In Seven Questions, we interview writers, editors, designers, and others in publishing. Today Daniel Orozco gives us the inside scoop. His story “Only Connect” first appeared in Ecotone’s evolution-themed issue and is now also in Astoria to Zion: Twenty-Six Stories of Risk and Abandon from Ecotone’s First Decade.
Where did the idea for “Only Connect” in Astoria to Zion come from?
I went to a wedding in Astoria where I knew none of the other guests. Not a single one. I was mingling with strangers, feeling antsy and awkward. So I eventually slipped away and holed up in my motel room, with a view of the Columbia River, and the mist rising off it and all around the Astoria Bridge. I got glum, and inspired—a darn good combination, as it turns out.
What emerging author or first book are you most excited about?
I read a story last year by Manuel Gonzales, “The Miniature Wife,” and it was really good—fabulist, darkly comic, completely and delightfully engaging—and it is now the title story of his recently published collection. I’m pretty excited about getting my hands on that.
If you could spend a year writing anywhere in the world, where would it be?
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