Yes, there is crossover in the sense of craft and story. For you, is there any crossover between writing for these two groups, or is the experience markedly different? In addition to flash fiction geared toward adults, you also write stories for children. Libraries are a safe place, a sanctuary of sorts. I think you said it perfectly, that libraries are “a place of great tension, human connection, and discovery.” Libraries are centers of community, they are truly democratic, they offer access, they enable self-directed education and lifelong learning. Without libraries, I wouldn’t have read nearly as much or as widely as I have and do, and because I spend so much time at libraries-my local library, and the libraries of cities I visit-it felt like a natural setting for this story. I oftentimes take up a whole shelf with my library holds. Maybe the most important part of my writing history. How important have libraries been to you in your own writing history and writing process? One of my favorite aspects of this story is that it takes the library setting and confirms it as a place of great tension, human connection, and discovery. I like to participate with my imagination when I’m reading, so when I craft a story, especially the ending, I try to give readers what I would want as a reader, which is usually more open-ended. The stories that spark questions seem to hang on longer, the stories that provide gaps for the reader to fill in-those are the ones I enjoy most. When I read, I enjoy all sorts of endings-ones that provide answers, spark questions, cliffhangers, denouements-how many types of endings are there? But it has to work as a whole, something that seems more instinctive to me than intellectual. Writing is a visceral experience for me I intuit where to end, I feel it coming.

I begin with a character in a place-something that sparked my imagination-and see where it leads. I often don’t know where I’m going to end up when I start a new piece. The ending of “Librarian” is powerful, and I enjoy that it concludes where, in a sense, things are still unfolding, with the narrator “at the ready.” When you craft story endings, do you hope to provide answers, spark questions, or do something else entirely?

Salad Pie by Wendy BooydeGraaff