Tag Archives: My Life in Short Fiction

My Life In Short Fiction – Nuala Ní Chonchúir

Posted on by Dan Powell
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Nuala Ní Chonchúir is a widely published and award winning poet, novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel You was published in 2010. Longtime readers of this blog will remember her third collection of short fiction, Nude, was reviewed as part of my Short Story Challenge, her story Letters winning a spot on my Top Fifteen Short Stories of 2010. Arlen House have just published an expanded edition of her second collection, To The World Of Men, Welcome which I will be reviewing on this blog next week. Nuala is currently offering a copy as a prize over on her blog, Women Rule Writer, but before you click over there to enter please join me in welcoming Nuala as she shares her life in short fiction:

The first short story you remember enjoying.

I’ve always loved stories but Seán Ó Faoláin’s story ‘The Trout’ lodged in my brain in a peculiar way. We must have read it in primary school. It’s about a little girl who finds a ‘panting’ trout in a secluded well. The landscape of the story is an old laurel walk ‘a lofty midnight tunnel of smooth, sinewy branches’ and it’s like a similar spot in my homeplace in County Dublin. At some point I started to believe that the story had actually happened to me; I adapted it into my own mythology. So much so that when I re-read ‘The Trout’ as an adult it felt like I was reading my own history. Bizarre. It’s a gorgeous piece of fiction and I often think about it.

The short story that made you want to write short fiction.

I couldn’t say that there was just one. We read a lot of short stories in school and I was always reading at home. I started to write short stories because poetry wasn’t enough for me and the novels I was attempting never went anywhere. I’ve always loved the way short stories pan out – the motifs, the tension. It’s like watching someone dive into a dark pool. They go under, you see the ripples fan out and fade, but you know the diver has to come up for air at some point, so you wait for that. I fell head over heels with Anne Enright’s collection The Portable Virgin around the time I was starting to write stories myself so, as a collection, I would say it egged me on; it showed me the possibilities of what a young Irish woman writer could do.

A story by the author whose body of work you feel has most influenced yours.

Again, it’s impossible to pick one writer or one story. Annie Proulx makes me brave with naming characters; Claire Keegan teaches me to slow my pace; I love Emma Donoghue’s language and energy; Michéle Roberts has a delicate touch that I would like to master. But I do remember being directly influenced by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne’s story ‘Midwife to the Fairies’ – it gave me the idea to use a folk tale in my story ‘One Hare’s Foot’ . I’ve come around to the idea that influence is a good thing, having resisted (or misunderstood it?) for a while. I love seeing what other writers are doing and what I can learn from them. My favourite story writers include Edna O’Brien, Flannery O’Connor, Michéle Roberts, Claire Keegan, Seán O’Reilly, Anne Enright, Colum McCann, Annie Proulx, Emma Donoghue, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Tess Gallagher, Rose Tremain, Yiyun Li, Manuel Munoz and Ernest Hemingway. At the moment I am basking in the stories of Valerie Trueblood – they have an absolute humanity; her stories are layered, learned, insightful, moving and witty. I wish I could write like her.

The story from your own body of work that most reveals something of who Nuala Ní Chonchúir is.

Oh, this is a hard one. Well, I write a lot about the things that obsess and possess me: art, the breakdown of love, sex and the body. So if I have to pick one, it might be ‘Madonna Irlanda’ from my collection Nude. The story is about a shy, self-conscious artist, newly separated from her husband, who goes to Paris and meets a fabulous man (another artist). They become friends and from him she learns about strength and forging ahead with her life and her art; he makes her braver.

Your all time favourite short story.

I love different stories for different reasons at varying times. But if I had to choose only one story for my desert island, I think it would be Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Good Country People’. I just love Hulga/Joy as a character and it is so brilliant and comforting to me, as a writer, that Flannery O’Connor wrote the story not knowing how it would end. With that perfect ending! You are pulled into the story and its mix of the funny and the deadly serious. She was a genius, she had such an ear.

