Writer on Writer: Karl Koweski vs. Melissa Hansen

Here is our second installment of the new writer on writer feature, and this week we have asked Karl Koweski to pick a writer to interview. He chose Melissa Hansen and the resulting interview is below.

Melissa Hansen is a rising force in the small press community. Her first book of poetry, little beasts, soon to be released from Scintillating Press, will solidify her position as one of the best female voices in the underground. Anyone interested in learning more about her, feel free to check out http://www.melissahansen.net/.

Karl Koweski (KK): Let's start off by telling the readers a little bit about your self.
Melissa Hansen (MH): Well, I’ve lived in San Francisco for the past 12 years with my husband Gregory. I was born in Los Angeles in 1976 and lived in Lennox as a child, an inner city ghetto in LA. When I was six my family moved to Banning, a high desert town off the 10 freeway, about 40 miles west of Palm Springs. Then we moved back to Lennox when I was seven and lived there until I was eleven, then back to Banning after a drive-by shooting occurred in front of our house while I was outside with my mom saying “bye” to someone who was leaving our house...suffice to say, I wasn’t shot…wasn’t the target, pretty happy about that… When I graduated from high school I moved to San Diego, lived there a couple of years, and then moved to San Francisco. I’ve been here ever since…can’t seem to shake it. I spend a lot of my time driving down the 5 freeway to see my family and Southern California friends. I got a lot of people I love down there, I keep threatening to move back down, but haven’t made it back yet…

I’ve been writing my whole life, well, since I could write, wrote my first book of poems when I was six or seven, and I’ve always been an avid reader. I told my mom when I was little that I wanted to work in a library when I grew up, and apparently I’m living the dream, as I’ve worked for the San Francisco Public Library for the past 9 years. Before that, I was a volunteer for about seven months, until I was hired. I simultaneously waited on tables, doing so since I was fifteen, and finally quit right before I turned thirty-one…I thought fifteen years of waitressing was enough time put in. I also worked at a music venue booking office for a stint, while cocktailing at the venue, and working at the library. And I wrote, and just never showed anyone, except a few friends here and there. Oh, I guess over the years I did submit a couple of stories, here and there, but never gave publishing my all, until recently, and I’m still not giving it my all…I don’t think I submit enough. It’s hard work… I’ve also always kept a journal, a notebook, a diary, whatever you want to call it. I’ve just always been a writer.

KK: I was born and raised Catholic though I've long since fallen away which I think has influenced my writing to some degree. You come from a place decidedly more Mormon. Do you feel this has added or detracted anything from your writing?
MH: You know, that’s a really good question…I don’t know! I guess I would have to say that it hasn’t detracted anything from my writing…but I’m not sure if its added either…I mean it’s the way I was raised, so it must have some influence…I left the church when I was seventeen, still living at home, in my junior year of high-school. I realized Mormonism definitely wasn’t for me…this of course saddened my parents, still does, but they were and have always been respectful of my decision. I was pretty upfront about it. I think at the time they thought I would probably one day “come back”, wouldn’t wind up being a “Jack Mormon” or “Inactive Member”, as the Mormons call it, that I was just going through some kind of teenage rebellion, what with the having the sex and the smoking the weed, haha, but this was and will never be the case. I don’t consider myself a Mormon at all, though I’m still considered one by church records, having been baptized… I have no emotional, philosophical, or intellectual ties to the religion, except that my brothers and my parents are still Mormon, and I love them dearly…I’m close to my family, and my brothers and parents are very accepting of me, at least they treat me like they are. They don’t agree with everything I do, or think, but it goes both ways. I think we have respect for each other though. My sisters aren’t Mormon anymore, so that might help my stance a little, I don’t know… But I get along with my brothers great, and my sister-in-law, she’s a beautiful woman. My niece. I love them with all my heart. I go to their house to hang out whenever possible. They let me and my sisters drink wine, whatever we want, in the house….some Mormons would never allow that…My sister-in-law even buys me coffee in the morning when I spend the night, she’s sweet…We are pretty close. We just don’t talk about certain things and of course they don’t read my writing, well most of it anyway…I did write a poem for my niece for her first birthday. My mom reads my stuff though. She went to my first poetry reading. She loved it! It was cute, she was really excited. She’s always been very supportive of my writing, though I don’t think she’s very excited about my smutty work. It’s fine though, you do what you gotta do, you know? And my youngest brother is an artist and he writes, but he can’t spell, haha …he’s just a naturally creative person, so we talk about projects we are working on. I really admire his creativity; he draws, paints, writes songs, sings, plays instruments, he’s all over the place. I look up to him, and he’s my baby brother.

