Kindness Stones– Q and A

1) How long did it take to write these stories? Did they all sort of spill out of you in a short period of time or have they been marinating for a while in your imagination? Short answer—most stories were written in a single day—but of course there’s more to it than that. I started with the characters. I created four main characters with satellites of “minor characters” (some of whom became pretty major) in the orbit around each. I made up back stories for those characters and gave them personalities—lots of stuff that never explicitly makes it into the book. Almost every day I walk for a few miles along some desert trails and I would use that time to think about these characters, imagining what each of them would do if they found themselves in this or that situation. Then my dear wife Melissa would give me a “story prompt”—write me a story about “somebody celebrating an anniversary” or about “somebody suddenly getting a lot of money” etc. so, then, on my desert walks I would think about each character with regard to that circumstance and see what developed in my mind. I would eventually settle on one of the characters for that “prompt” and then try to work out the story – basic pl...