Born in Dublin in 1970, Nuala Ní Chonchúir lives in Galway county. Her début novel You (New Island, 2010) was called ‘a heart-warmer’ by The Irish Times and ‘a gem’ by The Irish Examiner. Her third short story collection Nude (Salt, 2009) was shortlisted for the UK’s Edge Hill Prize; her third poetry collection The Juno Charm is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry. Her second short story collection To The World of Men, Welcome (2005) has just been re-issued by Arlen House in an expanded paperback edition.

LINKS:

http://www.nualanichonchuir.com/home.php

http://womenrulewriter.blogspot.com/

http://arlenhouse.blogspot.com/

Author photo by Emilia Krysztofiak

My Life In Short Fiction – Jodi Cleghorn

Posted on by Dan Powell
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It would probably be easier to make a list of what Jodi Cleghorn doesn’t do than try to cover all the varied and exciting publishing related stuff she gets up to across the web. She is a founding publisher and editor with eMergent Publishing, the publishers of such short fiction goodies as the Chinese Whisperings anthologies and recent MLiSF guest Emma Newman’s debut collection From Dark Places. Most recently, Jodi has been the driving force behind two charity anthologies, 100 Stories for Queensland, a collection of flash fiction and Nothing But Flowers, a collection of apocalyptic visions inspired by the classic Talking Heads track. 

Jodi was awarded the Kris Hembury Encouragement Award over the weekend, which recognizes an emerging artist in the area of speculative fiction. On a personal note, she has been a constant source of encouragement and a provider of keen perspective when beta reading my work. I am in awe of Jodi’s energy and commitment to providing support for up and coming authors. And she tells damn good stories. Ladies and gents, it really is a great pleasure to present Jodi Cleghorn’s Life in Short Fiction.

1. The first short story you remember enjoying.

Flowers for Algernon caught my imagination as an eighteen year old, being bored to death in English Literature class at university. The story is both exciting and tragic, and I remember bawling my eyes out in the final pages as the ‘death of the new and improved Charlie’ is foreshadowed in the decline of his partner in experiments, Algernon the mouse. There is such tenderness and empathy in the relationship between house and human.

I guess it is no surprise that my main areas of interest in speculative fiction are the intersection between humanity and technology, with a real interest in the impact on medical ‘advancements’ to what it means to be and feel human.

When I came back to read Flowers for Algernon last year, as part of my short lived ‘story for day for a year’ challenge, I came to appreciate the story through the eyes of a writer and editor, and appreciated the story on a whole new level. David Keyes writing is sheer brilliance. It is no surprise Flowers for Algernon won the Hugo in 1960.

2. The short story that turned you on to writing short fiction.

In 1991, for an English communications project at high school, I wrote a novel and submitted it to a publisher (I still have the entire project in a plastic box downstairs) David Kelly, an editor at Random House at the time, wrote back to me and suggested I turn my hand to short story writing (as well as suggesting some book on the craft of writing – the novel is pretty shocking!)

At the time I was incensed – who wrote short stories! Aged 17 I was acutely aware (somehow) that the short story was the poor third cousin to the novel, so why the hell would I want to write those? Ahh… if only I had seriously taken heed of the wisdom of Mr Kelly.

Thus, sadly I admit, to having fallen into short story writing, just because, rather than being enraptured by a single piece of writing.

I have reflected though on the fact I only read one short story at high school – Ray Bradbury’s All Summer in a Day (I still have the photocopied sheet with the questions at the end). While we were encouraged to write short fiction (and they made up a large component of our English syllabus, especially in the first 2/3rd of high school) we were never exposed to short stories as reading material. That weird dissonance, between what we were actually writing and what we were reading, carries on into my writing and reading habits today.

3. A story by the author whose body of work you feel has most influenced yours.

I came to writing short stories late. I came to appreciate the short story form late (better late the never, right?) While I write, edit and publish lots of short fiction, I’m slack when it comes to reading. Rage against the hangovers of the school system!

Thus, Dan, you my friend, are the most influential writer (and reader) in my life at present. That may change in the future, as you introduce me to more wonderful short fiction writers (and I stumble onto a few more all by myself) but for the time being – thank you!

