Hey, this is Jinn Tiole (jinnis) from adultfiction and I welcome you to today's interview.

Right now I'm sitting on the bank of North Umpqua River, looking out onto the water in the friendly afternoon light. Birds chirp in the branches and a light breeze ripples the reflecting surface.

Footsteps in the undergrowth disturb the peaceful silence as Grady Richards (GradyRichards) joins me. He sits down next to me on the trunk of a fallen tree.

JT: Hello Grady, thank you so much for joining me here today. How are you?

GR: Great, thanks. And you?

JT: Great, especially as I get to enjoy this truly picturesque place. This is the setting of your story A Stroke of Luck on Bogus Creek. Is this a place you have a special relationship to?

GR: Not in the real world, unfortunately. Oregon is one of my favorite states; I love the diversity in landscapes that you can find there. But I haven't had the pleasure of visiting the North Umpqua River in person. I came across a place called Bogus Creek when I was online scouting a potential kayaking trip, and I couldn't get the name out of my head. I just knew I was going to use it in my writing somewhere. When this story came to mind, it was just perfect. I tried to paint as clear a picture as I could, despite not having been there myself, by using memories of similar places I've been when kayaking or hiking. I probably borrowed the most from a favorite of mine: a hidden branch off of the Rock River in northern Illinois, with a place I used to camp when on overnight canoeing or kayaking trips.

JT: You sound like an outdoor guy. I imagine these trips are a great source of inspiration and your story paints a picture of someone with a heart for the wilderness. Are you willing to share a bit more about your writing background?

GR: Being outdoors connects you, I think, with the lost generations ten thousand years in the past. People who gathered around campfires to tell their stories. As a storyteller myself, I'd be lying if I said I didn't draw some strength from the introspection you can have when you're alone in the wilderness -- even if it's just a forested bike path at the edge of town. Concerning my background, I think I started the way most people did. Some rainy day when I was a kid, I got bored and started writing a story in my notebook. Most of my stories back then involved me meeting some hero of mine and going on an adventure with them. I didn't write so much through middle school and high school, but when I was eighteen I started writing a fantasy novel and it pretty much became the activity I use to express my soul. After writing two and a half connected fantasy novels, I lost faith in the story (or at least my ability to tell it) and I started looking in other directions. I wrote some short stories and found a love for horror stories. That's pretty much what I do now. I'm working on novel-length horror stories these days, though.

JT: Well, A Stroke of Luck on Bogus Creek is certainly neither the typical fantasy nor horror story... Your Louisa is a woman in her late forties. This might be considered an odd choice for a main character. Is there a secret to it?

GR: Yes and no. Really I was trying to step outside of a box with this story. Up until this point, the only writing I had done was on a series of fantasy novels (unless you include the stories I wrote about the characters from Mortal Kombat when I was eight). So this was my first attempt at a short story, and it was my first attempt at writing something that I didn't think was carried by its genre. I guess, while I was at it, I was taking a stab at writing a different kind of character than myself. Being a 23 year old male at the time, I tried writing from the point of view of a woman -- and one who was born to a different generation than I was. The "secret" part of this, and I'm not proud of it now that I know better, was that my character choice was maybe a bit sexist. I remember wanting the character to be particularly vulnerable out there in the woods by herself, and that was part of my thought process in choosing an "old" woman as my protagonist. I think the saving grace in that mistake was that I've come to realize that women draw from a deeper well than men do, a lot of the time. They've got the lifeforce. A lot of men that age, if they were to drop like that with a stroke or a heart attack, that would probably be the end of the story for them. Women have that strength to tell nature, "No, it's not going to be that easy."

JT: I for one could relate with Louisa. Although I'm not sure I'd survive the cold out there, in her place. So you got most of it right, I guess, whatever the premises.

When I realised this story was written by a man, I wondered. Is Louisa inspired by some real person or the story by a real event?

GR: It's not inspired by a real event. It comes from the sort of thing you think about when you're alone in the middle of nowhere. "Man, if I broke my leg right now, I'd be screwed." And it sort of evolved from there as the story took shape in my mind. And no, Louisa isn't based on anyone in particular. I'm sure I used a lot of people within my bubble of perception -- my mom, my friends' moms when I was a kid, the middle-aged women I had the occasion to know. Again, I was a guy in my early twenties when I wrote this. I probably had to borrow from real women to keep from writing a caricature of the real thing. If I got anything right, I'll attribute it to luck.

JT: A lot of luck involved in this story, then! One reference that made me laugh is Marge Plimpton from the book club. So allow me a nosey question: Does this character have a backstory?

