READERSVOICE.COM: When did you become interested in Flash animation, how did you learn it, and what did you think of working in this medium?

POLLY FROST: I love cartoons and love that you can now create your own, so I decided to study it. Luckily I got the chance to work with Tom Hart, who’s a great cartoonist and Flash guy, as well as one of the best teachers I’ve ever met.

I spent many sessions with Tom learning Flash. One of the main things I learned is how time-consuming any kind of animation is! I love it, though, and am eager to get back to it.

RV: How would you film a story like The Pleasure Invaders, from your book Deep Inside? CGI with live action, or animation?

PF: You’ve got my head spinning with all those good ideas! At the moment I’m working with Matt Lambert on a full-length script for “The Pleasure Invaders,” and Matt has all kinds of great ideas about how to turn the story into a movie. We’ll probably do it as live action, though in a very stylized and extreme way.

He’s insisting on shooting it in Miami. We both agree it’s got to have the vibe of “Bad Lieutenant” meets “Barbarella.”

RV: Can you give a bit of advice about structuring short stories?

PF: I’m so glad you mentioned short stories. I feel very passionate about short fiction too. Why does all written fiction need to be novel-length?

I think many stories are at their best at five pages, or fifty pages. No disrespect meant to novels, I just think a lot of stories don’t need 300 pages to tell well. And I think many readers would be thrilled to read stories of many different lengths.

As for structuring them: The thing that seems most important to me is balance. Keep the characters alive, and also keep them active. I’m not a huge fan of completely internal stories. I like to read about people doing as well as thinking and feeling things.

On the other hand, action without any connection to an internal life can quickly grow tiresome. So think a bit about setting your characters in action — but don’t ever lose touch with their inner lives.

RV: How have you and your husband Ray Sawhill influenced each other in your writing, or in your interests, like sci-fi, or have you always had similar interests or styles?

PF: Ray and I actually have very different taste-sets as well as very different skill-sets. Maybe that’s partly why we work together so well. Maybe if we were more similar we’d be quarreling all the time. In fact when we’re working together we almost never quarrel.

Usually when we run into some kind of roadblock, we pause, we figure it out, and we discover something really worthwhile that we can make use of creatively hiding behind the roadblock!

I guess you could say that we do share two things in common, though. We both love movies and we both love to laugh. In fact, we met through a shared interest in movies. We were introduced to each other by an amazing film critic we both knew, the late, great New Yorker film critic, Pauline Kael. She was a wonderful friend who I miss arguing about movies with.

RV: Do you think you’ll write a novel?

PF: Funny you should ask! I’ve just finished the first draft of a psychological suspense novel called The Bannings. It’s a thriller, and I’m eager to get to work on a polish.

RV: What are some of your plans for the next few months?

PF: It’ll be a busy few months! I’ll be releasing and publicizing “The Fold” and “Sex Scenes,” and I’ll be turning to “The Bannings” as well.

Ray and I have co-written the first draft of a novella about the NYC art scene in the ‘70’s.

I really have to look at my calendar and figure out a way to get all this done!

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To investigate further some of the places and people mentioned in this interview, here are a few links.

Polly Frost’s website: www.pollyfrost.com

Ray Sawhill’s website: www.raysawhill.multiply.com

The Fold website: www.thefold.tv

Cornelia Street Cafe: www.corneliastreetcafe.com

World Wide Audio: www.wwaudioinc.com

Dan Cioffi and Casey Zanowic: www.prismpostny.com

Matt Lambert:

www.mallardmedia.biz

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