Timothy Luke Hopkins

Vonnegut Takes The Lead

I write short stories and Twitter updates for my own entertainment. I make myself laugh with some of the most silly observations in life, so naturally, I implement it into my writing as much as possible.

For example, these are the topics of the last four stories I read at As Was Written:

• A guy getting his friend to help hide evidence from his girlfriend of his having gone to the strip club.
• A father laughing his way through Alzheimer’s, while his son tries to cope.
• An alcoholic professional kindergarten commencement speaker doing one last gig before he retires.
• The ramifications of one guy winking of himself in the mirror and getting caught.

They range from the silly to the absurd to the “Aww, that might be funny but might be horribly sad and depressing…” So along those lines, I read often, and want to continue reading as much as I can so I can become a better writer.

My style led me to looking up humorists, both new and old, though I generally default to the classic writers. I wanted someone who could mix in intelligence with humor and with a little bit of absurdity. I found all of those fine qualities in Kurt Vonnegut’s short story collection “Welcome To The Monkey House”.

It is as good a collection as I have read. 

I’d read Slaughterhouse-Five a few years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed being briefly unstuck in time with Billy Pilgrim, but his short stories are simply great. They’re not too long, but still tense, smart, gripping and funny. I highly recommend it.

In case you were wondering, my current top three books at this very moment are:

• “Welcome to the Monkey House” by Kurt Vonnegut
• “Rework” by Jason Fried (Of 37 Signals)
• Jim Murray - The Great Ones” by Jim Murray

But right now, as far as writing inspiration goes, Vonnegut is the man atop my list.