These stories were written, discussed, and rewritten this summer
during our Bust Out Stories workshop. We met at bus stops, ferry
terminals,
cafes, and a picnic table by a lagoon. The inspiration for the theme
of Bus Stop Stories came to us last spring, when our Writing Groove
workshop, which met at Parapluie Studio in Corte Madera, arrived
one day to a locked door. Since it was a nice day in April, we wandered
over to
the plaza and read our stories at a very accommodating bus stop.
It was an unusual class. One bus rider approached us and thought
we were
conducting an AA meeting. When we asked him if he was a writer, he
said, “Nah, I'm just waitin’ for a bus, man.”
We talked about the chinese “smoke long stories” — very
short stories that can be read in the length of time it takes to
smoke
a cigarette. Then I remembered how I'd originally conceived of the
name Bus Stop Stories, 12 years early when Bust Out Stories began
as a print magazine. But during a phone conversation with my friend
Bill Wiegand, he misunderstood me and thought I'd said, Bust Out
Stories.
He liked it. So did I. And Bust Out Stories was born.
