{"id":779,"date":"2020-01-20T07:30:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T07:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/host2021.temp.domains\/~nationo0\/?p=779"},"modified":"2020-01-20T07:30:57","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T07:30:57","slug":"i-like-things-which-are-hard-to-pin-down-an-interview-with-rob-walton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/2020\/01\/20\/i-like-things-which-are-hard-to-pin-down-an-interview-with-rob-walton\/","title":{"rendered":"I like things which are hard to pin down: An Interview with Rob Walton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the third in a series of interviews with this year’s National Flash Fiction Day anthology editors<\/a> and microfiction competition<\/a> judges! This week, Diane Simmons<\/strong> chats with one of this year’s microfiction competition judges, Rob Walton<\/strong>, about death, love, infidelity and writing, not to mention what he’s looking for when judging our micro competition…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Diane:<\/strong> You won the National Flash Fiction Day micro competition in 2015 with your story Fly. Since then you\u2019ve been a judge for a few NFFD micro competitions and I wondered if there are any themes that you see cropping up year after year?<\/p>\n

Rob:<\/strong> Death. Love. Infidelity. In some of the competitions I\u2019ve judged, domestic violence has been a recurring theme. Obviously an incredibly sensitive issue which has been handled in many ways but, sadly, rarely in a way which stops you in your tracks or makes you think or feel in any way differently about the subject. In a competition which attracts so many entries, there are bound to be some where people are working through things. Clearly this is massively important, but it doesn\u2019t always lead to the best flashes.<\/p>\n

Diane:<\/strong>\u00a0 Do you only write flash or are there any other forms that you enjoy writing?<\/p>\n

Rob:<\/strong> I began by writing short stories, and then moved to flash and then to poetry. I now write mostly poetry and flash, but sometimes other things emerge which are happily without labels. I like things which are hard to pin down. When things occur to me, it\u2019s usually quite clearly as the beginning of a specific form, but not always. I have also written work which has been unsuccessful in one form, but then worked when I\u2019ve tweaked it into another. I have an ongoing battle with script which I think I should be able to write, but it doesn\u2019t quite happen. I also have a page or two in most of my notebooks which are essentially jokes which never see the light of day. Let us gather together and give thanks.<\/p>\n

Diane:<\/strong> How important do you think social media is for writers?<\/p>\n

Rob:<\/strong> I\u2019m never quite sure. It obviously works for a lot of people, but it\u2019s also very crowded and it can be hard for some great voices to be heard in the middle of all the uninspiring noise. I use twitter, instagram and my personal facebook page to mention publication successes. I tend to avoid mentioning the rejections, and concentrate on blowing my own trumpet, hoping I can one day put \u2018Scunthorpe\u2019s Biggest Bighead\u2019 on my twitter profile. I hope people take it as read that each acceptance sits on a big pile of \u201cNo, Not on your Nellie\u201d. Curiously (or not), I do appreciate it when other people post about their non-acceptances\/rejections\/insert your own. I particularly love it when they\u2019re specific. It can be very reassuring when you know writers you like and respect have also had a No Thank You\/Bugger Off\/You\u2019ve Got To Be Kidding Me!\/Do You Want A Fight? from a particular publication.<\/p>\n

Diane:<\/strong> Judges often say that there are not enough funny stories submitted to competitions. Has that been your experience?<\/p>\n

Rob:<\/strong> Yes, definitely, and it\u2019s something I always hope to find. In submission opportunities like NFFD\u2019s micro competition there will be a few, but rarely any that make me laugh. I often find they try too hard and\/or rely on a punchline which you can see a mile off.<\/p>\n

Diane:<\/strong> Do you set yourself a schedule for writing?<\/p>\n

Rob:<\/strong> I usually work part-time, teaching in a primary school on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. This should mean that I spend those other four days doing more writing, but it doesn\u2019t always work out like that. I\u2019m very motivated by deadlines and once in a while they force a schedule on me. I have no problem with ideas and sometimes think it would be good to have fewer so I could spend more of my disorganised not-really-a-schedule on the ones I\u2019ve already had. I would pay good money for Writers\u2019 Ideas Block. And up to thirty pence for a loaf of bread.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Rob Walton<\/strong> grew up in Scunthorpe, and now lives in Whitley Bay.\u00a0 His short fiction and poetry for adults and children appears in various magazines and anthologies.\u00a0 His flashes have appeared in Blue Fifth Review, 101 words<\/em> (US), Flash Frontier (NZ), Love Bites<\/em> (Dostoyevsky Wannabe), Port<\/em> (Dunlin Press), Flash, I love You!<\/em> (Paper Swans), Story Cities<\/em> (Arachne Press), Ham, Ink, Sweat & Tears, The Cabinet of Heed, Number Eleven, National Flash Fiction Day anthologies, Bangor Literary Journal, Northern Voices, Popshot, Pygmy Giant, Reflex, Spelk, Words for the Wild<\/em> and others.\u00a0 He has also written for performance and collated the text for the New Hartley Memorial Pathway.\u00a0 His words have appeared in shop windows and Scunthorpe United\u2019s matchday magazine.\u00a0 He is a past winner of the UK\u2019s National Flash Fiction Day micro-fiction competition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN for this year’s National Flash Fiction Day Anthology and Micro Fiction Competition. Submissions close on 15th February 2020. For more information, please visit our Anthology<\/a>\u00a0and Competition<\/a> pages.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the third in a series of interviews with this year’s National Flash Fiction Day anthology editors and microfiction competition judges! This week, Diane Simmons chats with one of this year’s microfiction competition judges, Rob Walton, about death, love, infidelity and writing, not to mention what he’s looking for when judging our micro competition… … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}