The literary blog Reading Local: Portland interviewed beloved writer/barista-in-training/fictional protagonist Mitch!

Have you ever used a co-worker as inspiration for a character in one of your short stories? You think any Rose City Coffeehouse employees will be making an appearance in the novel?

Yes, although I didn’t consciously realize it at the time. I recently wrote a story in which an innocent man who’s mistakenly been sent to hell struggles to find a way out, but is stranded by otherworldly bureaucracy (I like the subtle echoes of Kafka and Milton, but neither The New Yorker nor The Atlantic Monthly agree). The story ends with my protagonist being mercilessly tortured by the devil, who slowly twists off each of his limbs, grills them over hellfire, and devours them in front of his horrified eyes. Only later did I realize I’d modeled the devil on my co-worker, Dirk. Now that I see it, the resemblance is striking.

Why I didn’t write that as an episode, I will never know.