The Centifictionist

Paul Rousseau’s 100 word microfiction, “Under the Desk”, will appear in the second issue of The Centifictionist (Vol. 1, Issue 2, Fall/Winter 2020). Paul graciously answered a few brief questions for us. Read the interview below.

1. What inspired the story “Under the Desk”?

I was watching the Brett Kavanaugh Senate hearings when he was tendered as a Supreme Court justice. After Mr. Kavanaugh’s testimony, Fred Guttenberg, a man who lost his daughter Jaime at the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, attempted to speak to Mr. Kavanaugh; Mr. Kavanaugh looked at him and walked away. The story came to me then.

2. What inspires you and your writing?

My daily walks, and reading, reading, reading.

3. What keeps you going when experiencing times of misery and despair?

My dogs, though I’ve recently lost two of them to illness, but I have one remaining, a Labrador-beagle mix named Sadie, 11 years old. And writing. Writing sustains me during times of misery and despair.

4. What advice do you have for microfiction writers?

I would say to read, read, read, and open yourself to life, both the good and the bad.

5. Is there anything else that you would like people to know about you and/or your writing?

The pandemic has brought out not only the best in the human species, but also the worst. I would ask that as fellow inhabitants of the only home we have, the planet Earth, we remember we’re all fragile and vulnerable, and we’re all just trying to make it home.

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Paul Rousseau is published in sundry literary and medical journals. A lover of dogs, he lives in Charleston, SC, and longs to return home to the west. Twitter: @ScribbledCoffee.