Wow, what an opening! I love the attention grabbing—and shocking—first sentence. What is your writing process like? Do you have a process you follow?
Aw, thank you! I’m so glad you liked it. Regardless of genre or story length, that is always the goal: The first sentence needs to grab the reader and then, sentence by sentence, you lure them into the world. Like a really creative anglerfish! (There’s the horror angle). No real process, alas, but I am, and seems like I always will be, dedicated to trying to build one. But like any writer with a day job, my process is: before work, lunch hours, after work, weekends, and literally whenever I find myself with the time. Persistence is the common denominator!
I love the spin on the Magic 8 Ball toy! What made you want to use the toy as inspiration for the story?
Appreciate that! I was writing a different story at the time, a weird teenage superhero story, and one of those kids had a sentient Magic 8 Ball that had replaced his heart and which he carried around with him. And something about that was really scary to think of, and I started to ponder what it was like at first for him, his family? What if you were in bed next to someone who all of a sudden had that strange eye looking at you? And could it help you know them better? Just taking “eyes in the back of your head,” to a gentle, if grotesque level.
I like how the characters would rather give in to the horror of the eye than confront the reality of their conflicted relationship. What made you make that choice?
Two things, I think. The first is, people really don’t like confronting the unknown and they really don’t like conflict. So much of this brief window into this couple’s relationship is about avoidance, distance, observation from far away but with no real knowledge gained. And they both know it’s wrong; the Magic 8 Ball didn’t appear for no reason. My theory is that something inside the protagonist’s husband was so desperate to be known, it manifested the eight-ball. And secondly, clearly whatever was working, however she was trying to get him to open, he wasn’t. Maybe he couldn’t. You can be emotionally aware and still be unable to get to a place of healing and vulnerability. So I think in the end, it’s our protagonist recognizing that nothing else has worked; maybe this will? A third thing: people love to take chances.
You chose to leave the reader in suspense, even going so far as to foreshadow to the aftermath with the eye’s responses, despite us never getting to read what happens after. What made you end it there as opposed to diving into what happened after the narrator got their own eye?
Part of me thinks it had to do with the call for flash fiction somewhere that limited it. But also, I think what happens after isn’t for the reader to know. Part of flash fiction especially is knowing exactly when to call it. And for me, this story isn’t a relationship being fixed. It’s how desperate to you have to be to normalize this horrifying, grotesque image, even if it is giving you help? How sad must it be to know something is wrong and nothing can be done? And for my own part, I have been that guy, closed off despite my best efforts. What’s the relief of your own body betraying you, and letting people in? Exploring those things and what doors are now capable of being opened for these two were the story. And the cliffhanger of vulnerability? Of wishing for something just as strange to happen to her? I think whatever the reader sees next is more powerful than what I could conjure!
Taking a seemingly normal and nostalgic toy then turning it into an eerie and unsettling concept for a story makes for an entertaining read! What are some authors, stories, or things you draw inspiration from?
Aw, thank you! I appreciate that. A big inspiration on that front are writers like Brian Evenson, Thomas Ha, Premee Mohamed, John Wiswell, and Stephen Graham Jones, those writers who have this ability to take reality and shift it only by a degree or two, resulting in the uncanny, the Weird, the surreal, or even the kind of humorous. Too many stories to list, but it’s often those flash fiction style stories from these writers and others like them that show the power of a short, narrative punch to the gut!
What is next for you? Are there any projects you’re working on that your readers can look forward to?
Thanks for asking! My debut book, Audition for the Fox, arrives from Tachyon Publications on September 16th and you can preorder that now! Science-fantasy involving time travel and trickster gods, come and see how an acolyte proves herself to the Fox of Tricks and how community and comedy can be tools to fight against injustice. I’ve got a new story out with Reactor this month as well, and trying to finish a novel, so fingers crossed that Past-Marty is done OR Near-Future-Marty sees this and gets back into gear.
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