Interview with Mihaela Stoicovici, WOW! Winter 2025 Flash Fiction Contest First Place Winner

Originally from Romania, Mihaela has been living in Tokyo and the US for the past 15 years. A former management consultant, she discovered her passion for creative writing quite recently after trying to encourage her own children to improve their language abilities. She admires the work Melissa Uchiyama is doing in Tokyo with children, eatenjapan.com. She is fascinated by myths, old tales, dreams and everything that hints toward the old archetypes of the human mind.

--interview by Marcia Peterson

WOW: Congratulations on winning first place in our Winter 2025 Flash Fiction competition. What prompted you to enter the contest?

Mihaela: I have been playing with some ideas for a long time now, for a few years, but I never had the courage to finalize anything on paper. I had half stories or bits written everywhere but never finished. My intention was to use the contest as a way to discipline myself. I realized I need a lot of discipline. I'm actually afraid to finish a story, I keep going back and forth.

WOW: Can you tell us what encouraged the idea behind your story, “The Snow Woman?”

Mihaela: The idea has been brewing for a long time in a very unclear way, connected to my life experiences. I was trying to make sense of what was happening to me. Over time I became very sensitive to some ideas and paid attention in a different way to things that were happening around me in real life. When I read the original Japanese tale of Yuki Onna for the first time, everything started to make sense. I could see a path forward. I loved the idea of finding magic and the sacred in ordinary life.

WOW: What advice would you give to someone wanting to try writing flash fiction for the first time?

Mihaela: I don't think I could give advice to anyone when it comes to writing, I'm a beginner myself. What I like doing and it works for me is to start with a feeling, connected to what happened in real life or to something I read. And then I follow that feeling, I give it space and I listen to it. Sometimes it's a dream I have at night, I like to pay attention to the dreams, it's amazing how they can have a language of their own.

WOW: You mentioned that you discovered your passion for creative writing quite recently. What’s next for you on writing journey?

Mihaela: I want to have more discipline, write more and finish the stories I think about. I bought some books on creative writing and I plan to study more about technicals and the inner workings of writing.

WOW: Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Mihaela. Before you go, do you have a favorite writing tip or piece of advice you can share?

Mihaela: I like how little, apparently ordinary daily things can have a deeper meaning than I initially thought. When I find that magic thread behind a small thing, that's when I feel I can write a story about it.

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