Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz is a fiction writer and poet. Her most recent work can be found at Amazon Shorts, SKiVE, Yellow Mama, Long Story Short, Static Movement, Ghoti, Poor Mojo’s Almanac, Lunarosity, and in the anthology In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself, among numerous other places. Her chapbook, Mother Love, is forthcoming from Unlikely Stories Press 2.0. Visit Gwendolyn’s blog.

Let me first say that the more I find out about you, the more fascinated I am. You are a seriously talented woman, in so many ways! As far as your writing goes, you have an incredibly wide range. From literary to poetry, to children’s and erotica, you do it all. Is there anything you’re not comfortable writing?

In regards to topic—the hardest story I’ve written ends with the rape of a young boy– I would say no. Many of my stories are drawn from the world I live in, my private and the public (like the above mentioned was), so when an idea presents itself, I’m challenged to see if I can make it about something more than an incident in my life or someone else’s.

You can’t flinch as an artist, but at the same time you have to have some guidelines. As a writer, I try to provide details to create an image in the reader’s mind to evoke emotion. I don’t think graphic writing is necessary, which is why I would never write anything of the blood-and-gore type.

So in regards to genre, horror of the gory type, though I’ve done it once, I would not write again. Otherwise, I want to write in as many genres as I can.

I grew up with television shows like “Bonanza,” “Big Valley” and “High Chaparral,” so I have a western in the works, although I want to right history and my story includes black cowboys and Buffalo Soldiers, who played a part in taming the wild west.

I’m a hopeful romantic so I’ve got a few romance tales going. I have a work I stubbornly believe is meant to be a science fiction piece where I say something political about gender, child-bearing and societal expectations, but I’m still trying to work out issues of credibility there. I personally am really into the Hero motif, so I’d like to write a fantasy about such a journey. And a mystery . . . did I mention how I loved Columbo’s detective skills? I want to go everywhere I can through my writing.

In a prior life, you were a news writer, then a college writing instructor. Now, you write creatively full-time. What is it like to be able to devote your entire life to your passion? Are you able to sustain yourself and your household this way?

This is an ironically funny question because next month the plan is to rejoin the workforce and write on a part-time basis.

For the past year, Life had something it wanted to show me, so I’ve been solo, traveling, fortunate to have people in my life who’ll let me camp out in their homes while I write and research some topics. Following my dream has been much easier without a rent payment hanging over my head, although my previous landlord was way generous towards me. He has a daughter who is a visual artist and once he jokingly told me, “She can’t pay her rent either.” I’m working now only to send money to my kids and keep their cell phones on. My needs are few; if I had to do it with a napkin and a crayon, I would.

But I have four teenagers; two in high school and two getting ready to go to college in the Spring, so I’ve got to reorder my priorities.

But before, it was a struggle at times, juggling bills and such. I borrowed from friends and modeled for my artist friends. Sometimes I made money from the sale of stories. The Phone Book paid wonderfully because of the exchange rate from pounds to U.S. dollars.

A flash work took first place in two different contests and there was $140 for less than 500 words.

Did you see the Oprah interview with Cormac McCarthy, hear the incident he shared about the toothpaste arriving when he needed and had none? That’s the way it was for me at times.

I needed cash and then in the mail, that very day, was money from the Nielsen people in return for my filling out a survey that basically said ‘I don’t watch TV.’ The loan officer at my bank ate lunch at the restaurant where I was waitressing part-time and told me that there’d been a policy change and yes, I was now eligible for that revolving line-of-credit.

Others helped me along because they could. The first year of pursing-writing-as-a-career, I decided to go to a conference and choose the one at Sarah Lawrence College. I didn’t have the money to go but was awarded a scholarship. Getting to New York was then my challenge and I was considering not going because I just didn’t have the finances to. A customer at the business where I worked at the time insisted that I had to attend and she bought me a plane ticket.

I’d gone to Baltimore to read and conduct a workshop. I shared why I was in town with the cab driver when he asked. He then asked if I was being paid. I told him I was the one paying—my dues. At the motel, I’d gotten out of the taxi, paid the fare and was registering at the front desk when the cab driver came in and returned part of my money. He told me he was an aspiring artist and said if he could help me on my way to my dream, he wanted to.

When I decided to write full-time, I thought I had things covered financially. I’d quit my full-time job, had a part-time one in line but it quickly fell through. My car engine blew and I’d just had it rebuilt the previous year. I took what money I had and bought another car which turned out to be a lemon. But with this bearing on me, I couldn’t choose not to write. Whatever I had to go through, I decided I would. As long as I got to wake up every morning and write, I was happy.

It had been hard and trying at times, but spiritually I learned what it meant to have faith and gratitude. I learned to make my way or be expectant of and thankful for the one that would be provided.

I’ve been published 217 times (including reprints); I’ve been able to travel and read my work nationwide; books with my work are housed in the special collections division at my alma mater–these are just a few of the rewards.

And to your first question: There is nothing more healing and more exciting than the freedom to follow your heart’s true desire. And being able to stay in your pajamas all day while you sit in front is the computer eating cereal while you work is the best!

Don’t you also have a business that designs handmade teddy bears?

I do. Teddy Hugs & Things. I started it because I really hate the idea of working for someone else. I used to sell my bears at the Farmer’s Market and the city fire department used to buy bears that they’d give to children in emergency situations. My bears and I were guests on a television show on the local PBS affiliate and they, more than I, became local celebrities.

