Transcript interview with Justin Deming
On the Hudson river, microfiction and writing challenges...
00:03 - Natalie (Host)
Hello everybody. It's Natalie here and I'm here today on the podcast with Justin Deming, who writes along the Hudson. Justin is a lifelong writing addict, an incurable poet, and he's also published a book called 5050s, a Justin Deming Literary Project, and obviously I will be adding those links to this podcast at the end and you can see it in the post, justin welcome. Thank you so much for your time today.
00:30 - Justin (Host)
Thank you so much for having me.
00:33 - Natalie (Host)
So we have a few questions I'm going to dive straight in. Most people, when they start writing, start with a big project and yes, I am going to write that screenplay, I'm going to do that novel, I am going to be next in a teneme away okay, but you didn't. You went for micro fiction. What prompted that?
00:50 - Justin (Host)
Well, I think it was because I tried those things first and I realized, oh, wait, a second, maybe this is a little too big of a task to begin with.
00:59
So I had a I'd written a novel quite a few years ago and at this point it's kind of like my burner project, like all right, let me just set that aside for now and maybe at some point I'll return to it or lengthier projects.
01:14
But I, yeah, I kind of fell in love with the micro fiction form a handful of years ago, I would say, and since that time I kind of caught the bug and I just really enjoy reading it and writing it.
01:27
And to begin my publishing, you know journey, I guess I wanted to start small, felt like it made the most sense, dipping my toes into the water, and I wanted to self publish it too because I wanted to include certain people in the project who I knew would help me make the book exactly as I envisioned it. So it was kind of a culmination of all of those things and that's what made it kind of a special project for me. You know was able to include others in it, do it the way I wanted to do it and unfortunately, I mean, I went the Amazon route, which I thought a lot about. But then I was like you know what my first stab at it? Let me just get it out there, see how it goes, and then maybe for a future project I'd look at other avenues. Yeah, and that's kind of where I settled.
02:20 - Natalie (Host)
Oh, I mean, that is a complex project, incorporating your work, doing Amazon for the first time to solve publishing and adding other people in A lot of moving parts. Justin, if you don't mind me asking, can you tell us a bit more about your book? I mean, is it pulled together by a unifying theme or is it everything has to be like 100 words? Exactly how does it work?
02:38 - Justin (Host)
Yeah, so the title is 5050s, so I did kind of fall in love with the writing 50 word stories quite some time ago.
02:47
I have created a couple of different communities over the years in terms of bringing writers together and writing these micro fiction tales.
02:56
There are some unifying themes in the book, but really what I wanted to do is I wanted to select 50 of my favorites that I've written over the years, compile them and put it out into the world, you know, and some of the unifying themes are, you know, like there's a lot about family and relationships, life and death, all sorts of stuff. But I wanted to create kind of a variety where maybe every reader's experience would be a little bit different. They may have a few favorites that they can pull from or relate to, and that was kind of the goal, kind of like showing up at a buffet and like, oh, maybe I want this dish or that dish but I'm going to pass on dessert for now or whatever. But that was kind of the goal and the intent behind the book. And also to kind of promote 50s by the fire, which I'm running on my sub stack twice a month or so, where, yeah, bringing writers together, creating community and just sharing for the love of writing micro fiction and 50 word stories especially.
03:58 - Natalie (Host)
No, I do like that idea of fiction almost like I don't know, a Japanese meal of small parts, small moving parts, or maybe Spanish tapas bar, I don't know. Same thing. I mean, do you have an absolute favorite we can point the readers to when they dive into the book? What is essential, Justin?
04:16 - Justin (Host)
I think the first story. So in creating it I tried to figure out sort of like a set list for a band. In speaking with another author, jimmy Doom, over at roulette wheel, he kind of talked about one of his recent publications and how he approached it, sort of like a band would, and he wanted to think about all right, what's a strong opener, what's a strong opening act, and how do I, what can I follow up with? And so I think the first story in the book is one of my favorites. It's called inhaling her and it just I think it covers a lot of ground, it takes us different places and although it's sort of a sad ending, it's maybe there's some relief or hope in it as well. I also like the final story.
