Holiday Promotes Writing

Last night, Fullerton's English Department and Humanities Divison held their third annual visitng fiction writer event. The event began with a performance by D.J. Kiba of Alter Ego in Fullerton. Author Holiday Reinhorn was introduced by Dr. Bruce Hendersen.

Published fiction writer Reinhorn read excerpts from her debut collection of stories named, "Big Cats."

Reinhorn stood in front of a packed auditorium and read four of her short stories, including, "Big Cats," "F**k You," "Last Scene," and "Gabe," from an anthology titled, "This is Not Chick Lit." Her husband, actor Rainn Wilson from "The Office," also read an excerpt from "Big Cats," called "Get Away From me, David." Each of her stories held a differnt sense of artistic stylings exploring differnt expereinces from differnet points of view.

The audience had a positive reaction to Reinhorn's stories, by evidence of their steady flow of laughter.

At the end of Reinhorn's readings, the audience asked plenty of intelligent questions on her writing process.

A member of the audience asked if Reinhorn identified herself as an American author.

"My stories are pretty American," Reinhorn replied. Reinhorn's style of writing is unique. She said she finds herself ordinary as a person and so writes her stories in the first person, taking an omniscient perspective.

Her writing process is virtually non-existant. Reinhorn said her stories take shape themselves and she is the last to know where they are going.

"There are voices in my head," Reinhorn said. She doesn't want to do too much writing at one time, to keep herself excited about completing stories and not becoming burnt out on writing.

As a short story writer, she's set apart from other authors. Agents kept pushing her to write a novel, but she refused until she was able to publish her short stories.

Reinhorn named her mother as her greatest influence for her craft and being a muse for many of her characters. She also had a short story purchased by a studio. The film will star Justine Bateman.

Reinhorn concluded the night by saying, "This visit to Fullerton was my favorite ever. The crowd was terrific with great questions and I had a DJ."

She has almost completed a screenplay and is currently working on her first novel, about which she could not reveal any details to the audience. To get through her first novel, she said she will pace herself and imagine the novel as a short story.