When my children were in elementary school, I taught bear-making through the enrichment programs. I loved encouraging children to “just sew along the lines” and watch the thrill on their faces when they found themselves creating a friend.

I taught myself the art of bear-making, though there are advanced skills I’ll have to learn from others. This is another reason I’m taking a break from writing. I can make the money I need to support my “writing habit” but I’ve got to create the merchandise and a website. The goal is also to piggyback bear shows on scheduled readings in 2008.

Besides writing, you used to edit for Small Spiral Notebook and Scrivener’s Pen Literary Journal. You’ve judged a short story contest and conducted workshops about the craft of writing. What have these experiences taught you?

The importance of honoring another’s story. Sometimes people weren’t where they needed to be so it was a balancing act: supporting the talent while encouraging a writer to go deeper. Art isn’t about ego. If you’re sharing, I expect to find myself, my journey, within your own.

Your chapbook Mother Love is forthcoming from Unlikely Stories 2.0 Press. Tell us about the stories we can look forward to and how we can order your chapbook.

Well, the tease at Unlikely’s site says it “offers an inebriating and nostalgic mix of dysfunction, psychosis and abuse” and that’s pretty much what the stories are about. I wasn’t raised in the most loving of homes; this is my personal exploration of women for whom loving their children is instinctual and of women for whom it is not. I want to mention, too, that the cover image by Daphne Buter illustrates this idea very well.

Mother Love will be available as a limited-edition chapbook, signed by me or not. It can also be downloaded as a pdf from the press website.

You’re also “cleaning up” a short story collection for Main Street Rag Press. What types of stories are included in this collection? Do you have a confirmed publication date?

It’s a collection of connected stories about life in a fictional segregated Texas town. It is based loosely on some of my grandmother’s memories.

But I don’t know if it’ll come from Main Street Rag Press. They never accepted it officially. I had called the publisher and asked if he’d consider a book from me because he knew my work from a previous publication and from a contest. He told me to send it but I haven’t yet.

One reason is that the work deals with the South and not until I visited that region, did I have a full understanding of it. I’ve been told I’m good with dialect, but there are common expressions that Black people in the South use and I was ignorant of that. I’m in a better position now to create a more authentic work with this new knowledge.

And I think I might just cold call Main Street Rag again.

“Uhm, can I still send this?”

I hope so.

Any other chapbooks published or in the works?

“Going To Hell With My Eyes Wide Open,” which is fiction about the Harlem Renaissance; “Where I’ll Be If I’m Not There” and “The Way Black Folks Be,” fiction about general black life. I’ve got the artwork selected for both (created by Sara Holt and Butch Berry, respectively) and I was hoping to self-publish them this summer but the press I wanted to use never got back to me and I haven’t looked into other options.

About this time last year, you decided to complete and publish 100 new stories. How did you fare?

By August I had 106 drafts (though about 10 stories were written previously; the goal there was to finally complete them). I’m tinkering with 107 because I want to enter it into a contest.

Of the 106, I’ve been able to rewrite 25; 13 have been published, one has been accepted and 11 are out in submission.

Tell us about you as a comedienne. You’ve opened for Colin Quinn, formerly of Saturday Night Live. What else have you done?

I’ve also done some acting in the community theater in my hometown, all of which came about because the directors knew me from my comedy. I was Woman # 12 in “The Vagina Monologues.” That experience offered me a chance to dialogue with the audience; I’m shy, a hermit to the nth degree but being before people pulls me out of that. I love moving outside of myself in that way.

I’ve also opened for Gabe Kaplan, who was the teacher on “Welcome Back, Kotter” which dates me, of course. I had a wonderful time traveling through my home state and Texas performing.

More interesting than what I did with the comedy is what didn’t happen:

I almost got on “The Tonight Show.” I almost got to perform at a “Comic Strip” club. I almost got to open a mega-concert with Keith Sweat, Al B. Sure, BellBivDevoe, Johnny Gill, et al.

Almost, almost. Sometimes Life gives me extraordinary opportunities. I just need to learn how to grow into them.

When you blog, you post almost daily quotes. What are a few of your favorites?

Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.
– unknown

If you want to be happy, be.
–Leo Tolstoy

There are significant moments in everyone’s day that can make
literature. That’s what you ought to write about.
–Raymond Carver

Dear Editor,
Why do you keep sending my stories back? You’re supposed to print them
and make me rich and famous. What is it with you?
– Snoopy

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in
writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has
no use for it.
–Anais Nin

Where were you born? Where do you live now? Where do you consider home?

I was born on an army base in New Mexico and raised in a town outside of it. I’ve lived in Texas, Colorado, and Arizona. For the last three months, I’ve been sweating it out in Tennessee, though I’m down to my last four days here.

I’ve dreamed of living in St. Louis, New York, Portland on either coast, and Vermont. I’ve thought of hopping a plane and becoming another Black artist taking up residence in Paris. Some days I’m longing to be in Africa ’cause something tells me that’s where I
belong.

I’m not sure where geographically I will end up.

I said I would never live in Arizona or in the South and Life took me to those very places this last year. I love cold and snow and rain. I was sure the Arizona heat would deter my creative spirit but there I wrote 90+ stories. And in Tennessee, I’ve been able to get meaningful research done on the Civil Rights Movement and southern black life. I met a man who stole my heart just ’cause he could. And I didn’t want to come to the south! But I’m headed back to New Mexico because that’s where my children want to grow up. I don’t want to live there, still Antonya Nelson lives in my hometown and it hasn’t hurt her career!

Home, I’ve decided, is quite simply any place I choose to open my heart.