Thanks for supporting The Wand that Rocks the Cradle! Today’s interview is with Frank Saverio, who contributed the short story, “To Find a Peach”. Enjoy!

If you had to tell someone, “If you like this person’s stories, you would like mine too,” who would you pick?

The obvious answer is good old G.R.R. Martin. But if you like my crime fiction as Frank Zafiro, I think you’ll see some similarity in this story.

What attracted you to writing?

Tough question… it’s always been there. I equate it to a musician being attracted to music. It’s an almost instinctual draw.

How did you get to this point in your writing? Did you take classes, or intensively study particular authors, or simply do a lot of writing and learn as you go? All of the above?

I think I took one class in college. I would say I am mostly self-taught, but that is a term that belies what really goes on. I’ve learned from all the authors I’ve read, and those I’ve worked with directly, as well as my own trial and error and subsequent growth.

Are there particular themes that run through your writing?

I try to be real, so my stories are sometimes a little bit of a downer. But one of my favorite songwriters is Bruce Springsteen, and a lot of his songs are downer songs (some are super upbeat, too, but those aren’t my favorites). Despite the darkness in many of these songs, there’s always an underlying sense of hope, or at least resiliency. Since much of what I’ve written has been crime fiction, I’ve found it useful to follow this same philosophy. I think readers will see it in my short story for this collection, too.

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