Spotlight On Writers
RayFed
@MrRayFed
- Where, do you hail from?
I was born in Tucson Arizona and moved to just south of Indianapolis Indiana to a 40 acre fully functioning farm. All the usual suspects there. Chickens, horses, goats, pigs, cows. In 1977 we moved from that small farm to Flagler Beach Florida. (30 miles north of Daytona Beach and 30 miles south of St. Agustine) A wonderful place to live and grow up. Salt water marsh for my backyard and three blocks from the Atlantic Ocean for my front yard. There I lived until I was 17. Working odd jobs at 13 years old and then my own landscape business a few years later on. I amassed a small fortune slated for college, but decided to travel America for a few years and I did. From Canada to Mexico, through 35 of the 50 states at one time or another. Although I never left the North American Continent I experienced and have seen enough for two lifetimes. Having lived for more than a year in many places, for the last 12 years now, I’ve called West Virginia and Maryland my home.
- What is the greatest thing about the place you call home?
The greatest thing about my home is that it’s built for comfort and as luck would have it I am the type of person amicable to that kind of environment. I like to change the décor and the ‘feng shui’ often to fit my tastes. My home is uniquely me and I work hard to keep it up with my-ever changing moods.
- What turns you on creatively?
Just about anything can catch my eye and put me in a mood to create. My creative ‘go to’ has always been short stories and poetry, but I play several musical instruments as well. DJ music, mixing loops, samples and remixing songs as a hobby now. When I was much younger I sang in a nationally touring band. These days I just write.
- What is your favorite word, and can you use it in a poetic sentence?
I like to often use words that are not in common use. An example would be this short poem.
Abjure the burgeoning moon, it’s carcanet of silver lies. Inaureoled with sadness and toil. Obeisance across the sky.
- What is your pet peeve?
Sometimes I get lost in the things that I’m trying to write. So much so that I often go off on some wild tangent completely askew from the story-line. This can work to my advantage as it might be the beginning of a new story. There is a constant reading and re-reading to make sure the continuity in whatever I write is good and I feel that my work is an ever improving effort. Always a work in progress.
- What defines RayFed?
This is an easy one. My weirdness, and I re-define my weirdness on a daily basis. My weirdness separates me from the normal, average and regular. Certainly there are times one simply has to be those things as well, but I derive the inspiration for creativity by looking at things in a one off, slightly askew manner.
Example: You see or hear something that inspires you. Instead of simply quickly writing those thoughts down, turn your head sideways. Turn your head to the extreme right or left. Squint your eyes. Close one eye. Stand on your head. Or listen to that sound that inspires you in a different room or in a different place. Sometimes one singular moment is enough. Other times one needs a cacophony. See that thing which inspires you from a different view or from every angle imaginable. Let your weirdness roam!
In the end I feel there are three simple things one needs to be a writer.
1. Pet(s)
2. Enough coffee to kill lesser human beings.
3. An imagination bordering schizophrenia.
And that my dears… is my secret!
- Nothing Ventured - January 16, 2020
- When Evil Finds Me - November 24, 2019
- Writing For The Mentally Disturbed 101.2 - October 18, 2019