I guess Mormonism must have influenced my writing a little, because I wrote a poem once called “Mormon Girl” and it was about my female pioneer ancestors…my dad’s side of the family has been Mormon since the beginnings of the religion. They were polygamists, hanging out with Joseph Smith, the whole deal…my mom converted to Mormonism when she was seventeen. So she joined at the same age I left…strange, and damn that was a long answer…sorry.

KK: Let's talk about some of your favorite authors. As a reader, what do you look for in a writer? And as a writer, what do you look for in a reader?
MH: Jesus Koweski, these are hard questions! I guess what I look for in a writer is that I like what he/she writes…words. I like so many writers…it’s hard to say you know? I do like a lot of bawdiness in my reading, I must admit. I like sex and I like a little dirty. Some of my favorite writers being Henry Miller, Pedro Juan Gutierrez, Milan Kundera, Charles Bukowski, Anais Nin, though I wouldn’t put Kundera or Nin in the “dirty” category I guess, and these might be some of the usual suspects I’m naming, but Nin’s diaries were really therapeutic for me to read as a young woman. I remember reading her diaries when I was going through a very emotional time in my life, well I guess when is life not emotional? But I was really confused, and her emotions laid bare, her sex life, her illicit relationships illustrated upon the page, they helped me through a rough patch in my life. And hey, if it wasn’t for Nin, we wouldn’t be reading Miller…or we’d be reading some other form, I mean she was writing the checks during a period so he didn’t have to work, so he could write, though the money was coming from her husband…I guess we could get really existential about this…but thank god for the public library, because I could never afford to buy all 40 volumes of her diaries, or however many there are…when I was younger I loved Joyce Carol Oates. Well, I still heavily admire her, but a lot of her newer stuff, I’m not into. Doesn’t matter though…as a writer I respect the hell out of her. I don’t expect to like everything a writer I love writes, I mean, Henry Miller’s most famous book, “Tropic of Cancer”, is not my favorite work by him in the least…It’s like when you love a band or a musician, or a songwriter, but you don’t like every song or every album they put out, you know? I mean the stuff Joyce Carol Oates has written about, the violence and the psychological brilliance of her writing, she is so dark, it’s hard to digest, but she has written some of the most intriguing work I have ever read fiction wise, and then she has written stuff I could do without. But, man she is so prolific, I mean, it’s hard to even really get into explaining what I mean. Actually, this question might drive me insane…I like too much, love too much, it’s getting me thinking of poetry and songwriters, nonfiction…Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Morrissey, Joseph Arthur, Nick Cave Ian Curtis, Townes Van Zandt, Anne Sexton, Aldous Huxley, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell…and just like a couple of years ago I got into Nick Tosches. I haven’t read all of his work, but I respect him so much as a renegade writer, you know? I mean he gets obsessed with something, and his research skills; he loves librarians, his passion are inspiring, he gets the job done too… I mean he starts off as a kid music journalist and ends up with an honorary doctorate from the Vatican, and he’s not even Catholic! Wait, I don’t know if he was raised Catholic or not, but anyway…he wrote a book about searching for the last opium den, that’s enough for me…and in the realm of poetry I like Kim Addonizio and this guy Karl Koweski who writes some of the best smut this and that side of the Mississip, and a beautiful story called “Holly Go Darkly”, which made me get into him, and when I heard his poem “Breakwater” I just about cried. Yeah, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say there are some people I’ve read in the small press, especially in the poetry realm that I dig immensely. I love MK Chavez, and there are many other poets I adore, too many to name, they probably know who they are since I’ve bought their books, or will eventually, if I haven’t…some I published at Outsider Writers when I was editing for them. I’ve also gotten a lot of support from local writers from San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, and I’m forever grateful for that. Tony DuShane, Paul Corman-Roberts, MK Chavez, nothing but love from those guys. Oh and I also dig William Taylor Jr…. I mean I could go on, you’d be dead before I could ever answer this question…

