Kurt Hohmann

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We have some new people in the community. Re/Introduce yourself and tell us about your creative work

I'm immersing myself in creative pursuits after retiring from a soul-sucking tech career. My dark humor comes out in my writing; my WIP is a novel, plus I've published a few shorts, and narrated a lot more via: https://www.sinisterminutes.com/

Always looking for story submissions for that podcast...

Creativity also occurs in the kitchen, garden, woodshop, or wherever I happen to be.

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What are the limits of critique?

Back when we used to still meet face to face, my local critique group had a couple new members join us one evening. We were critiquing a piece written by one of them, and the other opened with "This is just boring. You shouldn't be writing."

I don't think she was expecting the severity of the backlash from the rest of us. Needless to say, neither of them ever joined us again.

Above all, critique should be useful.

#ScribesAndMakers #TTMD
Talk To Me Day, Featured Creator: @ElyseMGrasso@wandering.shop

Happy birthday! May the cities in your wake, Burn like candles on your cake.

Now that we've gotten that bit of SCA-ish stuff out of the way, I'll ask a related question. How has your participation in SCA influenced your writing, and vice versa?

#WritersCoffeeClub 1
Recently, how excited have you been to sit down to write?

"Excited" is a term I rarely apply. "Inspired" is more appropriate. And with temperatures now in the dangerous level, distractions involving time outdoors have been minimized and that inspiration is ever higher as a result.

Plus, I kinda know where I'm going on the WIP, and that helps a lot.

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Share the last line of dialogue you wrote.

"You interested in more than jamming?"

(context: Zane's tired of being an online spectacle, and wants instead to pick up his old bass and get back on stage again. The regular bass player in the band he's jammed with a couple times just happens to be out of commission for a few weeks...)

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Can a reader ever truly feel what a writer felt while writing?

I don't expect them to. I'd like them to feel *something* but story touches each of us in different ways, often in ways that the writer/storyteller cannot begin to envision. I might try to use story to forward an opinion, but emotion? I simply don't know what words/symbols might have what effect.

For that matter, I don't always have the same reaction in reading my own work that I did when writing it.

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What's your favorite woodwind?

Saxophone. I learned to play when I was 9, but gave it up by 13 due to the vilest "teacher" I ever met.

Years later, I learned to appreciate the greats from Charlie Parker on up, and I think my limited time playing helped me to better understand the nuances. Coltrane, though? The absolute GOAT. I listen to his work and only half envision how he's creating that magic.

Sinister Minutes 3:7 Ancient Lights - Lonely Ghost II

A classic Algernon Blackwood tale, plus a T. Virgil Parker original.

https://www.sinisterminutes.com/episodes-season-3 or wherever you grab your podcasts.

Narrated by @KurtHohmann@writing.exchange (me), music and soundscapes by Tim Parker.

#writing
#writingCommunity
#podcast
#podcasts
#Podcaster
#Podcasting
#fiction
#horror
#AudioDrama

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Have you ever included subtle (or unsubtle!) homage? Tell us about it.

Perhaps this counts? I recently wrote a flash piece about a food fight that reached deeply, and with no subtlety whatsoever, into the Scottish play. Samples:

"Is this a ladle which I see before me? The handle toward my hand?"

"Who would have thought a single cup to have had so much pudding in it?"

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How far would your characters go to get what they want?

Heh. Zane effectively sold his soul in chapter 1. The rest of the story is about what that means as he slowly figures out what it was he wanted in the first place.

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Have you ever worked collaboratively on a creative project with others? How did it go?

My last collaboration on something novel-length didn't go so well. 70+ years experience in art gave him an excellent basis for world-building, my characters would populate that world, and we'd develop story together. Except the story he wanted to tell delved far enough into the realm or porn that I began to think of the project in "Flesh Gorden" terms...and it wasn't meant to be a comedy.

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How difficult is it for you to receive criticism of your creative work?

I'm there for it.

What's the point of a critique group, if nobody's going to critique? When I draft something and present it, it's as good as I'm going to make it in the moment; so the group's purpose is to extend my writer's mind into areas I'm not seeing in that moment.

I certainly don't agree with all of it, but I do consider why each point is brought up, and strive to learn from the process.

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Talk to me day. #TTMD
@orionkidder@writing.exchange

There's a common perception that English professors tend to shun fiction that falls under any category that might be called "genre." Do you often encounter this bias amongst peers and colleagues when they learn what you're creating (as well as the material you're covering in class)?

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Victuals?

He emerged from a crowd of lickspittles
To promote his own fiction submittals
I read over his work
Then he thought me a jerk
When I ground that sad book into victuals

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SC POV: What did you get into trouble for the most when you were young?

Maeve:
"Oh man, where do I start? That field trip to the zoo? That elephant sign would have looked bad-ass if they'd let me finish giving him all eight trunks. Fire department gave up after I painted a face on the hydrant for about the ninth time. And it took way longer than I thought for city hall to shut down my projector.

