Interview with Author Bill Bartlett
K. McCabe: Today I have a surprise guest. This is someone I’ve known for many years, someone I have a lot of respect for, and I can’t wait to introduce him to you all. This is author Bill Bartlett. Why don’t you go ahead and talk a little bit about yourself?
B. Bartlett: Thank you, Kay. It’s nice of you to have me. It’s been at least 10 years, probably closer to 12, that we’ve been conversing back and forth, although this is the first time we’ve met face-to-face, so to speak. During that time, I’ve been writing the “Work from Dad” feature in Casey Parent Magazine. It’s a monthly publication, and I’ve been doing that for over 16 years now. I have five short stories published in four different anthologies, and I also have a self-published novel. The novel has a rather distinctive name, and I’ll say upfront that no one should be intimidated by the title. The title is Nude Light Housekeeping. It’s a story about the human longing for emotional intimacy as opposed to physical, and the lengths that people will go to achieve it.
K. McCabe: I just want to say I remember assisting in the editing of that book. I remember working through the list. Can you talk a little bit about that list and what the writing process was like for you?
B. Bartlett: Of course. The list Kay is referring to is the Internet Writing Workshop, and there are a number of lists within that workshop: fiction, nonfiction, romance, poetry, and practice writing. What happens is that someone submits a piece, and other people offer constructive criticism. I like to think of it as a free graduate-level writing course. You won’t be taught individual things like what type of expository paragraph to write, but you will be encouraged to write lively prose that engages readers and hopefully leads to a published work that’s lucrative—that’s everybody’s goal, right?
The process for writing and submitting on the list is to compose your draft, go over it many times so others won’t think you’re an idiot, and then run it through a markup cleanser—mostly one put out by Jonathan Headley. Then you go through it one more time to ensure there’s a blank line between each paragraph because the markup cleaner removes indentations. After that, you submit it. People will critique it, often abbreviated as a “crit.” You can take the crit to heart, decide it’s not for you, or keep it if it helps. All critique comments come from imagination and judgment, and the writer is free to use them or toss them aside—whatever helps them more.
K. McCabe: So the Internet Writing Workshop—what organization is actually in charge of it?
B. Bartlett: I believe it’s Penn State University. In fact, my fair and gracious wife bought me a Penn State ball cap, which I loved and wore everywhere until our puppies got a hold of it and chewed it up.
K. McCabe: How many lists are actually in the Internet Writing Workshop? What genres do they cover?
B. Bartlett: Just about every genre. If someone writes fantasy or science fiction, that’s included in the fiction list. Romance can also be included there. My story Nude Light Housekeeping was submitted initially through the fiction list and later through the romance list. With each submission, I learned more, and I hope I progressed more. Now that it’s finally published, I hope readers will enjoy it.
K. McCabe: I remember being part of the short story critique list, the writing prompts critique, and I think there was a fantasy creative writing list. Do you remember the specific names?
B. Bartlett: I can’t recall all the names, but I believe the URL is internetwriting.org.
K. McCabe: I’ll have to Google it and attach the exact link to the post after the live because I’m going to share out the video. One thing I remember dearly is making so many friendships through the list—you, specifically, among others. The writing community there at that time was incredible. I feel like I was young then, but I learned so much through the workshop. It improved my writing immensely, and I also learned how to look at writing critically and objectively and provide constructive criticism to others based on what I learned. That was invaluable.
B. Bartlett: Exactly. I feel like I got a graduate-level course in writing just by making submissions and, as you said, evaluating other people’s writing, offering constructive tips and suggestions.
K. McCabe: And it was totally free.
B. Bartlett: Totally free. The only cost is time.
K. McCabe: So, can you tell us a little bit about the other writing projects that you have worked on?
B. Bartlett: Of course. There is another writing group called the Moorhead Friends Writing Group, and they are based out of Moorhead, Minnesota, right next to Fargo. One of the goals for the original creator, Chris Stenson, who is another IWW alum, was to give people a chance to get published so they can add to their writing resume. He started with a series of short stories. The first book was entitled Tales from the Frozen North, and every story had to have snow in it—not necessarily be about snow, but include snow. I submitted a piece of flash fiction that they accepted. The flash fiction is entitled “The Island” and it’s an update to an ancient Greek myth. I also submitted a longer short story entitled “A Paragon of Virtue.” This one is about the discovery of at least a hundred thousand dollars, perhaps more, and the knowledge from one of the adults that it’s not free money—it had to come from somewhere. He suspects it’s drug money but doesn’t know for sure. In my story, there is a corruption scandal ongoing in the police department. He’s left with the conundrum: how do they get that money back to the person who wants it without endangering himself or his family?
K. McCabe: “A Paragon of Virtue.”
B. Bartlett: Yes. Then they came out with another anthology, and I submitted something to that. This one is the first mystery I’ve written. It’s entitled “Two Arrowheads” and it starts out, “A gust of wind blew the hat off my head the day I dug up the skeleton.”
K. McCabe: Oh, that’s intriguing. Is it published?
B. Bartlett: Oh yes, ma’am. It is published in another Moorhead Friends anthology entitled Welcome to Effham Falls. Effham is spelled E-F-F-H-A-M. It’s a mythical town in northern Minnesota.
K. McCabe: And that’s published on Amazon as well?
B. Bartlett: It is. In fact, they’re even published through Ingram Sparks, so they can be obtained either through Amazon or bookstores like Barnes and Noble. Now they had another one, Tales from the Water’s Edge, and I didn’t contribute to that one. But the next one they published was entitled Return to Effham Falls. I submitted a piece of flash fiction about an old man talking about his experiences in the Civil War with his grandson. If you read them, I hope you enjoy them.