Breaking all the moulds, I’m picking two – I’m declaring the fact I am a reader AND a writer as evidence to support my petition to pick two.

As a reader I still have a retinal-burn image, of the readerly variety, from the original Friday Flash version of Half-Mown Lawn. I was sobbing, my heart aching as I read that. You know it is good writing when you have a full body reaction to the text and it hangs around you for days after. It was such a joy to see it win the Yeovil Prize last year. Whenever I see an overgrown lawn, your story is the first thing to spring to mind – not what a lazy bugger we are for not mowing. But it also makes me fear Dave wandering out there to cut it – never shall I nag about long grass!

In terms of writing, Driver and The Highway has inspired me to be a risk taker with my own fiction and whether or not my current story comes off as planned… well, it was definitely influenced in form and shape by Driver. I’m pretty sure, I’m not the only writer you influenced with that story either! I still stand by it being the best literary mash up of Tarantino meets Mad Max!

4. The story from your own body of work that most reveals something of who Jodi Cleghorn is.

There is a little me or my travels through life, in every story – sounds so bloody clichéd doesn’t it? Anyone who knows me well enough will be able to recognise and follow the biographical crumbs littered Hansel and Gretel style. Even if it’s just a throw away reference of Bony M at Christmas! But which reveals the most about me?

It’s probably my yet to be published Graceville – an experimental piece written from the perspective of three main characters. Sarah-Jane is 17 and in love with a boy on the train, desperate to be noticed and desired by him. Her fantasies about him are time out from a family falling apart, and the stress and demands of final year exams. She’s a girl about to find her self growing up all too quickly. The women, Sarah-Jane’s mother and step-mother, are falling apart as the lives they envisaged don’t play out the way they hoped – at the centre of their disintegration, a brand new baby.

The core of the story comes from a sliding doors chapter in my life from about ten years ago. I guess it’s one way to explore, ‘what if?’

5. Your all time favourite short story.

Up until last year, Flowers for Algernon would have won hands down – not just because of the story, but because of the way it is constructed. The narrative consists of a series of diary entries which reflect the ascent and decline of Charlie and Algernon, in a way which is pure genius. It’s the only time you will ever applaud bad grammar and shocking spelling.

So what happened last year? I was entranced and horrified by Jack Marx’s Letter from a drunk to a long gone wife.  Again – this is a very personal narrative in the form of a letter. I remember realising I was not breathing, about halfway through reading it (in the 10 Stories You Must Read This Year 2009). Why? Because every time I believed the narrator couldn’t possibly sink any lower, he does. Time and time again. Twist by twist. Down, down… down! My love of Marx’s story signalled a new pas de deux with a much darker side of fiction.

If only I had realised the guy in the Stetson next to me at the bar in Byron Bay last year, was indeed Jack Marx; we may have spoken about something other than the travesty of being denied the right to order a pint of beer after 10pm in New South Wales and I could have congratulated him on being a twisted, genius of the macabre.

*****

Jodi Cleghorn is a writer, editor and publisher. Founding partner of eMergent Publishing, she is the creative spark behind Chinese Whisperings and Literary Mix Tapes. Her stories fall into a number of different genres loosely yoked by the term ‘dark weird shit’ coined by her partner at a Christmas party in 2009. Her story “Kissed by the Sun” appears in the April-released Dead Red Heart. 100 Stories for Queensland and Nothing but Flowers are her most recent editorial/publishing endeavours. She lives in Brisbane with her ever patient partner Dave, son-of-a-million-questions ‘Mr D’ and a mad chook named Madame Houdini.

