#WriterWednesday Interview with Bill Hemmig
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I’d like to welcome author Bill Hemmig to the blog for #WriterWedneday.
A few of your favorite things: oysters on the half shell, red wine, popcorn, cats.
Things you need to throw out: amaryllises that have given up blooming (not to be thrown out—to be given to a friend who has family in Florida, where they’ll be planted outdoors and thrive); blazers I don’t like anymore (to clothing drive); ground spices that have been around for years (compost pile).
Things you need for your writing sessions: a dedicated space; a legal pad (color of paper irrelevant); Uni-Ball pens (black fine point); a handy means to do quick internet research; music inside my head.
Things that hamper your writing: music outside my head; constant typos; multi-tasking.
Things you love about writing: first drafts; research; public readings; that aha moment when I realize where I’m going next.
Things you hate about writing: persnickety revisions; self-promotion; researching places to submit to.
Favorite foods: salt and pepper grilled chicken wings; roasted okra; fried calamari; wienerschnitzel; BLTs.
Things that make you want to gag: out of season tomatoes.
Favorite music or song: Renaissance polyphony; Bach, Beethoven and Brahms; Mahler; Joni Mitchell.
Music that drives you crazy: much but not all Country; most Philip Glass.
Something you wish you could do: sew (my parents both operated sewing machines for a living, and probably for that reason I never learned how).
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: make candles (I almost burned the house down when I was about twelve years old).
Last best thing you ate: a spectacular lobster mac and cheese.
Last thing you regret eating: that expired mayonnaise in the fridge.
Things you’d walk a mile for: a great meal (and I have, literally).
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room: physical therapy, the most boring activity on earth.
Things you always put in your books: cars; children; golden sections.
Things you never put in your books: motorcycles; infants; fictitious song lyrics.
Favorite places you’ve been: Venice (Italy, not CA); Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst; Granada; Rincon, Puerto Rico.
Places you never want to go to again: Dallas (sorry, Dallas); Anaheim, CA; the Key West Airport.
Favorite books (or genre): Orlando, Mrs. Dalloway (both Virginia Woolf); The Magic Mountain (Thomas Mann); The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Thornton Wilder); Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Julia Child, et al.).
Books you wouldn’t buy: A thousand apologies, but the Harry Potter books have no appeal for me.
Best thing you’ve ever done: Made myself chief caregiver for my ex when he way dying.
Biggest mistake: See my response to “Something you wish you’d never learned to do.”
About Bill:
Bill Hemmig is the author of Americana: Stories and Brethren Hollow, both published by Read Furiously. His short stories appear in Read Furiously’s Life in the Garden State anthologies, The World Takes and Stay Salty. He has had stories published in the journals The Madison Review, Philadelphia Stories, Pink Disco, BarBar, and Children, Churches and Daddies (cc&d), and he is a three-time finalist in the New Millennium Writing Awards. He is a native of Reading, PA and now lives in Bucks County.
Let’s Be Social:
Website: https://www.bucksarts.org/bill-hemmig/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.hemmig/
Twitter: @Bill Hemmig
Instagram: @Bill Hemmig
