Why write?

For me writing is a form of relaxation.  I think it is to me what Yoga is to others.    Sometime though, our words can touch others.  So while Yoga is a largely internalized experience, writing can be very social.  It can also be very intimate, as we share our thoughts and “souls” and put them on public display.  All of this combines to make writing just plain fun, and kind of scary at times.

What do you think stands out in your writing?

I hope it’s the characters.  It’s essential that characters evolve and become something different from the reader’s first impression.  A dear friend and playwright called it “taking a second look.”  I think the important characters need to show you more than the first look suggests.  And this can be in either direction.  Characters can evolve and devolve, and that’s what make them interesting – compelling - if we’re lucky.

Do you have a particular inspiration?

Definitely, Rod Serling’s original Twilight Zone.  I realized after my first several stories that nearly all of them were Twilight Zone episodes.  Even Inside Out, my poem/children’s book is clearly a Twilight Zone Episode.  Come to think of it, so is my new little story, “The Alien and the Euphemism.”  Damn, I just can’t stop!

Why poetry?

Poetry feels like a day off from writing while still writing.  I can get totally lost in myself in a poem.  Compare the very dark, “It Was Always Something,” to the practically whimsical [and I hope kind of funny], “Bubble Idiot.”

So you’re trying a screenplay now.  How’s that going?

It’s enormously hard and enormously fun.  I realized almost right after I wrote Intersections, that I had written a movie.  I’m in the process of converting it to a screenplay.  There is this HORRIBLE cliché about writing that is thrown out like a mantra, “show it don’t say it.”  This is meaningless advice and absolute crap!  Telling a story is the art of the story teller, and our words are our brushstrokes. 

Still, there is some truth to this.

When writing a story, we narrate.  Even if just through the eyes of one character, we get to “tell” the story.  Although some movies utilize a narrator, and some wonderful ones come to mind, they tend to fade into the background compared to story-teller and a book.  Making the characters, expressions, reactions, dialogues and locations tell the story, requires a whole new set of skills and tools.

What’s going on now?

Getting the Intersections screenplay finished is job one.  I’ll dabble with a poem or short story in the meantime.  Then, I’m not sure.  My novel, “Slices of Rain” is calling out to me, I think.  And I’ll throw out the occasional blog.

What is Intersections about?

It’s hard to summarize, but in a nutshell, it’s about some 12 year-old buddies in Queens, in 1973 who discover a gateway to another reality in the basement of the local garden apartments.   Seriously, where else would it be! 

Our friends get drawn into the Intersection and learn that it can unlock some past secrets that will change the present, and the future too.

Want to learn more?

View Rick’s News 12 interview here.