Jodi can be found here:

Jodi’s blog
eMergent Publishing
Chinese Whisperings
Literary Mix Tapes
Dead Red Heart
100 Stories for Queensland
Nothing but Flowers

My Life in Short Fiction – Sara Crowley

Posted on by Dan Powell
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Sara Crowley is a writer whose work has appeared in loads of places right across the internet. and she is easily one of my favourite authors.  Sara has written many great stories, the best of which have left me wishing I had written them. Especially this one. There are links to a selection of her fiction in the sidebar of her blog. Seriously, if you haven’t read anything by Sara, head over there and have click through her work. Done that? Good. Now sit back, relax. Comfortable? Then it is with great pleasure that I present to you, Sara Crowley’s Life in Short Fiction:

1. The first short story you remember enjoying.

I don’t recall a specific story but my Gran read Woman, Woman’s Own, and My Weekly magazines. When I visited her with my mum I’d sit on the sofa and read the stories while they had their grown-up chats. As a child I loved all the happy-in-the-end romances and the oh-my-goodness twists.

2. The short story that turned you on to writing short fiction.

Apparently I was telling stories before I could read. I’d sit with a book open and look at the pictures and make up my own versions. I think I was always going to write. My idea of playing in the garden was to sit on my swing and pretend I was telling a story on Jackanory.

3. A story by the author whose body of work you feel has most influenced yours.

I have favourite writers and of course they influence me to a certain extent but a) I have worked hard at finding my own voice and b) I’m nowhere near as good as them. Yet.

Janice Galloway and Lorrie Moore are my writer crushes. I do not have their dazzle, shine, skill, depth, and intelligence. I’d like to be far more influenced by them than I am!

There’s a famous Moore quote: “Things did not happen exactly that way; I re-imagined everything. And that’s what fiction does. Fiction can come from real-life events and still be fiction.” Amen to that. Whilst that isn’t responsible for influencing my writing I find the quote enormously comforting.

Lorrie Moore – People Like That Are The Only People Here

4. The story from your own body of work that most reveals something of who Sara Crowley is.

I’m fondest of Ha Ha Bonk at FRiGG  because the narrator is the main character from Salted, my novel in progress. Also, ahem, the biscuit thing may be kinda true.

5. Your all time favourite short story.

Impossible to pick one. The power of a short story is often how it chimes with a reader at a particular time. What resonates then may not resonate now.

These are highly recommended:
Janice Galloway – Later He Would Open His Eyes in a Strange Place
Helen Simpson – Hey Yeah Right Get a Life
Roddy Doyle – The Photograph
Lorrie Moore – Places to Look for Your Mind

*****

Sara Crowley is the winner of Waterstone’s Bookseller Bursary and her novel in progress – Salted – was chosen as one of the four finalists in the Faber/Book Tokens Not Yet Published Award. Her short stories have won prizes and been published in many lovely places including 3: A.M, Pulp Net, Neon, PANK, Fractured West, and FRiGG. She blogs at http://asalted.blogspot.com/ and appreciates you taking the time to read this.

Emma Newman – My Life in Short Fiction

Posted on by Dan Powell
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I would like to welcome Emma Newman to the blog. Emma is currently in the throes of launching her debut short fiction collection From Dark Places, while her debut novel 20 Years Later is due for release in July this year. As you can see, 2011 is a big year for Emma and it’s great to have her here as my second guest on MLiSF. Ladies and gents, put your hands together for Emma Newman’s Life in Short Fiction:

1. The first short story you remember enjoying.

That was one by Enid Blyton! It was in a collection of fairy stories that I had as a young child. I can’t remember what it’s called (I must have been about 5 at the time) but it was all about a toad who was trying to make the most impressive present he could to give to the fairy king and queen – everyone in the fairy kingdom had to present one. All of his attempts to create an amazing gift fail in different ways, and the denizens of the fairy kingdom ridicule him as they pass his house on the way to present their own. In the end, he resorts to taking his lowly stool with him, as it’s the only possession he has left in the house, and, of course, the King and Queen love it so much they commission him to make more.

Why did I love it so? Well, aside from the underdog succeeding against the odds, the main reason was that it explained why fairy rings in the garden are made of toadstools (at least to my five year old brain). I took that story out into the world with me; I can remember pointing at a ring of toadstools in the garden and telling my grandfather that the toad had made them for the fairy king and queen.

2. The short story that turned you on to writing short fiction.

I can’t say a particular story made me run to the page and write short fiction. It was a person who did that; the last teacher I had in primary school at the age of ten. He gave us titles and first lines, and then told us to write him a wonderful story. He was the single most important influence on me as a short story writer, and still is, twenty-five years later. Thank you Mr Axon!