05:02
That's the story that really pulled me into the direction of 50 word stories about my grandfather, grandpa L, and when I was a kid we used to go visit my grandparents and my brother and I would explore and one time in their basement we found this ukulele and it was just kind of curious to me that he they would leave an instrument boxed up in their basement but years and years later and we talked to him about it and we pulled it out and he would like he strummed it a little bit for us. But it wasn't until much later in life, after he passed away both my grandparents had passed. There was this chest in my grandparents' garage and don't know what led me to do it. It was probably five years ago at this point, four or five years ago, and I just remember kind of sifting through it and finding these old documents and I found music sheets and lyrics that he had written and it was all this whole folder of like a collection of things that he'd written. He'd reached out to music producers and his lyrics and the. You know I can't read music, but just the fact that he had sat down.
06:07
It was actually during wartime. He fought in the Korean War, so he wrote this overseas and some of it he brought home and it was just really inspiring and sort of like reaffirming for me to see that, oh my gosh, my grandfather was on a similar path. He had this creative outlet and that was really cool to me. And so that's where I originally. That was my first 50 word story I'd ever published and one of the first I ever wrote too. So it was a favorite for me from the get go. And so, to make a really long story short, I wanted to end the book with that story because I thought it served as a nice outro, like in a movie maybe the end scene, where you just have that final moment where the music kind of fades off and you have a pleasant visual left in mind. And I thought that pleasant visual could be the image of my grandfather smiling and playing as ukulele and so that's how I kind of tied it all, yeah, tied it all together.
07:11 - Natalie (Host)
And I do love that. I mean from a creative viewpoint. I know you probably weren't thinking of that, but it's almost like what's left of us isn't just love. Our creativity goes on as well. It can outlive us, and that's what happened. Your grandfather probably thrilled to know that he inspired you today.
07:23 - Justin (Host)
Absolutely yeah. And to leave something behind, even if it's, even if it's only this, it's like all right. Well, I feel there's a certain sense of accomplishment in that.
07:32 - Natalie (Host)
So totally, totally so. Speaking of which, circling about bits and feel stories and some of the substack I was reading today, you draw a massive amount of inspiration from Hudson River, which in itself is a liminal place. You know it's been the crossroads for humanity for as long as we've been around on the American continent. You know, stating back to prehistoric times, and as a result, it's got like all great rivers, it grabs its own mythology and its own stories. You know there's tons of ghost stories. There's tons of real life historical stories. There's people that spent their life on it. There's entire communities that have been shaped by the river. I just wanted can you give us your take on the Hudson? What does it mean for?
08:09 - Justin (Host)
you. I mean everything that you've mentioned to a T, that's, that's exactly a part of it. You know just the fact that to walk along those banks and just know that for hundreds and hundreds of years other people have been doing the same exact thing, it has meant so much to so many people for such a long time religiously, spiritually, socially, economically. You know civilizations popped up around the river and even today, like the fact that it connects the west side to the east side, you know you have the Kingston-Rhincliffe Bridge. It connects communities. I have many friends, colleagues like, who live on the other side of the river and it's just this constant connection between people. You have the Newburgh Beacon Bridge right and so, just from all the way, as far north as it runs up near the capital region, all the way down to New York City, yeah, I think it's. I think it's just that I wanted to pay homage to it for that reason and just personally what it's meant to me.
09:09
I I grew up in the Utica New York area, so it's more central New York, so I would call that upstate. Now I'm down two and a half, maybe, like two to three hours south of where I grew up and I never as a kid spent that much time on or near the Hudson River. So I just think it's kind of it's been a new chapter of my life since moving down here. My wife and I, after we met in college and we moved down, we took jobs and it's just really been a focal point of my life.