"It was always art that got me into trouble. And it was always worth it."

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What does imposter syndrome mean to you and do you think you have it?

-sensing what I've written is barely competent, relishing each snippet of positive feedback from strangers

-wondering how the "real" clerics do it, forgetting that feeling as soon as I open my mouth

-seeing the dovetail joint that isn't quite perfect, realizing no one else has ever noticed

-questioning the meal that took hours to prepare, watching everyone come back for seconds

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How many creative projects do you have going right now?

Off the top of my head...

-Marked (WIP/novel)
-Sinister Minutes (biweekly podcast: writing and narrating remarks, promos, ad parodies, etc)
-flash fiction (1 per week)
-Pagan/Unitarian sermon (1/month)
-dinner (almost daily)
-woodshop redesign (ongoing)
-garden planning (ongoing)

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Are you satisfied with how your creativity went this month?

Not really. I struggled to keep up with the progress I'd been making on the WIP, and overall a lot of my creative work felt rushed. Between unexpected requests for assistance on others' projects and a need to catch up on some organizational projects of my own, I've not been allocating enough time to creativity and feeling a bit cranky as a result.

So I think I'll toot this and get on with it 🙂

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Do you ever sacrifice blunt clarity for prose that flows well?

Sometimes a lovely turn of phrase leaps into my head and demands placement on the page, but honestly, I don't set out to craft lovely phrases. What I set out to do is to tell a story and if, in revision, that lovely turn of phrase no longer fits the story? It gets set aside for some other time, some other tale.

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Do your stories have happy endings?

"Happy" is a relative concept. What makes my cat happy may make the mouse she caught rather unhappy. Much the same is true for my characters.

The important thing at the end of any story is that *I* am happy. If I'm not, it's rewrite time.

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Tell us about something positive you experienced because of writing.

Catharsis. I can choose to internalize like a good Scorpio when somebody pisses me off, or write them into a poem or tale and skewer them with words. The latter leaves me feeling a lot better.

Camaraderie. For what's supposed to be a "lonely" pursuit, writing has meant meeting so many wonderful people: writers and writer-adjacents, both in-person and virtually.

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What's the most you've worked on a WIP before deciding to scrap it? What happened?

Scrap? No. There have been too many tales that I pulled out of the "Unfinished" directory, looked at with fresh eyes, and turned into something, years or even decades after setting them aside.

The longest piece in that category today is one begun a few summers back when I thought I'd try my hand at romance. I got about 15K words in, then something much darker apparently caught my attention.

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Do you consider yourself a frood who knows where their towel is?

I usually know where my towel is, but I'm also quite certain I'll be caught without it when I need it most. OTOH, I will certainly not be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

I'm just this guy, ya know?

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MC POV: What area of your life do you tend to enjoy in excess instead of moderation?

It's the food. Even more than the music. Don't get me wrong, I'm not ready to give up either of them. You tell me I either have to lose my hearing or my taste buds, I'm gonna be pissed, but I guess I'll at least be able to feel that satisfied purring noise I make whenever I take the first bite of Bò Tái.

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Create a micro-story in six words.

The cost of words? Your soul.

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Who is your ideal reader?

A member of my critique group told me that he would be unable to offer any feedback on my current WIP because of the subject matter. Apparently having a protagonist who makes a deal with a demon is a fictional line he won't cross. So while I don't know who my ideal reader is, I do know who he is not.

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Our featured creator writes both novels and short stories. How do you feel about short fiction? Do you read short stories as often as novels?

I love short fiction, writing and reading.

I read at least as many anthologies as I do novels; most of my favorite podcasts (including my own) are fiction anthologies. Novels provide space for deep world and character building, while short stories can quickly spark the imagination, like tales told round the fire.

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What is your SC’s skill level when it comes to cooking and baking?

None of the SCs reveal any proficiency in the kitchen, but that's because they're afraid the MC would watch over their shoulders and tell them they were doing it wrong.

He wouldn't do that. Like many people with culinary skills, he's delighted to have somebody else cook for him, whether it's a perfect Beef Wellington or a basic PBJ.

Losing interest in food signals something quite wrong with him...

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How do you use social media as an author?

I use it mostly to connect with other writers, to build some sense of community. And even that is challenging, because outside of Mastodon or private Discord servers, social media quickly opens a pit more harrowing than anything Poe ever envisioned.

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What have you given up to write?

I had to give up:

- a chunk of my imposter syndrome. Not all of it, mind you. I'm not THAT good.

- watching sports. I mean, that alone must have been eating up a solid 10 minutes out of each year. No more!

- internalizing all my thoughts. Damn it, I'm a Scorpio—I'm *supposed* to bury everything deep.

- social isolation. I was well on the way to becoming a full curmudgeon; now I'm regularly interacting with other writers.

#WritersCoffeeClub 6
Is there a local writing community near you? Do you participate in it?

Yes and yes. Although things have changed with time and pestilence.

Members of my local critique group have not been in the same physical space since early 2020. We decided we all preferred zooming to driving somewhere.

