Today we’d like to introduce you to Autumn Bettinger.
Hi Autumn, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I loved writing as a kid and into my teenage years. When I started working and being a little social butterfly in my twenties writing sorta fell to the way side. Fast forward to 2020 and I was a stay at home mom with a baby and a toddler stuck in my home every day all day while my husband went to work as an essential worker. One day, in the throes of losing my identity to the rigors of mothering in a pandemic, a little add popped up on my instagram. A writing competition held by New York City Midnight. Only 100 words. A few prompts, a deadline, and then you submit a story and see how it fares.
I hadn’t written in years but figured it was something I loved to do and 100 words weren’t that many. Maybe I could dust off the ol’ creative drive and see if I could make something happen.
I did, and in the process, I rekindled a love of writing and of identity I hadn’t felt in years.
I joined all the small competitions I could, expanding from NYCM to others like Writing Battle and Not Quite Write. I started going further in the competitions, I started winning. With newfound confidence I applied to a writing fellowship in eastern Oregon. I became the 2024 Fishtrap Fellow. From there I offered to teach an online class with Fishtrap.
Before I knew it I was teaching, I was competing, I was making a little name for myself and my writer dreams were rekindled. My creative spark was back. I was still a mom spending her days taking care of two kiddos, but I was also a person who stood on her own merit.
With publishing success in online literary magazines and anthologies, I was approached my a small press in Portland (Friendly Monster Press) to make a collection of all my stories. Belladonna was born.
Oh! And I did the art for my book as well. I’m no artist, but I spent years (and still do) draw art for my kids’ lunchboxes every day they go to school, so practice makes… passable I suppose. 😉
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh. Ha. No.
No no.
In order to write I needed to wake up at 5 am every day to try and write before my kids woke up.
My dad was in the hospital when I was on my Fishtrap Fellowship and died a month later.
While I was putting the book together my husband asked for a divorce and three days later my best friend asked for a divorce and now they’re together.
It has not been an easy road. At ALL. It still isn’t. But writing has been a reminder of my worth and my creative center. I’m very proud of my book, and the fact that I am pushing forward with my passion despite the things crumbling around me.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a short-form writer!
For a long time I didn’t call myself a writer because I assumed writers wrote novels. That’s not actually the case of course, but it took a while to get out of that widely-held mindset. The truth is the world is changing, attention spans are shortening, and the medium of writing is expanding, experimenting, finding new forms.
I love microfiction and flash fiction. I specialize in 100-word stories and love a good 500. I find it fascinating when you have to tell a complete narrative arc in a page or a paragraph. It really makes you learn the value of editing and laser-trained detail to get your emotions and storyline across.
I am proud of the fact that I never got an MFA, that I was a homemaker, and I still managed to work on my craft and eventually get to a place where I was being asked to teach. I now teach microfiction classes regularly with Tadpole Press Literary Magazine and teach short fiction workshops occasionally with Fishtrap. It’s nice to be the role model I never had in this literary space. A lot of writers are older, never went to grad school to get the connections and accreditation, but still have so much to offer the writing world. I hope I can inspire other people like me to go after their dream.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Find a writing group.
That was the single biggest shift in my writing, was when I found people who began to understand my voice and my point-of-view and could beta read my work and critique it. Peer review kept me from plateauing in my writing journey. It pushed me to be a better writer and it taught me to edit other people’s work. It was invaluable.
My writing group is all online, I’ve never even met a single one of them in real life. They live all over the world. Just in my little group there’s someone in Japan, in Thailand, in Australia. But they’ve become incredible friends, confidants, and keepers of my creativity. They motivate me and help me be a better writer every single day.
Pricing:
- $15.99 for Belladonna
Contact Info:
- Website: https://autumnbettinger.com. & https://www.friendlymonsterpress.com
- Instagram: @autumnbewrites