09:41
Ever since moving down here We've spent a lot of time on the river hiking it, and now we have kids. It's a joy that I get to share with them go for hikes and we go treasure hunting on the banks and we find like crab legs or whatever, and so it's just meant a lot to me to be able to be so close to it. I don't know. I feel that somewhere in my soul I've always been deeply connected to water, lakes, the ocean, rivers, and, yeah, I think I just feel lucky to be, to live so close to it and to be able to enjoy it. There's actually so. There's just so much. No matter where you are. There's history there and one of my favorite locations on the river it's not too far from where we used to live, our old house near Hyde Park, if you were to head almost due west.
10:36
There's this little island out in the middle of the river and it's known to some, but I think more locally than you know nationally or even in terms of globally. It's called Esipis Island and the Native Americans who live in the region they, I guess so the story says they used to hold councils on the island and then later historical significance is the sacking of Kingston and the American Revolution, the British and Atheon their way up. They actually moored on the island, they spent time there. So it's this little tiny island, but it just. There's so much history and my wife and I used to spend a fair amount of time kayaking out to it and we'd explore it and there's apparently still a megalith there that the Native Americans, you know, had crafted and we thought we found it and we're like, I don't know, it might be that, but anyway, there are just stories everywhere and I think that's the other part of it too, that the stories connect us as much as the bridges do. But yeah, oh, it's all about stories. It's all about stories.
11:44 - Natalie (Host)
It's just a river and it's just a bridge and it's just an island without stories, but it's fantastic. You've got that nucleus of history that you can literally go and touch and feel and interact with. So over here. Just to give you an example, I live in Beaud down in Cornwall in England and it's the same. We actually have a word for it, it's called hefted. It's people that are deeply integrated with the landscape, to the point where they know, if we rock every tree and it all has its personality and its shape. That goes all over the place and the longer you live in a community, the more in mesh you get. The land becomes you, you become the land, it shapes you and it's a give and take. So, yes, you can actually see this process of becoming in your stories and it's livable. It's fantastic, justin.
12:28 - Justin (Host)
You know, there's another example as we were, I had to dig at our old house. We're digging like a small swell and I just happened to dig up a couple of arrowheads. And like just having that, like holding that in your hands and knowing that someone, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, had crafted this object right for a purpose, just moments like those are what continue to, I don't know, just inspire me. I guess you know.
12:54 - Natalie (Host)
Yeah, the continuity, the connection there, yes, it's. Yeah, we're not. You know the whole no man is an island thing, but we're not a drift either ones. No matter what it says about one day culture, there's always that link back Absolutely. So, going backwards, back from the mythology of the Hudson, amazing that that river is and big that river is. Everything in America is big. Squeeze in back to micro fiction. How do you edit down, how do you manage that process where you've got to keep it small?
13:26
Yeah even though you've got a big story in a big landscape.
13:29 - Justin (Host)
Sure, yeah, I think that's a part of what makes it so much fun for me, especially the 50 worders, because often I guess it depends on what the story itself contains. There are times where you already draft and it's like, oh, shoot, 75 words, how am I going to whittle this down to 50 words, how should? And sometimes you realize you just can't do it. Maybe a certain story needs to breathe. And those are the times where it's like, okay, I'm not going to limit this one, right, I'm going to let this one run its own course and see where it takes me. But there are other times when you start with an idea and maybe there's like a message you want to send, or you have an idea of like how you want the story to end or what you want it to suggest, and that's what kind of will drive me to complete a story or a couple of these smaller tales. But yeah, I think the editing is what bolsters the writing. You know, I think that's what I've noticed for me over time is that going through this process, I think some people look at it too and they might be skeptical at first. Like, oh, 50 worders, like you can just slap any old 50 down and call it a day.
14:39
But I think the part of it that's really tightened my writing is the excision, like removal, and thinking about word choice. What's the best possible word I can use in this scenario to make meaning or like to have to have an impact, to leave an impact on the reader, and so those are the thoughts that run through my mind when I write these stories. It's really about like emotional impact, like how can I, how can I make that person feel something when reading this, and I, honestly, when I do these 50s by the fire. There are so many talented writers who pop in and share stories. It's really a lot of fun, and just to get to see where other writers take a prompt can lead to like really amazing results. So I think that's what I think is really important, so it can lead to like really amazing results.