As a writer, what I look for in a reader is anyone who likes my work. If you like what I write, even if it’s just one piece, or one sentence, I’m honored. Truly and severely, honored.

KK: Your first chapbook, little beasts, is on the verge of release through Scintillating Publications. You allowed me to read the collection early, and it's one stellar poem after another. Would you like to talk about your writing process and the choices you made in compiling these poems?
MH: My writing process is sporadic I guess. Especially with poetry. I’ve been writing poetry since I was little and I don’t even know if I have a process with poetry. I just write poems when I hear them or I guess what happens is I’ll be writing in my notebook and then I’ll write a poem. Sometimes I feel like writing a poem as I’m journaling and it will come out. Sometimes I wake up with a poem or the beginnings of a poem in my head and I write it down. The frustrating thing is when I have a poem pop in my head, or a sentence or image and I’m at work, or doing something where I can’t write it down, or sleeping… I’ve also written poems while falling asleep; that’s what happened with “Forced Poem”, which was an interesting process, because I actually forced myself to write it, and I was falling asleep, and forgot about it completely…when I went back to it, I thought, this is kind of a weird poem, and I worked it a little. It was conceptual, I guess…I wanted to write a poem and I didn’t have anything coming to me, so I forced it. The strangest thing I find about my poetry is that I most of the time I do not remember when I write a poem, almost like a blackout or something. So what I do is go through my notebook every once and a while and type everything up, put check marks in the book, so I know I have typed the poem into my computer. When I write fiction it’s more of a disciplined process because it takes hours to write a story for me…or longer, I have a number of unfinished stories and a short novel. They can be years old and someday I hope to finish them…

I get pretty OCD when it comes to compiling my poetry. I think I changed the order and what poems are in “little beasts” a hundred times…it’s hard for me, but I enjoy it. “little beasts” was set to first come out with Tainted Coffee Press, and that manuscript was a different compilation than what is being published by Scintillating. It went around the ringer a few times, but I think that was a good thing, because I think it’s better and stronger now. I have to mess around with the compilation a number of times before I think it is what it should be. The poems in my “little beasts” range from poetry I wrote in high school, to poetry I wrote maybe a couple of weeks before I submitted the final draft to Joseph Veronneau at Scintillating. I actually submitted a few different manuscripts to Joseph, and kept changing them. He was very patient with me, and it was a learning process for me about the way I work. It’s not a quick thing for me. If I just throw something out there and don’t let in sit awhile, I think it comes back to bite me. I gotta go over it a hundred times. I wanted the poems in “little beasts” to go together, to create a space together, but I wanted to create levity and breaks in style as well. I do write poetry that consists of rhyme and a definite rhythm, and I write short imagery ridden poems, and more loose prose style poetry as well. I write poems that are not logical and just provide, well I guess an image, and poems that start as a definite idea, or concept. I just didn’t want “little beasts” to be “too” anything. I hope I accomplished that. I’m still working on the compilation of my second collection “hungry girls”…I believe it’s getting better as well with age. The thing with me and poetry is that the poems seem to always come, eventually, sometimes when I least expect it…I try to remember that when I get frustrated thinking I haven’t written a poem in awhile. I’ve published poems even recently that I wrote 13 years ago. I submit new poems with old poems. I also cut-up poetry to create new poems, or poems that I think are better, so there can be a couple of years between the original poem and the “finished” poem becoming. I’ve been asked to write poems for weddings and I’ve written a poem for a funeral. That’s kind of hard, but how do you turn it down, say no? Even though it’s kind of nerve racking…so I found a good trick for that. I go back on my work and create a poem from a few poems. It’s work. It’s “built” poetry, is how I describe it.

