Don Katnik
Bewildering Stories biography
To Bewildering Stories bibliography
|
What is it that you want to know about me? I do not write for a living (you probably guessed that). I have no formal literary training but have studied some on the craft of storytelling and spend more time rewriting than writing. “A River Runs Through It” is my favorite story and I love the ending:
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.
For me a story is like a river and, as all things in life merge and are connected to one another, stories run through them. They are formed by the things that happen to us and they run over and through the things that make up our lives, upon which we leave our marks like those timeless raindrops. And underneath it all are the words. I think the words used to tell a story can be as important as the story itself so I work hard find the right rhythm and cadence with them that will allow the story to flow on its own. When it gets to its end, I usually am just as surprised as the reader about it. That’s how it is for me — or how I try to make it be. Sorry for pontificating.
Now the less philosophical stuff: I live in Maine with my wife and two dogs, the eldest of which has often been my muse and has never criticized any of my words except for, “No!” My work has appeared in Tabard Inn, several times in The Bark magazine, and in an anthology of Star Trek parodies — soon (I hope) to be published. I’ve briefly experimented with self-publishing on Smashwords. I’ve also published a few scientific articles, but who cares about that?
Besides writing, my day job, and spoiling the dogs, I spend the rest of my time doing home improvement projects on our 200-year old house. I’ll spare you a building construction analogy for storytelling as the river one was enough.
Copyright © 2012 by Don Katnik
