How did “Mindfulness and the Machine” originate? What inspirations did you draw on?

I told myself that I wouldn’t be one of those writers who would move to NYC and then write a short story about moving to NYC. I’ve read too many of those over the years and they start to be repetitive. But then, I discovered I wanted to use all the newness I was experiencing in a story somehow: the constant motion of living in a city with eight million people, the feeling of jumping into a deep, strong current after spending the pandemic’s lockdown in the stillness of the suburbs. I didn’t want to write a NYC story, so I wrote this instead.

Did you get stuck at any point while writing this? How did you get past that?

I was constantly stuck throughout writing this story. I wasn’t in the headspace to be creative in the summer I wrote and revised this. I talked about that struggle and what caused it in this essay I wrote for Uncanny. There wasn’t a moment where the story became unstuck either. I got through it by sitting down night after night for weeks and tweaking a few sentences and maybe adding a few more. The only reason why I didn’t put the story away and try again in a few months was because I kept thinking about it and knew I had to get it out of my head.

What led you into writing genre fiction?

In the past, I would have given this complex answer about imagination and the freedom to create things that don’t and can’t exist in the here and now. But honestly, I’m just a wonder junkie. I love the feeling of wonder I get from good SFF and love having the ability to create that magic for others.

What are you reading lately? What writers inspire you?

I’ve been reading lots of short stories published this year (I’m trying to catch up), as well as new novels and novellas in SFFH. I’m more scattershot with audiobooks though. Right now, I’m listening to a cozy mystery and just finished a historical fiction novel and before that, it was an autobiography.

Inspiration is a shy thing, I think. I find by casting a wide net in what I consume and by paying attention to the world around me, inspiration will find me just fine.