I would say one of the most annoying things for me about my poetry is that sometimes the poems haunt me or taunt me. The poems will sound in my head over and over again. It’s really annoying. I don’t know why. Especially with rhyme. It’s also funny to me because so many contemporary poets bash rhyme, but it’s a natural process sometimes, I don’t ever start a poem with the intent to rhyme. The rhyme just repeats in my head like a loop. So sometimes I try to just write so it will leave, maybe write something new, because sometimes it’s an old poem that’s doing it. I also have a few poems that seem like songs, but I’m not a musician. I tried playing guitar when I was a kid, and I tried playing drums a couple of years ago, but I didn’t stick with it, though I did bust my wrist up, which was kind of funny… I’m starting to work with a friend of mine who composes music and plays many instruments, and he’s got recording equipment, I might mess around with these poems, see what happens. These types of poems are very rhythmic and incorporate some rhyme, like many songs. They seem like lyrics; I guess I’ll find out eventually...

KK: Your poems are fierce, uncompromising and many times very sexy. Your chapbook, though, is dedicated to your grandparents. Explain.
MH: haha, yeah, I actually wanted to change my dedication because of the graphic nature of some of my poetry, I thought it would seem weird to people, but as far as I know it went to press as is…after the fact I decided I wanted to dedicate it to Gregory, my husband, I thought it more fitting and appropriate, plus he’s very supportive of me and we work on stuff together too. The reason I dedicated it to my grandparents was because I was very close to my them, my mom’s parents in particular. I stayed at their house a lot when I was a kid, they lived in LA, and I would sometimes spend a month there in the summers. And when I was little we actually lived with them for a while when my family was going through a hard time. My grandparents were like a sanctuary for me. Living in a big family; it’s chaotic and loud, or at least mine was…my sister says it was kind of like “Lord of the Flies” growing up. Also being the oldest, I had a lot of responsibility, babysitting when I was really young, helping with the babies, doing chores. When I went to my grandparents, I was relaxed, I could read all day, do whatever I wanted. It was peaceful. I could actually sleep. And they loved me unconditionally, and that’s a special relationship. I was the first of like 30 grandchildren or something, so it was kind of like I could do no wrong as far as they were concerned. I wasn’t spoiled though, it was just a close relationship. They were a comfort and a support to me. That was my grandma and grandpa Hokanson. My dad’s parents, my grandma and grandpa Hansen, I wasn’t as close to, but they were also a huge support for my family financially, and my grandma was a writer. She wasn’t published, but she wrote and was a very creative person and very social, threw a lot of parties. Anyway, she was the first person to tell me to write a poem, when I was six, I guess. I was staying at their house and I think I had said I was bored or something, though that’s kind of weird, because I don’t get bored that easily, but anyway, I must have been looking for something to do, and the typewriter was on the table and she said “write something”, I asked “what?”, and she said “a poem, sit down and write a poem”, or maybe it was “type a poem”, because I remember wanting to play with the typewriter. And I did. It’s a very vivid memory to me, sitting in their perfect looking house, my grandmother was busy in the kitchen, and I typed a poem, and I remember her being proud of it. I remember the heavy sound of the typewriter, the slowness of pushing the keys, because I didn’t know how to type at that age…but I honor my grandmother for that. It kind of chokes me up thinking about it. So that was when I started writing. I even made a little book. My next big accomplishment was winning a trophy at school for first place in a poetry competition. I was in third grade and we had to write a poem about spring. It was like “Spring Time Poetry Contest”, or something, so I had to read my poem in front of the school. I won out of all the third and fourth graders. Looking back I don’t know if poetry contests are all that great an idea for kids, I mean it’s allowing competition to enter into the creative process, and I’m not really into that, the idea, because it’s so subjective, poetry…you know? But I’m a hypocrite because I have entered a couple of contests since. Actually I just entered a chapbook contest, and recently competed in the last Opium Magazine Literary Death Match and won the first round! I guess it can be fun, there is a place for it, just with kids, I don’t know…I remember I was embarrassed winning, but I think I was also proud. I do think poetry is important for children though. It’s a savannah of space. Poetry can be a very mystical experience. Writing or reading, something you can’t explain. It can be heavy, or light, funny, heartbreaking, exposing. The possibilities of poetry are endless as far as I’m concerned, and there is quite possibly something for everyone…there is something like magic about that.

