Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. One really great idea can power an entire story.

That's something our guest on the pod today says that really stuck out to me. His name is Zach Williams, and he's out with his debut short story collection titled Beautiful Days, which is getting some really great reviews.

Kirk is called that lyrical, well-crafted, and offbeat while comparing him to George

Saunders.

Now, in that quote, Zach is talking to NPR's Sasha Pfeiffer about why he chose to write short

stories instead of a novel and how short story collections are easier.

From project management perspective.

You can ring something out of one idea and then jump to something completely different

the next day. And it's interesting to hear a writer's approach on a very practical level because

they also do end up talking about how it's never too late to start writing. That's ahead.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Zach Williams started his career as a high school and middle school English teacher.

But when he became a new parent, all the anxieties and joys of having a kid

renewed his urgency to do something else. I always wanted to write stories. The quickness and

musicality of short stories was always attractive to me. And so when I started to write in my

mid-30s, I wanted to have a number of stories that would function as a kind of a record of

time and place in my life, I suppose. I wanted to approach the collection that way.

...