V2 is the only true pen pal I have left. We’ve never met, spoken over the telephone, nor corresponded via e-mail–only postcards and letters. I interviewed her in an early issue of my zine, The Crisp Fabric. V2 sometimes sends me random stickers, and I’ll send some to my niece, who also collects stickers–I see myself as a sticker broker.
V2’s Spread the Word campaign has tentacles all over the globe. Sometimes, I’ll send her a pile of business cards, which she distributes. That’s probably why I get so many international hits. Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of attention from China.
Robby and I have been aware of each other’s existence for forty years. He’s very talented. As a world traveler, he spent an amount of time working in the educational system of China–they called it the Beijing Social Club.
From Colorado, I am the youngest of six. I have also lived in California, Michigan, Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia—which is home now. There was always interesting music around the house, and I was encouraged to spend time reading.
As a kid, I would listen to music and read along with the lyrics, study them. I actually enjoyed diagraming sentences, and I always preferred essay questions. At VCU in Richmond, I majored in English.
In the nineties, I became involved in zine culture. I cut my teeth as a writer with my publication, 'The Crisp Fabric.' I have formed meaningful friendships with writers and artists I have never met.
My favorite novelists are Kurt Vonnegut, Hermann Hesse, Italo Calvino, and Franz Kafka.
The nonfiction writers I like are Buckminster Fuller, Hunter S. Thompson, and Frank Zappa.
Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson are my favorite poets.