KK: I have a pretty strong dislike for poetry groups. Strange, then that we were both members of The Outsider Writers Collective where you served as a poetry editor. We both left right around the same time. What are your thoughts on writing groups? Also, would you ever serve in an editor capacity again?
MH: My thoughts on writing groups are to each his own. I don’t think I’m a “collective” type person. I don’t enjoy big group projects or belonging to groups really. I would never live on a commune, or join a religion, oh wait- I already joined one…whoops…anyway, I like to work alone, however I enjoy collaboration immensely. Right now I’m working with a visual artist on one project, a musician on another, and with a writer on something else. I’m a one on one collaborative person. I did enjoy editing with Outsider Writers because I learned a lot. The reason I did it was for the experience and to learn more about what’s out there regarding contemporary poetry, specifically in what is known as the small press. It was like a class, so I was forced to look for poets I liked, to read stuff I wouldn’t have normally read, because I wouldn’t have been looking. I just got to the point where the time spent editing, I wanted to use to work on my own stuff. I think some people thrive in a collective environment, enjoy the group experience, whether it be for feedback or support or activism, and that’s great. I’m just not that type of artist. I don’t even put unpublished poems or stories up in my blog or website. The only stuff people will read by me is stuff that’s published, because that’s my style, the way I choose to “show”. We all have our own ways of showing as artists, or some don’t show at all. I mean, I wrote for years and never got published, I guess I wasn’t ready for the work involved, or was holding myself back. I kept most of my stuff hidden. Then there are writers who put up new stuff in their blogs or websites daily for others to read, like Rob Plath. That’s his style or process of creation, and he has an audience. Or Misti Rainwater-Lites who has self-published a lot of her work, because again, that is her style. I’m using these writers as examples because they are established in the small press and they show or create differently than I do. They also get published a lot and are editors and publishers as well; they are active. I like how differences and personality vary in any type of art. Well, I think I’m going off on a tangent…I don’t see myself in another writing group, but maybe someday I will edit again. It just allows you to read more, but it’s also a lot of work. I’ve thought of taking a poetry class for the same reason, just to be exposed to work and writers I wouldn’t find on my own. But I’m not that interested in group opinion, or many opinions at once; it confuses me. It’s overwhelming. That’s why I’m not much of an activist either. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, its just there is only so much input and activity I can handle; I’m lazy sometimes. When I work, I like to work alone, or with one other person, but I also juggle many projects at the same time. I’ve never been in a poetry group or writing group that shares work really, except about 10 years ago I took a creative writing class and we had to read our stuff in class. I don’t know if I would like it... I don’t think I would take advise from a bunch of other writers. I’m bad enough when I have to edit my smut. Since I get paid for it, I have to edit when they make suggestions, but sometimes I don’t agree with the changes they, or the editor wants made, but I have to let it go if I want a little cash. If I want the opinion of another writer, I will ask them. We will generally have that type of relationship, trading work. Again, a one on one thing for me. It’s a private artistic relationship, friendship, it’s not public. I really dig that, even thrive on it. It’s also nice to know other writers, especially in your community, because you provide support, and get support. I’ve become friends with many writers, and the basis of the relationship is…writing.

