Oakland Word's fifth creative writing excerpt and Q&A comes from Tracy Held Potter. In this excerpt from "French Toast" a young woman tries to navigate her way through some of the awkwardness of a new relationship. Potter's entire story will be published in Oakland Word's anthology, due out in June.

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Excerpt from "French Toast"

by Tracy Held Potter

“Morning!” he yawns. “Mmm … you look good in my shirt!” He nuzzles Sola’s neck and she laughs like a teenager. “Not that I haven’t noticed how good you usually look.”

“Right, like you’d ever notice me when Jessica was around,” she says, regretting it instantly.

“Well, she’s not anymore … so I guess we have nothing to worry about,” he responds coolly.

Sola smiles weakly, becoming very aware of the chilly draft from the window. She suddenly realizes she doesn’t understand what the new rules are. The old ones were tossed out sometime after he caressed the small of her back and sometime before she saw the flowery birthmark on his inner thigh. After last night, when nothing was off-limits—neither angry tears nor passionate groping—the sudden awkwardness felt like ice-water on her skin.

“Sola,” he says while tucking loose strands of hair behind her ear, “I’m done with Jess. I can’t trust her—not like I can trust you. Do you trust me?”

Sola nods.

“Good—let’s go back to bed.” Scott starts pulling her back to the bedroom.

“I would,” Sola retreats, “but I’ve gotta get back to the lab.”

“Working on Saturdays is lame.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like I normally have anything better to do on a Saturday.”

“That’s no longer a valid excuse. I can’t have my girl wasting her Saturdays in a lab.”

Sola’s cheeks blush at the thought of being “his girl.”

Scott’s phone vibrates in his pocket. They know instantly who it is. It continues to vibrate, unraveling the dream that Scott has starred in for the past eight months that they have been working together. Sola finally speaks up, “You should check it.”

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OW: Why do you write? Who do you write for?

THP: I write because I have a lot of stories hanging out in my head, and writing helps me discover meaning behind them and provides them with expression. Also, I love the process of story-telling and revising a story so that it makes the best impact. When I first write an idea, it's for myself so some part of me can escape from out of my body. When I continue working on a piece and polish it up, it's for people I imagine who are looking for an outlet for the same feelings and ideas. When something I've written is published or performed, it's for the community I interact with and I feel it serves as a tribute to my teachers and mentors.

OW: How/why did you choose Oakland Word?

THP: I chose to participate with Oakland Word for a few reasons, but the main one was that I knew Claire Light from another organization and I could tell from knowing her that she would be an excellent teacher. Also, I just had a baby and I've been really motivated to write but my schedule made it difficult to take a regular college class, and my budget made it difficult to sign up for expensive workshops. Oakland Word was a perfect fit in all aspects, and I liked the idea of participating in a group that was accessible to everyone, especially in a diverse community like Oakland.

OW: Who are your 3 favorite writers and why?

THP: My three favorite writers are Steve Rubenstein, Malcolm Margolin, and Samantha Chanse. All three of these writers are really great at conveying ideas in witty, humorous ways—often exploiting the irony in whatever situations they're writing about. I love reading their short business notes as much as their more polished "public" writings.

OW: Did you learn anything surprising about yourself from taking the Oakland Word workshop?

THP: What surprised me the most about myself during these workshops is that I'm better at adapting to new methods of writing than I thought I was. I used to grumble that narrative and poetry were too hard, but now I love them both!

OW: Will you be writing more? What kind of support do you need to write more?

Ever since I had my baby five months ago, I've felt like I needed to focus on producing work on a regular schedule. I'm currently using a few external supports to keep my fingers tapping away: taking workshops and classes, meeting up with a friend to write, attending playwriting groups, inviting friends over to help review and critique my work, and pushing myself to create new work to submit for contests and festivals.

I sometimes feel embarrassed that I never read "The Artist's Way" (although I'm reading a similar book by the same author) and I don't do "morning pages" and sometimes I go weeks without writing anything. So when I really want to finish something, I find a contest with a concrete submission deadline. Then, I choose a date a few days before the deadline and arrange for people to come over to help review my work. I've found that making busy people come over to look at my writing (or signing up for a reading with a local playwriting group) really motivates me to throw words on a page.

Also, when I get feedback on my drafts, I have a much better idea of what I need to do to finish my piece, and other people's enthusiasm for my work encourages me to keep going. I've finished several plays this way. I don't always feel like a good writer, but I think I'm a great reviser.

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Tracy lives in Berkeley where she is revising her full-length play adaptation of Aesop’s “The Ants and the Grasshopper,” which was produced in Spring 2009 at Laney College’s Fusion Theater in Oakland. She’s approaching high schools that may be interested in staging this child-friendly story before she submits the final script for publication. She’s also writing original plays based on her experience as a new mom and pop-culture fiend while studying as many forms of writing as possible, including narrative and poetry through Oakland Word.