15:29 - Natalie (Host)
So Totally, you know. So one story can actually be the same goal or the same storyline and yet it's written in 50 different ways. And for anyone that's thinking I'd like to be part of this, I will make sure I drop the link to Justin's next one in the post so you can be part of it. As Justin says, it's not easy Anything.
15:47
My fiction, you know 1500 words, even 200, 300 words the more restraint you've got, the more you put into the editing process and the more thinking there is involved as well. That's what I admire about the micro fiction, the amount of restraint you need to write the story. I mean it's bad enough doing an awful, but at least you've got like 100,000 words to play with there. You know it's like, yeah, we can get over to the scene, but it's OK, I can still give you the scores, your subscription of the sunset. But my fiction is like, no, no, you're working on a set of assumptions here and you've got to go through it because you don't have time for anything else. You know it's like you're going to take one precise moment and then, if you're really good which you do a lot, justin you tip all those assumptions on their head and like a good joke or a good piece of poetry. It hits you, the impact's there.
16:31 - Justin (Host)
Thank you.
16:32 - Natalie (Host)
Yeah, you're welcome. I can see I'm starting to make your blush now, which is great. This is what I do everybody. I take writers on my show. I give them compliments, pull them apart and make them blush, and for some reason they come back for more.
16:45 - Justin (Host)
I listened to your previous episodes and I caught that I think it was. Was it Brian maybe? And I was like ah man, I know, I'm going to too, oh yeah.
16:56 - Natalie (Host)
Yeah, I'm still in touch with Brian. He's still. You know. He must have taken my call, so something went right there with that interview. So yeah, but Brian is a seriously talented writer and I'm so lucky to have him. Erica was another one as well.
17:09 - Justin (Host)
And yes.
17:09 - Natalie (Host)
I've got yeah, yeah, no, I've actually got a collaboration gone with Erica for February, which is going to be a lot of fun for us both. So what's your act for that? So, speaking of goals, justin, tell us what are your plans for your writing this year, especially on Substack, but not only.
17:27 - Justin (Host)
So you know, on Substack it's kind of funny Actually, I'm. I don't really. I kind of feel like I always have a plan and then it changes and I'm like oh wait let me go back to the original.
17:37
Let me change. I don't know. I originally started on Substack writing two microfiction pieces a week and then I scaled it back to one a week and now I this ties into my goals for 2024. I'm scaling it back a little bit more. I'm going to. So for a certain time period I'm going to be writing a short fictional piece every two weeks. It'll go out on Monday. I'm going to be doing 50s by the fire. Twice a month when I send out the story the prompt will be there with it. For the Friday 50s by the fire. So really those are my goals on Substack for the year.
18:15
I also do a seasonal embers post. I kind of tie it all. I try to tie it all in thematically right. Oh, by the fire, embers here's like the remaining bits, and so for the embers piece it's more of like a. I guess it's more of like a blog post. I like to share updates about my writing life but also my goals and plans, and maybe I'll send in like a cute photo of my children, like I don't know, playing out in the snow or something. So that's really my plan for Substack. I'd like to continue to connect with more writers. You know, I think, I think it's tricky, it's challenging because I want to read hundreds of writers, fiction writers. It's difficult finding the time, sometimes when you know I teach full time.
19:00
I have two little ones, so even just getting a chance to sit down to write for like a half hour or an hour at night, after they're down go to sleep, that can be a challenge too sometimes. But at this point just kind of embedded in my routine and I make it happen I'm excited to sit down to write, so I think that's part of it. Those are my Substack goals for 24. I am also it's funny I've read all this microfiction. I'm going long too. I'm working on a novel. It's called. It's called Off the Trail and it actually my original inspiration for the story began after I read Fairytale by Stephen King. I've always been I've always been interested in stories that have slips into other realities, other worlds, and that's what. That's what this is. So it's like it's going to be a dark fantasy.
