"Publishing is very married to the idea of you as a writer having a brand... I have ADHD, I get really bored writing the same thing over and over again—I actually can't do it. My brand is just women with mental health issues; it doesn't matter what genre or time period it's in." — Maria Dong
Maria Dong is the author of Aviary, Psychopomp, and Liar, Dreamer, Thief. Her short fiction, articles, and poetry have been published in dozens of magazines, like the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Lightspeed, Augur, Nightmare, Khoreo, Fantasy, Apex, and Apparition Literary Magazine, and her story, In the Beginning of Me, I was a Bird, was a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.
Among other things, Maria and Carter discuss deviating from your original vision when writing, their appreciation for copy editors, and why Maria enjoys reading her negative reviews. At the end of their conversation, they make up an intense story using a line from Alex Finlay’s The Anniversary.