KK: Fantasy baseball... you gonna give it a try this year?
MH: Fantasy Baseball will ironically always remain in the realm of fantasy for me…just like being a Cubbies’ fan. What I love about Fantasy Baseball is the passion; the energy surrounding the fantasy…I find it fascinating, which is why I wrote a whole article about it…just like the Cubbies’ fans. So passionate and, well I just want to comfort them, because they get so sad…and I don’t like the White Sox, pisses me off when someone from Chicago bags on the Cubbies’ taking sides with Sox… I even met a guy at a wedding in Missouri this Summer from Chicago, as the bride was from Chicago, a good friend of mine…we were drinking and hanging out that night, and when I asked if he was a Cubbies’ fan, the answer was “yes”, he poured is heart out for like an hour straight. I found it fascinating. I just listened like a sympathetic therapist…nodding my head and asking him more questions; he was like a fountain of Cubbies’ history and emotion…I think I might have even held his hand at one point, haha…the next day I was in a bar with my husband in St Louis and we were having some drinks and we decided we would be Cubbies’ fans, so we toasted to the Cubbies’ because their fans are so alive in their defeat, dedicated, heart wrenching in their passion! Passion is often linked with suffering…doesn’t passion actually mean “to suffer”…? I think I read that somewhere…then we looked over and there was a girl wearing a Cubbies’ T-shirt; it was like a sign! Well…since the epiphany occurred I’ve proven to be the worst Cubbies’ fan ever…I’ve yet to see or listen to a game, or pay any attention to anything involving baseball…I think I just wanted a Cubbies’ wife beater…I guess it was always just a fantasy…so yeah, I’m just gonna fantasize about Fantasy Baseball…though I wouldn’t mind playing some Fantasy Tetherball, but as of now I don’t think it exists…I always kicked ass in Tetherball.

KK: Three's Company is one of your favorite shows. Are you a Chrissy girl, Terri or Janet?
MH: Well first and foremost, I’m a Jack Tripper girl…but to answer the original question, I’m gonna have to go with Terri…Priscilla Barnes. I always liked her, thought she was hot…I mean she’s a nurse, she can take care of you when you’re sick, though I wish she were a maid as well so she could clean my house…and she posed for Penthouse in 1976, the year I was born, and she was great in “The Devil’s Rejects”. I mean, she’s almost 60 years old and she’s half-naked in that movie, it’s gritty, and she’s not some plastic surgery disaster, you know? She rocks. I love Three’s Company. I’m gonna stop here. I might back myself into a corner.

KK: Here’s an orange alert question. What kind of music do you listen to when you write?
MH: When I write fiction I listen to ambient music, usually…it’s hard for me to write to music with lyrics, because it distracts me. Just like when I read, I sometimes listen to ambient or instrumental as well. Sometimes if I’m writing fiction, and I have itunes going on the computer, and I go into a zone, I won’t notice if music comes on with singing or lyrics, but when I do, I sometimes have to change it. I usually only listen to music when I’m writing fiction or working on submissions; actually creating time to write. When I was in school, the same…because it would be so boring without some background music. There are a couple of artists like Aphex Twin, Seefeel, even Joseph Arthur has this weird ambient album that was a conceptual piece that came with a book of his art called “The Invisible Parade”…or I put on Internet Radio “Drone Zone”, or EMT is a label that releases collaborative ambient albums, some of them are kind of dark, even a little creepy, but I like it. I just like it to be in the background, to get me in a meditative mood. When I write poetry, I write it whenever, so music doesn’t matter…I don’t usually sit down to write a poem. When I write poetry, though it makes up mostly what I write, I don’t remember half the time, and I might write them very quickly, in my notebook. I don’t ever start a poem on the computer…I don’t think that has ever happened. I will edit a poem on the computer, because my notebook is a mess, and I like to play around with stanzas. It’s important to me how a poem looks…sometimes….and I can write a poem anywhere, no matter what music is playing. It’s an entirely different process for me. Way different.