19:55
The protagonist is a senior in high school and he's away on a skiing trip with his best friend and it's their last hurrah before they part ways and move on. His buddy, his name's Cormac. He's a really talented pitcher and he's got a scholarship and he's going to go see where that leads him down in Virginia. And he, the main character, his name is Robbie. He doesn't really have a set plan in mind, so they go on this skiing trip and their last run of the evening they decide to go off the trail in Gore Mountain, which is situated up in the Adirondacks a couple hours north of where I live right now, a place that I've been. I know the trails and Perfect.
20:40 - Natalie (Host)
So this is going to be deeply rooted and steeped in your landscape.
20:45 - Justin (Host)
Yes, yes, they end up in another world and they are taken prisoner by a group of otherworldly beings, and it's really a survival story. It's a story of sacrifice. It's, you know, deeply rooted in fantasy. They have attempts to escape and it's ultimately a story of brotherhood and friendship and sacrifice, and I'm really excited about it.
21:13
I've been so. I've been sitting down every night. I tell myself at least 10 minutes. I got to sit down and even if it's like rereading a part of the story or adding in a few lines, that's my goal and so I've been doing that. So my dedication to Substack, like it's there, 100%. But I'm also so excited about this project that I have to run with it. I got it. I have to see where it takes me.
21:38
I've got the book outlined and I'm just little by little chipping away maybe about 10,000 words in. So it feels good. It feels it's really fun to just you know, just to sit down and lose yourself in another world and and trek through it on your own and not you know something. There's something special about not sharing it with anyone. Like my wife hasn't even read it. I've or I guess that's not true I've shared like a first chapter on Substack, just to ask people like, hey, what do you think? I did that back in maybe November, December and anyway, at this point that's just my solo journey for 2024. Maybe when I finish it I'll go back to my weekly Substack post, but for now I'm giving myself a little room to breathe and just have some fun with it.
22:28 - Natalie (Host)
That does sound fun. And speaking of someone who's also writing in the background of a Substack, yes, having the pressure off and just letting the story unfold is a gift to yourself. And, like you, I'm juggling, working kids and trying to get out surfing in the bay and all the rest, and yet the time when you can sit down is just yeah, it's incredibly precious. So, justin, I'm going to hold you to this commitment. Now, when your story is done, no matter how you choose to publish it, can you come back here and tell us how your journey went? Absolutely.
22:53 - Justin (Host)
Would you be happy to do that. Yes, oh my gosh, I would love to. No, it's a lot of. It would be a lot of fun and I'll try to drop little tidbits throughout the year. So, like in the winter, I'll share a post about like through embers. And then as we go, I'll drop little tidbits here and there, but 100% that's perfect yeah.
23:16 - Natalie (Host)
Yeah, I mean, I love that sort of fantasy. I'm very much into using mythology, other realms, the dark fantasy, especially when it's embedded in human psyche and in human landscape. That's what makes a very special story and it sounds like something I'm very excited about.
23:30 - Justin (Host)
Oh, thank you, Thank you.
23:32 - Natalie (Host)
So yeah, brilliant stuff. Yeah, I mean from my view point, the more the merrier. In terms of fiction, there's some great stuff out there and I've got to the point now I think sod it. We can't afford to be gate-keeped by the big four anymore, the big publishers, and we definitely can't do it by Amazon. I mean, if you had any tips to writers starting out now who have got a book and are going, maybe I should publish this. What would you say to them, having been through the Amazon experience and the sub stack experience?
24:00 - Justin (Host)
Oh man, I would just say, by whatever means, get it out there. You know, if you can't find a better alternative. I don't want to say like, go Amazon, but that's ultimately what I chose to do. I'm fine with it. I think if I were to do it again, I don't think I would necessarily go that route just because, like you mentioned, they're sort of a gatekeeper and all that. I try to find another alternative and maybe set up a way where I could directly sell my copies. The print on demand is really, I think, a big part of the reason why I went with it.
