Caitlin Horrocks

For those of you who weren't able to attend the reading tonight, you missed something fun! This woman writer was extremely fascinating and absolutely captivating to listen to. Caitlin has a book of short stories out called, "This Is Not Your City." She captured everything that a woman writer she be. She was fun, confident and you can tell she truly enjoys writing. The short story she read us was called Zolaria and it was captivating. Watching her read was fantastic. She was able to memorize almost half, if not more of her story. She got so into her work, showing the audience her passion for the story she was telling.
Personally, I'm a very big fan of short stories. I started reading them in high school and they continue to catch my attention. I took a creative writing course last semester and learned a bit about writing them, which she spoke about at the reading. She explained that she used her hometown in Zolaria, allowing her to picture everything she's writing about perfectly, making it more believable to the readers because it's much more detailed. She also enjoys playing with the mixture of realism and fantasy, which is really fun to listen to because it helped paint a picture as she talked about games we all used to play as kids, and shenanigans we all used to get in to! 
I think the most interesting fact was that she said she likes to give herself a task to try to accomplish when she's writing a story. Whether it's playing with scenery or time, which is what she did in Zolaria. I've never heard of any writer doing this before, and it made me think whether or not any other of the women writers we've learned about have done this before writing.
Caitlin Horrocks was truly intriguing to watch as she read her short story to us. I'm extremely happy I was able to go and may even go buy the book! I encourage all of you who weren't able to make it to check out some of her work if you're into short stories. You won't be disappointed!