GR: To some degree. I don't think I could write about a character that didn't have more going on than what makes it to the manuscript. Characters have to have something else to talk to you about when you've finished writing for the day and you're just trying to get some sleep. That's when they like to whisper, "I wasn't done talking to you yet." In reference to the Marge Plimpton line, I'd have to say that Louisa came from the same generation as the moms in my neighborhood. And I imagine most of them would have a thought like that when they experience some sort of tragedy and hit their lowest point yet. They probably think about all the people in the audience of their life, what judgments they would make about them. It's just part of being social animals.

JT: Sounds about right. And these pieces of backstory, the glimpses into the life at stake here, make A Stroke of Luck truly enjoyable in my opinion.

What was and remains important about this story and its message to you, looking back?

GR: I think it has a lot to do with the human spirit. Like I mentioned before, another person in Louisa's situation might have just turned their toes up and died. But she refused to let it go that way. I think stubbornness can go a long way when it's all said and done. You hear about the relationship between positivity and survival when it comes to terminal illnesses; that people who wallow in their impending death are less likely to survive than the people who say, "I don't have time to die, who will look after my garden?" That warrior's spirit is something that's found, not something people just have, necessarily. If someone finds that spirit in a story like this ... I think that's why we writers do it, in the end. And I can't talk about the message of this story without an aside: The natural world is a beautiful gift, even if it can also be deadly. For people who think the animal aspect of this story, the wolf Louisa calls Amelia, is a little far fetched, try telling that to the people who have been saved by a dog who braved a house fire to drag the wee ones to safety. Or to the lion who, after twenty years in the wild, hugs the veterinarian who cared for it and re-released it. There's a magical connection between humans and the rest of this planet. It may get lost in the traffic jams sometimes, but it's there. And sometimes it takes a rock bottom situation to remind us.

JT: I fully agree, here. It's probably one of the reasons I got enamoured with this story in the first place. And don't ask me how I found it, it just came my way on Wattpad, some day.

In a footnote at the end of your story you confess this is an atypical work of yours. Do you want to elaborate?

GR: Sure, like I said. My writing up until this story had been a series of (terrible) fantasy novels. This was the first story I completed that was less than a hundred thousand words long. Also, it wasn't a genre-heavy story like my fantasy series, and the horror stories I started writing after completing A Stroke of Luck on Bogus Creek. What genre is this story, anway? That's not a question I normally need to ask myself. It was also one of the few times I wrote about a single character alone with her thoughts. I find writing interactions between multiple characters a breeze compared to being alone in one character's head. So the isolation and claustrophobia of the point of view is atypical to one of my stories.

JT: I think to write a story that doesn't need to be placed into a genre to find readers has merit. Did you ever consider returning to your fantasy worlds? And where will your writing take you in the future?

GR: Every couple of years I get to thinking about my first writings. Sometimes I'll even go so far as to read through them. But no, I think they were the first stepping stones on my journey and I'll always appreciate them for that. But some things are better off buried. That doesn't mean I won't write other fantasy stories in the future. If you had asked me back then if I would write a story like A Stroke of Luck on Bogus Creek, I probably would have said that it didn't sound like the sort of thing I'd come up with. The future is a mystery. My intentions are to continue writing horror novels (hopefully to a growing audience), and every now and then throw in a story like this. A story that sinks its teeth into some other emotions that frightening stories don't always manage to reach.

JT: I wish you all the best with it! Having enjoyed A Stroke of Luck and not a great fan of horror myself, can you direct me to other works out of your collection?

GR: I consider myself to be a horror writer, so most of what I write is of that ilk. Here and there are anomalies like this story. Another one is a novella I wrote in 2008 or 2009 called Flying Clean. Of all my works on Wattpad, that one has certainly gotten the most attention. It's not a horror story, much like A Stroke of Luck, I have a hard time pinning down how to categorize it. It's about a young adult who goes to work for a family farm in 1937, only to discover a pattern of abuse against a few of the kids. He's then faced with the decision to look the other way and let the kids suffer, or to steal them away in the middle of the night and deal with the consequences later. I do have other non-horror works in various stages of completion; I'm hoping someday they'll make it to Wattpad.

JT: This sounds intriguing. Guess I'll check it out one rainy weekend. Would you like to add something for our readers?

GR: I'd just like to thank you for your time, it's been a lot of fun chatting with you. And to the readers, thanks for giving me a listen. I really hope you enjoy this story and any others you might read. "We read to know we're not alone," according to William Nicholson. And I'm glad to have you with me.

JT: The pleasure is mine. Thank you so much for joining us today and all the best with your future projects.