--interview by Marcia Peterson
WOW: Congratulations on placing as a runner up in our Q2 2025 Creative Nonfiction essay competition! What prompted you to enter the contest?
Wendy: I’ve entered the contest before, and I always found the winning essays to be impressive. I routinely take classes through WOW, so the contest has been on my radar for a while.
WOW: Many of us can think of instances where, as a young woman, we sensed something was off with a person or situation and thankfully acted for our own safety. Your essay, “Lucky,” is a compelling look back at your own experience and other events where luck, randomness or fate spares a person from something tragic. What inspired you to write this piece?
Wendy: That moment in the parking lot has stuck with me for 35 years. Over the decades, I’ve wondered, why not me? Why do bad things happen to some people but not others? There are answers to that question and yet, at the same time, there are no answers to that question. This moment and many others, including 9-11 and the Boston Marathon bombing, make me think of how close we all come to tragedy every day, whether we know about it or not. And when we do know about it, we try to make sense of it. We try to give it a narrative or some kind of explanation, but of course there are times when no explanation can be made. We just “got lucky,” as they say.
WOW: How do you find or make time to write? What works best for you?
Wendy: That moment in the parking lot has stuck with me for 35 years. Over the decades, I’ve wondered, why not me? Why do bad things happen to some people but not others? There are answers to that question and yet, at the same time, there are no answers to that question. This moment and many others, including 9-11 and the Boston Marathon bombing, make me think of how close we all come to tragedy every day, whether we know about it or not. And when we do know about it, we try to make sense of it. We try to give it a narrative or some kind of explanation, but of course there are times when no explanation can be made. We just “got lucky,” as they say.
WOW: How do you find or make time to write? What works best for you?
Wendy: I wish I could say that I have a regular writing practice, or that I have the discipline to set aside time and abide by any kind of writing schedule. But I just don’t. I’m sort of a mad scientist writer. When an idea takes hold, I go to the page. I write and write and write, then I stop. I tell myself that I’m done for the day but within minutes, I’m back – drafting and redrafting. Then I might go weeks without writing again. It’s cyclical. I write whenever the mood strikes. I’m also in a writers’ group that meets monthly, which means I’m on the hook for new or revised material every time we meet. That really helps. My writing group keeps me generating new work.
WOW: Are you working on any writing projects right now? What’s next for you?
Wendy: I’ve been writing shorter pieces these days, usually flash CNF. Part of this is because of how my attention span changed during and after the pandemic. The other part is that I’m really interested in the heat and power that comes in the flash nonfiction form. I have a few essays that I’ve been submitting and a few that I’ve been revising. I also wrote a murder mystery novel, which I hope to revisit and send out to some new agents this summer.
WOW: Best of luck to you with your novel! Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Wendy. Before you go, can you share a favorite writing tip or piece of advice?
Wendy: Whenever I’m struggling to find writing time, or I need some inspiration, I sign up for a writing class. I find Chelsey Clammer’s classes to be particularly generative. Most writing courses are online now and easy to fit into a working person’s schedule. I also rely on Sonja Livingston’s book “Fifty-Two Snapshots,” which has 52 writing prompts for nonfiction and memoir. I’ll flip to a random page, then set a timer on my phone for 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes is usually enough time to get something on the page, but not so much time that you start editing yourself. This feels like a good way to get something true on the page without second-guessing what it is that you’re writing.
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