1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
The Beauty and the Hell of It is my debut, so it’s too early to tell, but I can speak to how my first story changed my life. I submitted it to a contest and it won. The prize, which I still consider to be one the best I’ve ever won, was a couple mentorship sessions with Gail Sobat. The goal was to revise the story in preparation for a reading at Audreys Books in Edmonton. I’m not exaggerating when I say Gail taught me the value of both revision and mentorship. That story is actually the first in the collection. The stories included span about 15 years, so there’s an evolution to my writing within the book, but voice and compression remain my top concerns.
2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
I didn’t. My first paying gig as a writer was for a local newspaper when I was still in high school and I started submitting poetry to literary journals when I was 15. It took me four years to get my first publication credit. I was still writing poetry when I started university and happened to take a creative writing class. I was one of two people in a group of twenty writing poetry and next to the title of one of my poems the prof penciled the words: Pam Houston Cowboys Are My Weakness. I didn’t read it right away, but when I did, it blew me out of the water. That collection changed my perspective on short fiction. Up to that point I thought stories were a punishment teachers assigned in high school. I should also add that I read a lot of novels and when I pictured writing a book, that’s what I envisioned—until Pam came along.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
I never research stories before I write them. They usually begin with a line bouncing around in my head, and sometimes I just repeat it to myself obsessively as I go about my day until I’m compelled to sit down and write. Other times I’ll write the line in my notes app or on a scrap of paper and free-write for a bit. Then I sit back to assess what I’m working with. I’m already revising at this point. Sometimes the initial draft comes quickly (there’s one piece in the collection I drafted in the span of an afternoon), but usually there’s a point where I pause in the middle. This probably wouldn’t happen if I outlined, but I learned early on that I write to discover what will happen and knowing the outcome kills my enthusiasm. Some drafts changed dramatically, and others stayed remarkably true to my initial vision. It varies so much from piece to piece.
4 - Where does a work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
I find the idea of working on a book to be very intimidating. The very suggestion of it activates imposter syndrome, so I work on short pieces and try to gather them around a theme. It’s easier to admit that you’re writing a book when 2/3 of it is already written.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
Public readings make me incredibly nervous, but I also find them very energizing. Making an audience laugh is one of the greatest pleasures of being a writer. So as much as I agonize over readings, I do believe they are central to the creative process.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
I didn’t give a great deal of thought to theoretical concerns in this collection. My overarching concern as I was writing the stories was how do women push back against expectations of how they should behave. I often refer to these expectations as the “loveliness imperative”—the patriarchal notion that women should make themselves appealing to men in everything they do. It is unfortunately an evergreen topic. Above all, my goal is to make my readers feel something, so I try not to intellectualize what I’m doing while I’m doing it. I think the current questions of our time centre around the climate crisis and genocide.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
I’m an ordinary schmuck, but on a good day I can write a paragraph that will make you feel something and perhaps even cause you to reflect on what you believe. I’m not a moral compass, but it’s my job to think critically about whatever sh*t the world is shoveling.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Essential. Feedback isn’t always easy to receive, but I’m always grateful when someone takes the time to read my work and reflect on it. It might sting at times, but it can also open up possibilities for the work that you didn’t recognize yourself.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
It’s actually something I started telling myself to deal with hard mental health days years ago: You can do some of your best work on your worst days. Which essentially means show up.
10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
When I’m immersed in a story, I try to wake up before my inner critic (between 4:30 and 5:00), so I can start typing before I’m fully awake. But not every day is a writing day for me. Sometimes I find other ways to touch the work—submitting or revising something old—and that tends to happen in the afternoon. I do freelance copyediting as well, so if I’m not writing a story, the day often starts there.
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
I return to my favorite books: Austen’s Persuasion, Pam Houston’s Cowboys Are My Weakness, anything by Lorrie Moore, Carver’s Cathedral to name a few. I bake because it feels creative to me, but it’s not remotely related to writing. If I’m still struggling I look for lighter reading. Something outside my genre.
12 - What was your last Hallowe'en costume?
I was a pirate.
13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
McFadden has a point to the extent that books are in conversation with other books, but when I think about what influences my stories, music and movies are top of the list. Nearly every story in the collection has a soundtrack, one song I listened to on repeat while I was working because it evoked in me the feeling I wanted to evoke in readers. Movies are interesting. I watch them to escape, which means a lot of them are mediocre, but sometimes there will be a fantastic scene buried in an average film and it will just haunt me. I’ll reinvent the situation and give my own characters a better chance. Love Does Not Insist was inspired by a scene in a movie with two minor characters that had a plot line that eclipsed the rest of the film. I watched that scene over and over trying to figure out why it undid me and then I found a song that did the same thing and the rest is history.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Everyone named in question 11, but also mentors like Danila Botha & Alissa York, and peers like Su Chang.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Mentor other writers at the beginning of their journey.
16 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
Assuming I had different aptitudes, a musician.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I tried doing other things, but writing is the only thing I’ve ever been passionate about.
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Book: Vermin by Lori Hahnel. I love how she puts Calgary on the map and her range is incredible. Film: John Candy’s Delirious.
19 - What are you currently working on?
More stories. More women misbehaving, but this time I’m working with themes of betrayal.
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