stock figures, and to follow Hemingway’s advice to “. . . write one true sentence.” Once that goal is attained, other true sentences follow. Another guiding maxim comes from Chekhov, who maintained that the artist is not required to solve the problem but to correctly formulate it. I hope my work produces a pleasurable anxiety in the reader as she struggles to derive answers from the human problems I have correctly formulated.

I’ll keep you posted on the publishing progress of the forthcoming Make It Right and Other Stories and other writing ventures. Stop in often. I plan to blog about writing, the creative process, and other topics that you may find helpful.