That also makes my int'l group feel a lot more local :)

My 2020 NaNo group meets online weekly, and in person for a weekend retreat a few times a year.

@Emmacox@writing.exchange @Ashmire@pagan.plus I only learned the alternative meaning of "pants" a few months ago, and that was due to the British Bake-Off and someone's cake coming out looking like a "bag of pants."

@Emmacox@writing.exchange I'm guessing the American diner staple of "biscuits and sausage gravy" may have sounded a bit odd.🙂

I learned about biscuits as a kid...not from the English side of the family, but my German dad, who quite enjoyed saying, "McVitie's Biscuits" because he liked the way it sounded.

Unrelated to baking or colloquialisms in the English language, I also grew up hearing the name "Draža Mihailović," again because I think it tickled Dad's vocal cords.

@Emmacox@writing.exchange It seems my English heritage did not pass along "flapjacks," but now I must make some.

Language comparison with my critique partner in Birmingham is something we both quite look forward to.

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How do you manage stress related to writing?

Any writing-related stress I experience is self-imposed, along the lines of "I have to get this chapter done in time for my critique group to review it." If I miss that deadline, I can berate myself a little, but that's pretty much the only repercussion.

Whereas people that stress me IRL? I can pull them onto the page and beat them senseless, thus *reducing* my stress levels.

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Ripple?

I can't even consider this word without diving into the Well of Wyrd. Every action we take causes a ripple in that well, and since all of us are connected there, we are constantly affected by our own ripples and everyone else's. Some are bigger and more wide-reaching, some are tiny and are noticeable only to those closest, but they all have an effect.

So the words you write, the picture you paint, the clay you sculpt...they all affect a lot more than just you.

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#ttmd
@NaraMoore

I'm curious about your profile mention of horror-adjacent fantasy. Horror and fantasy are certainly familiar partners, so I'm curious about what, in your worldview, separates "horror" from "horror-adjacent."

Also, I hope you're not feeling besieged by requests to define the genres you create in. Birthdays should never be spent being besieged (unless that is what you desire). I hope your day is a delightful one by your own definition of "delightful."

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How much time do you expect to have for creative work this month?

I suspect creativity will flow out of necessity in the month ahead. For one, I seem to have acquired a non-trivial amount of tools, lumber, and miscellaneous hardware that will require creativity in terms of both storage and community distribution.

I will also make daily time for writing, as I suspect words will simply explode from my head if I don't provide them an outlet.

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How well did this short month go for you, in terms of writing?

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How did your month go?

Late in Jan, a friend unexpectedly asked if I wanted ALL of her woodworking equipment. My free time since has been spent helping her fully empty a house/garage—thus my relative quiet here. She and her partner are now refugees, escaping from the US for the crime of being trans.

I have gotten a little writing done, somehow. And have LOTS of angry inspiration.

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Can your MC carry a tune?

Zane: "Punks get a bad rap, like we're all about the energy and attitude, and none of us can carry a tune in a bucket. I call bullshit on that. Granted, I don't know if the rest of my old ColdSwitch bandmates listen to classical, but I know for a fact we pulled off some really cool improv stuff in all that chaos. Think pissed-off jazz.

"Or are you talking about singing? Because nobody with ears ever let me get within ten feet of a mic."

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Today is SAM's first birthday. Let's celebrate with cake. Share a description, photo, art, short fiction, or other creative portrayal of cake. Or just mash a piece into the cake drive of your PC so we can all try a bite.

How about a Haiku?

Creativity
Frosted with year-long challenge
Sweetest confection

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How big are your settings?

They're all over the place. Some of my shorter work never escapes the main character's head. Dream Merchants sticks to the Metro DC area. Marked is mostly in NYC, but hopping around briefly to a few other locales, mostly big cities.

Then there's HelGate, which takes place in the underworld, a place filled with portals that lead to a number of diverse locations. After all, there have to be *some* advantages to being dead.

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Aside from the official birthday song and the ubiquitous Beatles song, is there a song about birthdays you like?

Without a doubt, the birthday dirge, aka Viking or Barbarian birthday. Best when accompanied by a crowd singing the chorus. Sample verses:

May the cities in your wake
Burn like candles on your cake

Now you are the age you are
Your demise cannot be far

We brought linen, white as cloud,
Now we'll sit and sew your shroud

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Is one really the loneliest number?

This presents something of a paradox. I never feel profoundly alone when I'm the only person in the room. The more people there are in the room with me, the more likely I am to feel alone.

In writing mode...hell, in just about any creative mode...I prefer my own company. I'll share when I'm done with whatever I'm working on.

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What is something that would be incredibly embarrassing for your SC if it were to be revealed?

Gillian is never seen wearing anything but jeans and black t-shirts emblazoned with the logos of metal bands, from classics like Black Sabbath to debuts like Ancient Death.

But at home, tucked into a hidden container under the bed, is a bright pink, rainbow care bear she's slept with since she was five.