Interview with ​Lewis Millholland

Meet NUNUM's Contributor: Lewis Millholland

11/19/2022

NUNUM

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with Lewis Millholland

Lewis Millholland lent his story 'Asphalt Jesus' to NUNUM's Fall 2022 issue and wow we were happy. Personally, I'd been looking out for a story like this for years, so when Lewis finally sent it our way it made my world just a little bit brighter.

Recently Lewis was kind enough to give us here at NUNUM a bit of his time, so keep reading and learn a little more about his influences, his habits, and his thoughts on the submission process.

What was the first book you remember picking and reading by yourself ?

Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets. My mom bought it for me because I’d been a brave boy at the dentist’s.It had everything: bathroom humor, comic book sections, and Dav Pilkey’s famed Flip-O-Rama. Most importantly, for me, it showed how there are different means for telling different stories, and how the form can be as important as the content.

What writers or books influenced your decision to become a writer?

Problematic as he was, I gotta give props to Hemingway where props are due.

The terse masculinity of his sentences struck me before I was even able to spell “syntax.” That, plus the brazen way he stole from his own life for the sake of fiction, got me to start paying more attention to the people around me, to really appreciate their tics and how they reacted to the world.

Is there a writing craft book that you would recommend to new writer?

Not quite a craft book, but I’d look to John McPhee’s article “Omission” in the New Yorker.

It’s about the importance of slashing content: how much it can hurt, and how crucial it is.

Is there a writer who has influenced your current writing style?

Lately, Bryan Washington and his understated storytelling have been squatting hard in my head. He can say nothing, or say something crude, or slap in a non- sequitur line of dialogue, and the end effect is striking in what’s left out.

Why write flash fiction?

It’s breathless to write and breathless to read. Flash crams all the energy of a thriller novel’s climax into a tidy, literary package, which you can’t reliably find anywhere else.

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to send their work out to journals?

Get used to rejection. And don’t stop.

What do you do when you’re writing a story, and you get stuck?

A friend taught me a trick: take a story by a writer you admire, and re-write your story in its structure. Not just the style, but literally go sentence by sentence, and squeeze in your story and your characters until the syntax is steaming under the stress. It gets the juices flowing, and forces you to consider how your characters react in new contexts.

What do you write besides fiction?

I’m godawful at keeping up with friends who live in other cities. The only thing I’ve found that works is letter-writing, where I can tell long-form anecdotes and draw pictures and go at my own pace. I’ve grown pretentious about it: I have a wax seal engraved with my initials, and I found an art store that sells the softest stationery. Not to knock texting or calling, but there’s nothing like getting a letter from a friend, and knowing they spent an hour thinking of you and what they wanted to say specifically to you.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to write about toilets. Or even about totally ripping off Dav Pilkey in the stories you write for your friends. Writing is supposed to be fun — so let yourself enjoy it.

Born and raised in the D.C. area, Lewis Millholland writes stories and codes videogames.

He covered small-town news in rural Virginia and worked a stint on Bloomberg's news automation team in New York City, before packing up to live along the Appalachian Trail for three months. Now he lives in Pittsburgh, nursing a leg he broke falling off a waterfall. You can keep up with him on Twitter at @lewisthfifth