Smoking With Nancy Stebbins by Tara Laskowski Epilogue by Joaquin Villaverde via Creative Commons license What is it about butter in this story? I feel like the butter is standing in for something else here. If so, what is that? Butter felt like a good symbol for all the longing that was going on in that empty house. The longing has different qualities for the three characters: little Iris keeps repeating her question, just trying to make sense of what's going on. For Daphne, the butter is a stand-in for the boyfriend: it's sensual, and a comfort food. The mother, though, is on the brink of growth. For her, the butter is healing, self-nurturing, and lubricating (for all those rusty soul-cogs). In the last line of this story, the character is waiting. What is she waiting for? Does she get it, do you think? I don't think she's quite figured this out yet, but she needs to regroup and center herself, to let go of the boyfriend, to take care of herself and her daughters, and trust her own senses. Just in case someone comes along and offers her margarine instead of butter. I know you have an online writing community via Zoetrope—do you also have a writing group in "real life" that meets? How do you find that writing groups work for you? I've made three very close friends through my MFA program (the pop-up princesses) and we are constantly trading stories and chapters. Locally, I'm in Brazos Writers and we have a fiction group that meets monthly. We're all working in different genres and forms: young adult, mystery, novel, short story, flash. And about once a semester, the Texas A&M English department arranges a critique session, and I've been lucky enough to be invited to those. I think that, for critique groups in general, it's nice when your critique partners get what you're trying to accomplish and vice versa. And for flash fiction, Zoetrope has been so helpful in seeing and experimenting with flash's potential. When you aren't writing, what other creative things do you enjoy doing? There are lots of things I'd like to do. I've dabbled in painting and piano (and tap dancing) in the past, and I'd love to learn guitar. I've known writers whose other artistic activities inform their writing and vice versa, but for me, anything with a steep learning curve siphons energy and enthusiasm from writing. How do you know when a story you're writing is finished? My friend Loranne suggested a word processor that automatically shows drafts the same way it shows page numbers: This is draft 9 out of 42. Then you know you have 33 more to go. Writing a revision plan helps me think about where a story is and what it might need—Bonnie Jo Campbell told me that every story needs something different. You just have to figure out what that is. Having great critique buddies helps: when a draft comes back with hardly any changes marked, it's getting closer. Sort of like Noah sending out the birds from the ark. Read A Fistful of Buttercups. Issue Twenty-Eight (July 25, 2010): Young Waitresses by Steve Almond «» Frank by Matt Baker «» The Life and Times of Dmitri Kulikov by Tobias Amadon Bengelsdorf «» Scapegoat by Thomas Cooper «» What You Could Catch Me Bumping by Craig Davis «» Complicit by Gay Degani «» What You See When You Think of Home by John Mark DeMoss «» In the Attic by Murray Dunlap «» A Flower Thing by Jen Gann «» Seahorse Sex by Molly Giles «» Gertie by Kyle Hemmings «» Vertigo by Ann Hillesland «» Rock by Stephanie Johnson «» A Shot of Whatever by David LaBounty «» Palo Alto by Paul Lisicky «» The Lake House by Michelle McMahon «» Hell Is a Headline by Emily McPhillips «» How I Liked the Avocados by Wendy Oleson «» Regrets by Bridget Pelkie «» What Passes for Normal by Michelle Reale «» Avalanche by Joseph Scapellato «» Last Seen Leaving by Laura Ellen Scott «» Explicable by Sabrina Stoessinger «» A Fistful of Buttercups by Nancy Stebbins «» My Maggie by Eugenia F. Tsutsumi «» The Ghost by Russell Whitaker «» The Strain of Collusion by xTx «» Interviews: Steve Almond «» Matt Baker «» Tobias Amadon Bengelsdorf «» Thomas Cooper «» Craig Davis «» Gay Degani «» John Mark DeMoss «» Murray Dunlap «» Jen Gann «» Molly Giles «» Kyle Hemmings «» Ann Hillesland «» Stephanie Johnson «» David LaBounty «» Michelle McMahon «» Emily McPhillips «» Wendy Oleson «» Bridget Pelkie «» Michelle Reale «» Joseph Scapellato «» Laura Ellen Scott «» Nancy Stebbins «» Sabrina Stoessinger «» Eugenia F. Tsutsumi «» xTx «» Cover Art "Wall Street Must Be Tripping" by Marty D. Ison «» Letter From the Editor Interested in subscribing to SmokeLong's weekly newsletter? Click here. An email should be created. Send it as is, and you'll be subscribed. If the link does not work for you, send an email to imailsrv@smokelong.com with Subscribe slq-info in the body of the email (no subject is necessary). You'll receive updates detailing the release of new issues, new reading periods, contests, etc. We do not make our mail list available to anyone else.