K. McCabe: I’m sure I’ll love them!
B. Bartlett: I’ve also written two other short stories published by another person, Lucy Lobos, a Philippine immigrant to Canada. She was opening a Christian school and asked me to contribute a short story of less than 2,000 words that had caffeine in it. I wrote a story entitled “Coffee for Two.” It’s about a man meeting his wife for their anniversary cup of coffee, except there’s a twist. I won’t spoil it. The name of the anthology is Caffeinated Short Stories.
K. McCabe: And that’s in Return to Effham?
B. Bartlett: No, ma’am. That’s a different book. She also put out another anthology fairly recently and asked me to write something. I wrote a longer piece, almost 8,000 words. This one is about love among the silver-haired set. In case you can’t tell by looking at me, I’m no longer a young man.
K. McCabe: You’re very young at heart.
B. Bartlett: That’s very kind of you to say. This story is entitled “A Garden Variety Thunderstorm” and it’s in a book entitled When the Rains Beckon. That one’s also put out by Lucy Lobos. She wants me to write another story, and this one has to have snow in it. Since the rights have reverted back to me after two years from the Frozen North anthology, I could resubmit one of my previously published short stories. But I’m working on another one where my wife and I had a snowball fight. She was hiding behind a big electrical junction box in our front yard. I couldn’t even see her. I started lobbing snowballs over the box, and after the third or fourth, she stuck her head up, and there was snow packed behind one of her glasses lenses.
K. McCabe: Oh no!
B. Bartlett: I had hit her in the side of the head without even seeing her. I knew it was over. What are the odds? How often can you hit someone you can’t even see?
K. McCabe: I can’t hit people I can see.
B. Bartlett: I normally can’t either. I knew it was over. I had to take it like a man. So I stood there while she shoveled snow down my back. The takeaway is: it must be love.
K. McCabe: That’s awesome. Do you happen to have any covers of your works that we could see?
B. Bartlett: Odd you should ask. We’ll start with this one, Nude Light Housekeeping. It’s technically romance but a little off the beaten path. Many romance writers say it doesn’t qualify as romance because it doesn’t fit the typical model. We’ll see about that. I hope it works well. Here we have Caffeinated Short Stories. My story in this one is only 1,600 words, so it’s a quick read. This is Return to Effham Falls. My story is the first one in the book. Since it’s only 800 words, it’s short enough to fit into the Kindle preview. You can read the whole story there, though I shouldn’t say this without purchasing the book.
K. McCabe: So we have the cheat code.
B. Bartlett: Yep. Last but not least, we have “When the Rains Beckon.” My story in this one is also the first one, but it’s almost 8,000 words, so it’s not short enough to fit in the preview. It has unusual things in it—for example, an older lady proposes marriage to an older gentleman. She has to talk pretty fast to get him to accept, and then something happens to make him realize he does love her. This story is more of the traditional romance model. The other one I have is Welcome to Effham Falls, but I don’t have a cover here to show you.
K. McCabe: I want to thank you so much for coming today and showcasing all of your work and the beautiful covers, and also for talking about the Internet Writing Workshop. For any writers out there looking for editors or a writing community, the Internet Writing Workshop is an extremely valuable educational source. As author Bill Bartlett mentioned, it’s run through Penn State University. It’s a university-run educational critique writing source for authors who want their work critiqued and edited.
B. Bartlett: You can’t beat the price. The IWW list is going through a slow period at the moment, but not for long. The Moorhead Friends Writing Group is also open to membership. It’s easy to join. They do critiques and offer opportunities to publish, which the IWW never did.
B. Bartlett: Exactly. The Moorhead Friends Writing Group will also market your published books at their local venues in the Moorhead-Fargo area. It’s a great opportunity to get your name out there.
K. McCabe: Please forward that link to me. Once again, the name is Moorhead Friends Writing Group, correct?
B. Bartlett: Correct. It’s going strong. Do you remember Robin Kane?
K. McCabe: I do.
B. Bartlett: She’s in it too. Another IWW alumna, along with Chris Stenson and your humble correspondent. There might be another person or two from the IWW as well. …Go ahead and poke them. Tell them there are people ready and willing to contribute. The thing about the IWW is that it’s quid pro quo: if you submit something, you’re expected to critique something from someone who critiqued your work.
K. McCabe: Right. It’s very reciprocal because it’s a free writing workshop, so people have to collaborate. And with the IWW, you can read everyone’s critique of a piece, which broadens your horizons as well as helping the writer.
B. Bartlett: I learned so much from that workshop. One thing I learned is adverbs are evil. Avoid them.
K. McCabe: Every time I used them, I was yelled at. I became afraid of adverbs.
B. Bartlett: Another bugaboo of mine is I detest the word “pause” because it implies someone froze in place. People don’t just freeze; they do something. They might scratch their wrist, tap a toe, pull their beard, or run a finger through their hair. Even doing nothing is still doing something and worth telling the reader.
K. McCabe: You just gave me a mini refresher. I remember that.
B. Bartlett: You’ve probably seen more than one of my rants.
K. McCabe: Those rants are so educational.
B. Bartlett: I’m glad I was able to help.
K. McCabe: Thank you so much again for coming on and sharing your work and talking about the writing workshops. They are invaluable resources. I cannot emphasize enough that writers should check them out. They’re free and educational. The Internet Writing Workshop is run through Penn State University, and the Moorhead Friends Writing Group offers publishing and advertising opportunities. Please check them out after I post the links.
B. Bartlett: It’s been my pleasure. In fact, Kay, I have to admit that even after all these years, you’re still pretty easy on my glasses.
K. McCabe: Thank you very much.
B. Bartlett: My pleasure, and I wish you nothing but the best.
https://www.internetwritingworkshop.org/