3. A story by the author whose body of work you feel has most influenced yours.

That has to be “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, and even just typing the title makes me shiver. I first discovered it in my teens and it absolutely blew me away. I still love it every bit as much as I did then.

Ray Bradbury is by far my favourite short story writer, and one of my writing heroes. His attitude to writing is simply wonderful. He is the writer I would most want to meet.

4. The story from your own body of work that most reveals something of who Emma Newman is.

Now that’s a tough question, and I don’t think I can answer it. There is a tiny bit of me in all of my stories; a detail here, a quirk there, but I don’t think I can point to one and say “Yup, there I am.” It’s probably because I am too close to them.

Saying that, I think “Getting Fixed” and “The Letter” which are in “From Dark Places” reveal the most about my sense of humour.

5. Your all time favourite short story.

Has to be “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury – I guess I already answered that one! I would gush about why it’s my favourite, but I’d much rather you go and find it, the story can speak for itself.

*****


Emma drinks too much tea, has too many ideas and writes too many stories. Only one of these is true. Her debut novel ’20 Years Later’ will be published in July 2011 by Dystopia Press. She blogs and gets up to all kinds of writing mischief at www.enewman.co.uk.

Emma’s first short story anthology ‘From Dark Places’, recently acquired by eMergent Publishing, is available in print and e-book book formats. You can buy a signed copy from her website: http://www.enewman.co.uk/my-books/buy-a-signed-edition-of-from-dark-places and if you like dark short stories, join Em’s Short Story Club (www.enewman.co.uk/sign-up-for-free-stories) to get an original short story for free in your inbox every month.

Emma fell in love with audio book narration when podcasting ’20 Years Later’ prior to her publishing deal. Since then she has recorded audio books for publishers and has narrated short stories for fiction podcasts. To find out more about her voice work go to www.enewman.co.uk/voice where you can also listen to a couple of quirky flash stories written by emerging writers. Emma loves recording speculative fiction, horror, science fiction and steampunk.

Twitter: @emapocalyptic

Nik Perring – My Life In Short Fiction

Posted on by Dan Powell
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In the first of, hopefully, many ‘My Life in Short Fiction’ posts I would like to welcome my first guest, short fiction author Nik Perring to this blog.  Many of you will already be aware of Nik’s debut collection of short fiction, Not So Perfect, which was released last year to great acclaim. I reviewed it as part of my recently completed Short Story Challenge and his story ‘The Mechanical Woman’ earned him a place on my best short stories of 2010 list. More recently, Not So Perfect has been longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize.

Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Nik Perring’s Life in Short Fiction:

1. The first short story you remember enjoying.

Thanks for having me on here, Dan, it’s a real pleasure.

The first short story I remember enjoying? Now you’re asking! And that’s a difficult one to answer because it would have been before I was a writer and when I wasn’t really paying much attention to who wrote what and how.

One memory stands out though. It was while I was doing my GCSEs and my English teacher (the wonderful Mr Wilson) got us to read a couple of stories from a battered and very old collection. The first was an Orwell story, which hasn’t stuck in my head, but the second was wonderful: it was, from memory, about a couple in a house who were deaf as a result of some sort of massive sound attack; it had a very post-apocalyptic/post-nuclear war feel to it and I remember the atmosphere and the imagination of the story were breath-taking. Sadly, and this is after extensive googling and searching, I have absolutely no idea who wrote it or what it’s called. Which is a shame, because I’d quite like to read it again and see if it’s as good as I thought it was, all those years ago. (If anyone has any idea, I’d love to know…)

I also remember having Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Butterfly Effect’ being read to me when I was 11 – I remember really enjoying that too.

2. The short story that turned you on to writing short fiction.

Good question. There are a few, I think. I’d been kind of been trying to find my way with short stories for a while (I’m talking years, here – my first was published in 2004 and the first from my collection was published in 2008…). When I started out I was writing things I thought people published/bought/wanted to read – what I thought would sell. And that wasn’t such a bad thing and I ended up having quite a few fantasy/dark/horror type things published. But it always felt like I was doing an impression of a writer and not writing Nik Perring stories (and if you’re going to write anything that has a hope of being really good, it’s got to be what you want to write – it’s got to come from inside you).

