“Without fail, I am inspired to start writing a story in any hotel lobby, but particularly one with marble floors that is somewhat dim, at around three o’clock in the afternoon. I go into the gift shop and buy a bottle of soda, and then I sit down on a leather couch and stare at the several clocks and art posters on the wall. No one bothers me, everyone thinks I am a guest, waiting for my brother to finish up his call in the phone booth. There’s a fellow sitting alone at the bar, watching golf, chewing on a piece of shrimp. I take a piece of paper out of my pocket and jot down the first few lines of the story, and then rush out through the revolving doors. I hit the street like an idiot, and the hotel—once again—has been good to me.”
—Joshua Baldwin, author of The Wilshire Sun (Turtle Point Press, 2011)