KK: You've been doing some live readings lately. What are your thoughts in reading before an audience? What sort of poems do you like to read?
MH: I get very nervous reading before an audience. I mean, the last reading I had, I was so nervous, I was dripping sweat, I felt a little sick. But I make myself do it. I think I’m going to become less nervous. For some reason at my last reading, it was at Beyond Baroque in LA, I wanted to do well, but I think I seemed nervous. I do believe I almost ran off the stage when I was done, and I didn’t really talk much in between poems, which is fine, but I think with some poems it’s good to have a little intro if it fits, a short intro…some poets go on and on explaining their poems, and that gets boring…so I think that’s why I didn’t explain or expand on any of my poems. My next reading is in April at The Knockout in San Francisco, and I’m reading with some great writers. I’m nervous thinking about it, but excited too. I like to read a wide range of poems, short, a little longer, soft poems and hard poems. My main concern is that I’m not boring the audience and that hopefully my voice sounds alright. Who knows…I don’t think I will be as nervous as I was at Beyond Baroque, but that’s what I say now. It’s also an interesting process trying to come up with which poems to read. I get confused…

KK: What’s next for Melissa Hansen?
MH: Well, I’m pretty excited about my first chapbook coming out, so hopefully I’ll have some copies for my next reading. I’m also awaiting my second chapbook, and I really want to publish a collection of my short fiction, which is almost all smut, or at least there is a strong or graphic sex scene in every story…what I hope is strong, anyway. Some editors describe my style of illustrating sex as “raw”. I’m happy that I’m finally finding spaces and publishers for my fiction. I used to not know where I “fit in”. I was either too graphic, or too literary. Well, apparently I fit in the genre of “Literary Smut”. This helps! To know what it is I’m doing. The first piece of fiction I ever published was my story “The Failed Wife” with Cindy Rosmus’ publication “Yellow Mama”. I had submitted a few pieces to her because the guidelines were that “Yellow Mama” published “Erotica”…so one of my stories “The Response” she read and wrote me back, “Melissa, this is not erotica, this is pornography.” That helped me out! Okay, I’m a pornographer. Got it…

Ummm, let’s see, I’m working on a collaboration with French artist Jules Reynaud. We did a piece together called “bestiarist”, and we might have a show at some point…and we are continuing to work together. We use cut-up text mostly, from my writings, and he composes pieces with digital illustration, and photography. We also use “Babel Fish” text translator to communicate, because he doesn’t speak English, and me, no François…I’m also beginning a project with musician/composer Peter Arroyo. We are just messing around right now, but it’s really fun. So, it’s me speaking or slurring my words, and he is mixing it with sound or music. We are gonna see what happens, it’s fun because, there is no pressure or deadline and we have a good energy together, so working together is a good time. Sometimes we are talking and laughing so much, that we need to shut-up so we can actually work, haha…I’m excited to see what we come up with. I’m sure his neighbors are wondering what the hell is going on in there…

I’d also like to focus harder on submitting. It’s a bitch really. There is a lot of terrain out there I’ve yet to research, realms I haven’t tried out. I’ve published mostly online. I’m in a couple of anthologies, or print publications, and of course there are my books, but I guess I’d like to get out there a little more. Half the battle of writing is submitting… I’d also like to get a little more freelance work; paying markets. That is also a whole other ballgame, and hopefully not a Fantasy Ballgame …it’s hard to juggle the creative side of writing and the submitting side, the business side. So, I guess I’m trying to find more publications that can use me and I get a little cash back. It’s good practice too. I’ve learned a lot writing smut. I’m better at writing shorter pieces now, I’m learning that I can be formulaic, and still be creative, but I can get the job done faster now, well sometimes…so I can try submitting to paying markets in higher volume. Some stories I really punched out last year, but some I sweat over, a lot of time is spent. They are different entities I guess…I just want to do my best, grow, and learn. I am not a fan of stagnation.

For more information on Melissa Hansen please visit her website and for more information on Karl Koweski you can visit his website.