Mike Fiorito is an Associate Editor for Mad Swirl Magazine and a regular contributor to the Red Hook Star Revue. Mike is the author of Call Me Guido and Freud’s Haberdashery Habits. Mike lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and two boys.
Q: Are you building a body of work, or should each of your works stand on their own?
A: These stories were written one at a time, but I was thinking about a collection as the number of them started to add up
Q: Who do you hope reads this?
A: Really everyone – young and old.
Q: What makes a story special to you; and worth putting out into the world?
A: There are different kinds of stories. Some of my work is very honest, direct, and heartfelt. The stories in Falling from Trees are concerned with questioning things, rather than making statements. What makes the human mind unique? Are there other thinking beings in the universe? Does science address the ultimate questions of life: why are we here? Should we accept that there are things we just do not understand? Is there such a thing as magic?
Q: What about people reading your work excites you the most?
A: I love when someone can relate to a story, or it triggers them to think of something in a different way.
Q: If you had the opportunity to share your work with one writer in history, who would it be?
A: Aldous Huxley.
Q: How do you want people to feel when they read these stories?
A: Stories from my book Call Me Guido portray the vulnerability of the narrator. In Falling from Trees, the stories are more about thinking than feeling.
Q: Would you still write if no one was reading?
A: Yes. But it’s really nice to have people read the work.
Q: How do you want people to first discover your work?
A: Any way they can. Maybe they read a review. Maybe someone recommends the book.
Q: For people familiar with your work, how would you describe this collection of stories?
A: Speculative fiction
Q: For people unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe this collection of stories?
A: Speculative fiction
Q: What do you want readers to take away from this?
A: I’d love to have people say “I read your work and it really made me rethink notions I had about what it is to have a mind, to be human, to encounter another sentience.”