24:43
But there are other alternatives and other companies who do the same thing print on demand. Just a matter of doing your research and finding the best option for you right now. I just think at the time for me, like you have mentioned, juggling so much, it was out of convenience. Honestly, I went that route, but doing it again next time around I don't know if I will go that route. I'd like to shop the novel around. I'd like to get some beta readers get feedback. I'd like to ship it out or send it out to try to get in traditionally published. I think that that's everyone's goal, right Like that's, but also doesn't have to be the case. Maybe I will self publish that. I'd like to put together a collection of my flash fiction and short stories at some point. I don't know if that's this year, next year, but always many ideas and so little time, Ah.
25:44 - Natalie (Host)
It's always the way. It's always always the way I mean you know. Just just reassuring on out there. It's not necessarily wrong to publish through Amazon. It is the biggest hold of the book market share and most people do download it there. But, as Justin says, there's also other options. Do not feel you have to be a legitimate author and also be published by one of the traditional publishing houses. There's lots of small imprint press. There's big ones. You've got to choose a route that's right for you. Heck, you can even do it on sub stack. I'm using a strike page and a download payment option. There are many experimental ways out there and I'd say the entire publishing industry as we see it today in 2024, it's in flux. So, yes, experiment drive that. We all know that if you're good and you're writing one book and you find the habit, you're gonna write another, one another. So it's never to be all of end, all is it, just have the one book.
26:32 - Justin (Host)
But sub stack is a great, is a wonderful place and I also caught, I also heard recently some writer fiction writers putting up the idea of Sort of like a marketplace for I don't, I don't know, like like a Loaning almost through a library order a subscription and you can check out books. I don't, I don't really know. I I glanced at it the other day, but I think the wheels are starting to turn and and I also think this finds its way back to the creators of sub stack, right, so like they're highlighting fiction more. I saw um S3, Sally Reed. She's featured like so I just feel like like big shout out to her. Like any fiction writer on sub stack who's Accomplishing something like that, we just have to lift each other up to and keep shouting it and promoting it and promoting each other, and I think that's how we'll reach where we don't have to go through one of those gatekeepers.
27:31 - Natalie (Host)
Oh, oh, at some point I do want Sally on this blog podcast as well. So, sally, for listening to this, please get in touch. Um, how you never know, she drops indication one o's. But this is just it right, the start. It feels a bit like the start of YouTube. What we're seeing here in sub stack. In a way, it's grown expanding. There's so many ideas and so many ways to do it. Yes, I want to get to the point where there is no just one game town. There's a multitude of ways, but we all connect to our readers and to each other as well. I mean, is that who's been your biggest inspiration on sub stack today?
28:02 - Justin (Host)
Oh, man, there's so many people, gosh, there are just so many tremendous fiction writers. You mentioned Brian Rindell. He's one of them. Bill Adler, Jimmy Doom, Sharon Bassano, meg Olders - shout out to her on her Watties Award when, recently, man, oh man, just so many kind souls, barry, over at feast and fables, you know, who just go out of their way to to lift each other up, and I think that's all part of the community and finding a way to build community. But all those individuals, and there's so many more, I'm just, oh, mark Starlin, I'm just drawing blanks, but um, no, you named easy a dozen there and again.
28:49 - Natalie (Host)
Yeah, but that's good, that's really good. I mean that, in itself, the fact you can show reel off those names, there's a lot, and we're not just talking about people that are, if you like, famous on Substack these writers outside of the ecosystem as well as publishing elsewhere. So, like I said, the impact, I think it's growing and it's great, it's brilliant. So, I'm just conscious of the time here. We've just passed up 30 minute mark and I'm sure we can keep going. But one last thing when you won the lunar awards, how did it feel and what was the impact on your sub stack?
