Q & A with Stephen M. Tomic, writer and founder

Tomic-ception.

Stephen M. Tomic is a writer from St. Louis who's been working undercover as a teacher in Europe for the last 10 years. In addition to writing, he is also the editor-in-chief of The Junction, an online literary publication. Find him online: Medium: @StephenTomic / Twitter: @another_tab / FB: @StephenTomicWriter  / IG: @smtomic

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GB: Stephen, thank you for taking time here. Can you share a bit about yourself? Any background info that's NOT in the bio? 

ST: I don’t know, that bio is pretty damn accurate. But I suppose there are some gaps to fill. I grew up in the Metro East area of St. Louis and did the usual things boys did back in the 80s and 90s: I played sports, explored the subdivisions on my bicycle, and read constantly. At some point in high school, I realized or at least had the gumption to believe I had some skill stitching words together. So, upon graduating, I decided to study journalism at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, about an hour west of Chicago. Much of my early life in America was spent surrounded by cornfields. While there, I enjoyed the idea of journalism more than the practice of it, though, and switched to English by my third year. I wanted to use more of my imagination and creativity than merely reporting on other people’s lives.

Circa 2005, I began writing my first novel, a multi-year project that culminated in 2009 with me losing my daytime job due to the recession. Though I pitched the then-finished product to agents during that time, it was an exercise in futility. Still in my mid-20s, I made a leap of faith and moved to Prague to teach English as a foreign language. Since then, my life has taken on a Forrest Gump-ish quality, whether it’s destiny or a feather floating along on the breeze. By the end of 2010, I found myself in France, where I’ve been living and writing ever since. No idea what comes next.

GB: On top of being an avid reader and writer, you maintain a growing publication on Medium, The Junction. How does that inspire your writing? What impacts does that have on your work? 

ST: The Junction began on a whim. I’d been toying with starting a podcast earlier in 2016, but the logistics of time zones and interviews and recording and editing was daunting. I didn’t get very far before that project was shelved. The Junction as a Medium publication had more modest beginnings. I wanted a place where I could house my own stories while also serving as a potential platform for a few writer friends of mine. I practically begged them to contribute in those early days. The first person I reached out to is a compadre from my NIU days, a prolific writer and thinker in his own right, Mike Sturm. There was an all-night cafe run by a Greek family on campus that was called The Junction where we’d go for breakfast skillets, coffee, and all manner of conversation. Freight trains en route to Chicago would regularly rumble pass and that idea of a crossroads stuck in mind, eventually making its way into the tagline of the publication.

And while it’s true that The Junction does publish a variety of work, my own preferences towards fiction and poetry became the dominant mode of expression since I handle the vast majority of editing and submissions. At the beginning, it was possible to manage the publication like an art gallery curator, reaching out to particular writers on Medium, request a story, and have it added straight away. Once Medium removed that function, I created submission guidelines and they started flowing in. The growth of the publication was both surprising and encouraging. I’ve always wanted to use The Junction as a way to champion other people’s writing. So much on the internet is geared towards the vile word, content, while stories told with heart, soul, and skill often get overlooked.

And though The Junction has become a time-consuming hydra-beast, it’s hard not to be inspired by the great writing I am privileged to read and publish on a daily basis. I’m not sure it has had a direct impact on my own writing. That exists on a separate plane and is usually my priority above most things, aside from calling mom or giving Diamaya Dawn feedback on her prosetry.

GB: Is there any advice you have for someone looking to launch a publication, press, or journal? 

ST: Be patient. That whole Rome wasn’t built in a day thing is an apt metaphor. Build a readership through quality, not quantity. Decide what’s important to you. After all, a publication is a reflection of your ideals and aesthetic, and if you’re doing it for popularity you won’t get very far. Believe in yourself and have faith in your writers.

GB: Who and what is on your MUST-READ list? 

ST: Gosh, this is so subjective. In my opinion, the greatest living writer might be Elena Ferrante. There’s such depth and honesty to her prose that I can’t help but admire it, even if I don’t write anything like her. There’s a whole bunch of dead white guys who shaped the writer I am today. In no particular order: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Georges Perec (Life A User’s Manual is my favorite novel), DFW, Nabokov, Proust. Hunter S. Thompson was a foundational figure for me as well. Virginia Woolf and James Joyce showed me how to stretch prose via stream of consciousness, William Gass showed me how to break the 4th wall. Vonnegut demonstrated how to be funny in the face of death. Pynchon also spoke to me as some gut level. He’s also ridiculously inventive and funny. Toni Morrison, Milan Kundera, Murakami, Donna Tartt... I should stop here or we’ll be here all day. I read widely and voraciously. There are plenty of unsung and unknown writers that I dig very much.

GB: What does "success" mean to you? 

ST: I suppose the answer to this question has evolved over time. When I was 18 and first started to take writing seriously, I had all sorts of delusions of grandeur about writing in well-known magazines. In college, it was optioned screenplays or a seven-figure book deal. But that’s all bullshit. Success is about finding something you love and doing it the best you can. Failure is the opposite side of that coin. For me, there are few greater pleasures than finishing a story and having people read it. The money or the fame is entirely secondary. I love language and stories and never cease to be amazed by how they are able to tell us what it means to be alive.

GB: What's your creative process like? Any takeaway methods or strategies you find beneficial?

ST: I’m probably not the best person to ask this question. My process is usually to sit down when I’m properly inspired and motivated to stare at a blank page. Generally speaking, I’m more of a pantser than one who outlines a story from beginning to end. It really varies. Sometimes I’ll have an arc in mind. Other times, I’ll have a beginning or an end, or maybe something as simple as a situation or a character, and the story is a way to explore the multifarious paths that present themselves to me at various... junctions. Generally, I write more in the Tom Robbins vein of writing a line that feels complete if not necessarily perfect and then move on to the next inflection point. I’m of the opinion that fiction should be an organic process and that too much planning or even too much revision can spoil fresh writing.

GB: Do you have a preference for genre of writing? Like poetry over prose or fiction over nonfiction? What about for the things you read?

ST: My tastes lean heavily towards literary fiction. Growing up, I read plenty of Star Wars novels and Anne Rice, and poetry has always been a fluid presence in my life. And while I sample everything, including non-fiction, I find myself naturally drawn towards so-called “difficult writing.” But, really, literature in all its forms is endlessly fascinating.

GB: If you could use one word or phrase to describe your message and what you're trying to provide the community, what would it be and why?

ST: The answer lies in the question. Community. Aside from my own personal writing goals, I want to continue to champion and nurture the creative writing community through The Junction. I’ve been contemplating the creation of a Patreon to help further those goals. Although it’s a lot of work to manage and edit a growing publication, I’d like to increase the visibility of fiction and poetry and creative non-fiction, and eventually be able to add audio versions of stories, or even eventually collaborate with artists for illustrated works or perhaps even video. We all lift one another up.

GB: What's next for Stephen M. Tomic? Got any upcoming projects we can look out for?

ST: My goal for the rest of 2019 is to try to publish a short story per week while chipping away at the first draft of a second novel. At some point later this year, I’d like to self-publish a collection of short stories through Amazon and/or some other platform. Obviously, stay tuned for something like that. Otherwise, keep writing, keep reading, keep publishing. Slow and steady, onward and upward we go.