Episode 152 with Tommy Dean: Master Editor, Reflective Teacher, and Craftsman and Student of Powerful Flash Fiction The Chills at Will Podcast

Episode 152 Notes and Links to Tommy Dean’s Work 
 
   On Episode 152 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Tommy Dean, and the two discuss, among other topics, his reading trajectory which started with sports biographies and has branched out in many directions, his start writing in undergrad, his views of flash fiction vs. short shorts, the craft of writing flash fiction, Tommy’s recurring themes and development as a writer, and inspiring works by Tobias Wolff and other titans of the trade.
 
   Tommy Dean lives in Indiana with his wife and two children. He is the author of a flash fiction chapbook entitled Special Like the People on TV from Redbird Chapbooks. He is the Editor at Fractured Lit. He has been previously published in the BULL Magazine, The MacGuffin, The Lascaux Review, New World Writing, Pithead Chapel, and New Flash Fiction Review. His story “You’ve Stopped” was chosen by Dan Chaon to be included in Best Microfiction 2019. It will also be included in Best Small Fiction 2019.
His interviews have been previously published in New Flash Fiction Review, The Rumpus, CRAFT Literary, and The Town Crier (The Puritan). Find him @TommyDeanWriter on Twitter.
 

Tommy Dean's Website
 
Buy Hollows 
 
A.E. Weisberger Reviews Special Like the People on TV
 
“Past Lives” Story from Atlas and Alice Magazine-2020
 
“You’ve Stopped” from Pithead Chapel
 
2017 Mini-Interview with Megan Giddings
 

At about 7:30, Tommy discusses her early reading (a lot of sports and biographies and horror and “heavy genre”) and writing, with the writing mostly coming after undergrad 
 
At about 10:00, the two discuss character as seen in these shared sports biographies
 
At about 11:30, Tommy describes his love for the library and its easy access to Sports Illustrated/SI for Kids
 
At about 12:30, Tommy and Pete discuss their shared loves for basketball and baseball, the former especially 
 
At about 14:25, Tommy gives background on how he came to become interested in flash fiction/short shorts
 
At about 17:20, Tommy responds to Pete’s questions about how he has honed his craft
 
At about 19:00, Tommy describes what it is about flash fiction that appeals to him
 
At about 19:50, Tommy differentiates between “flash fiction” and “short short”
 
At about 22:50, Tommy gives some of the formative texts, literary journals (like SmokeLong Quarterly and Vestal Review)  and writers that are classics of the flash fiction forms, like Stuart Dybek, Dan Chaon, Robin Black and “Pine,” and Elizabeth Tallent and her story, “No One’s a Mystery”
 
At about 27:00, Pete recounts the connections between the podcast title and Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain”
 
At about 28:30, Tommy discusses the power of flash in its granularity
 
At about 29:30, The two discuss Hemingway and his “interludes” or works that could be classified as “flash”; they also discuss breaking convention
 
At about 34:20, Pete corrects himself on the pivotal line that inspired the podcast title
 
At about 35:10, Pete cites a powerful use of understatement from Elie Wiesel’s Night
 
At about 36:30, Tommy talks about how teaching/editing inform his writing, and vice versa
 
At about 42:35, Pete quotes interviews with Tommy and Megan Giddings and talks about his “lifejackets” as character 
 
At about 44:00, Pete references powerful opening lines from Tommy and asks about the connections between title and subject matter; Tommy talks about work that became awarded and his process
 
At about 45:35, Tommy talks about his philosophy of dialogue in flash fiction
 
At about 47:15, Tommy explains conscious choices in using quotation marks or not
 
At about 48:30, Pete and Tommy discuss the idea that dialogue to begin a story is fraught; Pete provides an example of a short he wrote that  
 
At about 52:15, Pete highlights a stunning open line from “Past Lives”; Tommy gives real-life con