29:19 - Justin (Host)
Oh, man, it was just such a welcome. I honestly I I told Brian I was like I'm going to submit a story and I Forgot it was this fourth season. I just kept missing it and I was like, alright, I'm like, I'm sitting down, I'm writing a story. I knew the story I wanted to write, yeah, and it was just a wonderful feeling to be recognized by a peer who who saw something in it. I think it's just validating. Anytime anyone comments on your story they tell you they like it, even if it's just that. But yeah, to be pulled out of Tremendous group of writers and to be recognized for it was, was wonderful, you know, made my day, my whole weekend and even today I'm. Yeah, it excites me to um, to have to have won that and for a story that was important to me and a story that I've been wanting to write for a long time. Um, it actually real-life event inspired it.
30:19
I was walking my kids up the fire tower that I wrote about to get a view of the Hudson. There's a really cool local park called Ferncliff Forest and it's very sketchy, it's rickety, it's old, but my daughter is a little go-getter and a daredevil and she's like Daddy, let's do it. So I'm like, okay, dear lord, alright, let's do it. And so we were climbing up to the top and they're somewhere on the handrail. We're about halfway up, but I don't even know how high up we were.
30:52
It was high up. I saw somewhere written in Sharpie the words missing step, and my daughter was up ahead of me and I hadn't. It was one of the most terrifying moments of my life because I thought she was about to slip through a step as we're walking up and my heart sunk, dropped. I was terrified. I raced after her as I'm like holding on to my son's hand, and luckily it had been replaced and all was well. But that moment I wanted to capture, I wanted to include that in the story somehow, and then it just kind of went from there.
31:26 - Natalie (Host)
Yeah, no, it's great. Most people think you have to have something extraordinary to make a story, but it can be a tiny moment like that, which is quite how you shaped it.
31:40 - Justin (Host)
Yes.
31:42 - Natalie (Host)
So, again, if anyone's listening to this, I'm linking the story in the post. Please, for your sake, go and read it. It stood out to me. I was going through the omnibus which Brian produces each year for his paid subscribers and Justin's story leapt out at me, and that's why he's on the podcast today. So, yes, really go and read it. You will not regret your time doing so, and it's a very short story, but it's very precise, sharp, accurate and Justin, amazing. So, yes, I've made him blush again.
32:09 - Justin (Host)
Yes, Okay, again, sign off now.
32:16 - Natalie (Host)
Yeah. So just before we sign off, one final question and thank you once again for your patience and time today and your generosity here with this. In terms of inspiration, you say you draw it from walking, hiking, being a natural, scenes around Hudson. Have you ever done anything in terms of poetry or photography or using a visual stimuli to accompany your stories? I mean, where do you get the ideas from for your posts and what you put in their imagery? Yeah, I think it's just experiences and being in the world and you know it's.
32:48 - Justin (Host)
I feel like my writer's brain is always on, so it can be a visually step outside and you see the sunset. It could be. You're driving down the road and you see a pair of shoes on the side of the road and you're just like what is the story behind it? Like why are these shoes on the side of the road? And my mind slants to dark and sinister a lot of the time, but it's really all day long, throughout the day.
33:10
I will pull out, you know, I'll write it down and I got a notebook, or I'll jot an idea down in my phone, whatever I have handy, and I'll come back to it and I just have kind of like a growing list of an idea or a line that comes to me. Or yeah, photography I like to snap photos while I'm out and about my children. I'm a school, I'm a teacher, so like the kids at school, just all day long. Or it's just like fodder, like saying the most ridiculous things and that can inspire me. So really, I think it's just going out into the world and experiencing the world. Going out into the world and experiencing things and the ideas are just there, you know and it's a matter of recording them and coming back to them.
33:57 - Natalie (Host)
There for the taking right. Everybody now know Justin's process Make time, look for ideas, record them and, for God's sake, sit down and do something about it.
34:06 - Justin (Host)
Okay.
34:07 - Natalie (Host)
Justin, thank you so much today and we look forward to having you back on the podcast again. You're committed now.
34:12 - Justin (Host)
Thank you so much. Take care.
34:15 - Natalie (Host)
Okay.