Former Flames Fridays - Parker Dean Smith

11/15/24

Hi! Happy to participate! 

You were featured in volume 666, what has happened since?

Since being featured in volume 666, I have graduated from my Creative Writing MFA program at UW Bothell, successfully launched an online lit. mag, Silly Goose Press, with my best friends, and was nominated for a Pushcart by yours truly, TMFS. It's been a whirlwind, but so wonderful, I feel like I've grown from a baby writer to a slightly less baby writer, maybe a tween. 

Purchase Volume 666

What/who inspired Tumbleweeds? How does it fit into your style/body of work?

Tumbleweeds was inspired by restless nights in my hometown. I grew up in the High Desert of California, where days were hot and brutal, and many nights of my teenager/young adulthood were spent horny and yearnful. I've always been something of a maladaptive daydreamer, and Tumbleweeds was a way to bring life into those daydreams. I was imagining my poem as a mirage, but instead of a heat wave looking like water, the words on the page looked like a tumbleweed, and the scraps of daydream played out like something real. 

Why Troublemaker Firestarter? What compels you to submit your work? Why be a writer at the end of the world?

I picked Troublemaker Firestarter first and foremost because their twitter page makes me laugh on the regular, but also because I love the weird stuff, I love poems that get a little weird on the page, prose that side-steps expectations, art that you need to look at for a while before it makes sense, and that's what TMFS has on tap. 

I sub and write because it feels like I have to. I'm a daydreamer by nature, and I couldn't hold it all in my head anymore. I'll write at the end of the world because it's all I know how to do. 

Who are your current favorite writers?

My favorite writer of all time is Maggie Stiefvater, writer of The Raven Cycle series and my favorite book of all time, All the Crooked Saints. No one has spoken to me quite the same way since. And though I may be biased, my co-creators of Silly Goose Press, Lexi Rosen, Rhiannon Fisher, and Eric Enbom, will always remain my favorite writers and my favorite people. Big shout out to the other awesome writers in my circle and besties, Lindsey Keefer and Phoenix Kai, as well! 

Are you a troublemaker, a firestarter, a heartbreaker, a lucky duck, a devil, a terror, or sad and horny?

I am one Lucky Duck! I feel so privileged to be in an amazing community of writers and an even more incredible group of friends who have become my family. I could shout from the rooftops about how much I love them all. (I might've been a little bit of a Firestarter in the past though... quite literally). 

Where can people find you?

People can generally find me on Instagram @parkerdean1999, on Twitter @ParkerMakeWords, and on my website parkerdeanwrites.com. You can also check out Silly Goose Press at sillygoosepress.com! 

What would you want the lovely readers of Substack to do?

Well, I want them to send some love and support to TMFS! They are an amazing small press! <3