And then I got hold of Aimee Bender’s second collection, ‘Willful Creatures’ and from reading the first couple of lines of the first story ‘Deathwatch’ everything changed. It’s strange but I almost felt it. It was a huge moment of change and realisation because it meant that I knew that could write the sort of stories I’d wanted to write (and had assumed no-one wanted to read). It was a big moment, and reading the rest of Aimee’s collection compounded that feeling, as did the next collection I read, Etgar Keret’s ‘The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God’.

So, for me, that being turned on to short fiction thing wasn’t a single story but two wonderful collections and to pick a story from either is simply too difficult. ‘Ironhead’ maybe. Perhaps ‘Breaking The Pig’. ‘Jinx’. ‘Hole In The Wall’. I’ll stop there because I could list every single story in each.

3. A story by the author whose body of work you feel has most influenced yours.

Tricky, because there are so many wonderful, wonderful stories by wonderful people. And, being the ridiculously proud writer that I am (my stories have come from ME, god dammit!) I try to avoid consciously being influenced by anyone’s stories.

There are stories I wish I’d written though. I think Aimee Bender’s ‘The Meeting’ is just about perfect, and I think that, as a body of work, either hers or Etgar Keret’s (those names again!) would probably be the ones I’ve had the greatest pleasure reading and also the ones that are comparable with what I try to do.

So, yeah, Aimee’s ‘The Meeting’ or ‘Loser’. Or ‘Hat Trick,’ by Keret.

4. The story from your own body of work that most reveals something of who Nik Perring is.

You know, I think one of the coolest bits about writing is that I can make stuff up. That’s fun, and it gives me something to hide behind. I’m not particularly autobiographical in what I write; being quite a shy and reasonably dull person means that stories with me in them would be, I’d bet, pretty uninteresting – and, professionally, I’d rather be defined by what I wrote (good or bad) than who I am. That said there are things that have happened to me, situations I’ve been in, things I’ve felt, that have found their way into my stories in some way, shape or form.

Let’s see then. From Not So Perfect…

Well, I think if someone asked me to define a Nik Perring story I’d probably like to answer something like: they’re a little odd, a little wonky, they make the improbable seem familiar and they have heart. And though I’m probably not the best qualified person to say which demonstrates that the best, today (it’ll change tomorrow) I think I’ll say ‘My Wife Threw Up a Lemur’. I’d be interested to hear if anyone disagrees…

5. Your all time favourite short story.

There’s not a chance I can answer this – there really are SO many. So, without mentioning Aimee Bender or Etgar Keret (check ‘em out, folks!) here’s a few off the top of my head:

Caro By The Pool, by Clare Wigfall.
On The Tram, by Franz Kafka.
Mr Applewick, by Tamar Yellin.
Babycakes, by Neil Gaiman
Victor, by Michael Czyzniejewski
Miss Temptation, by Kurt Vonnegut
Café Niagara, by István Örkény
The Peep Show, by A.C. Tillyer.

I’m sorry I’ve not been able to answer many (any?!) of these questions with a single short story, but I guess that’s part of the charm, attraction and beauty of the form – short stories are short, but they’re powerful and affecting and because they’re short we’re able to read lots and lots of them. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thanks for having me on here, Dan!

*****

Nik Perring is a writer, teacher of writing, and editor from the UK. His short stories have been published widely in places including SmokeLong Quarterly, 3 :AM and Word Riot. They’ve also been read at events and on radio, printed on fliers and used as part of a high school distance learning course in the US.

Nik’s collection of short stories, NOT SO PERFECT is published by Roast Books and is out now. Nik blogs here and his website’s here. He offers short story help at The Story Corrective.

His next collection, ‘FREAKS!’ co-written with Caroline Smailes, will be published by The Friday Project (HarperCollins) in Spring 2012.