SmokeLong Quarterly

If a reader who’s just finished Flash Fiction International wanted your advice about where to seek out more international stories, what magazines or journals would you point them toward?

The Transcript Review (English, French, German), The Barcelona Review (English, French, Spanish, Catalan), SmokeLong Quarterly, NANO Fiction, Wigleaf, Tin House: Flash Fridays,  Flash: the International Short-Short Story Magazine (England); New Flash Fiction Review (Summer 2015)–the latter I guest-edited, and is mixed, largely American flash but a good helping of international.

Between teaching and assembling anthologies, I’m sure you’ve seen several recurring themes. What advice would you give writers who might be writing a story along some typical themes (family dealing with an unexpected death; drug trips; talking animals being talking animals) to make their stories stand out rather than become oh, another story about __________?

I’ve seen trends, too, when I was an editor at several magazines; it never ceased to amaze me; I remember one season getting a lot of stories about monks. There seemed to be no connection among the authors–very different people, from different parts of the country. The stores weren’t particularly religious. The trends would pass quickly, replaced by another, or more often no trend for a while. They were like glimpses (or burps) of the Jungian communal unconscious of America … But it’s hard to give advice to writers here if they’re not aware they’re part of a trend. Maybe it would be to try to write the best story, in terms of character, the most human things, rather than a form, a writing performance, or trend (if aware of it)–Shakespeare’s sonnets are great because of the human element, not because they have 14 lines with a turn and a coda.

You spend a lot of time talking about and thinking about fiction on the shorter end of the spectrum. What are some novels and novellas that have influenced you as a writer and teacher? 

I’ve really loved James Joyce. Portrait of the Artist. Ulysses. The beauty of the language, the tropes, images, syntax, turns of phrase. Joyce’s “The Dead” could almost count as a novella these days. Others? Handcarved Coffins, Truman Capote. Legends of the Fall, Jim Harrison.

What’s one of our favorite writing prompts?

Think of a character, a person that’s not you, preferably unlike you (in age or gender or other ways). Jot awhile (2-3 minutes or more). Now answer these questions about the person: What does she or he want more than anything in the world? (Make it something specific, not abstract.) Again, jot awhile. Now (I regret to do this to you, or rather the character) I’m sorry to say that the character can’t have it, it’s simply not possible (whatever she or he wanted more than anything); the question is, Why not? Jot awhile. The last question may seem whimsical, in turning the tables, but it’s not; let’s say the character does get what she or he wanted after all, even though it was “impossible”–the question is, how did, or could, the character make it happen?

One of my favorite stories by you is “Bare Ana.” I think the story’s world is so interesting and so well-drawn. Can you tell us more about your inspiration and process for writing that story?

“Bare Ana” came to me in a dream, that is, the image of a baby born with tattoos. There was no reason for the image. But it was vivid and wouldn’t let me alone for days until I decided it wanted somehow to be a story. To make it one was just a matter of asking questions and answering them—how could a baby be born with tattoos? Why? Who were the baby’s parents. It was important that the story be real—not a fantasy. It had to be a normal, everyday event, not a strange experiment. To make it real I just started building a scene, it’s a wet afternoon, a couple that’s pregnant, going into a tattoo parlor. There had to be a technology for the pre-natal tattoo to happen so it had to be in the future. but you don’t have time in flash time to talk about technology. Anyway it’s people we care about. I kept my focus on the young couple, why they wanted their baby tattooed, why it was  important to them. If the tech things were commonplace to the them, that would be naturally convincing. Also I like used tech, maybe even a little frayed, not a wonderous marvel. So I mix it with familiar things like a coffee mug. And the senses: the tat parlor smells like clove and over-ripe banana, in other words, “like gene serum”; I have no idea what gene serum is, but I can smell it so it’s got to be real. It’s easy to google a few nifty tech word like “methylation”; our narrator claims not to believe “that epigentic stuff” and  that helps with the realism, too (he doesn’t have to explain it, just accepts it, even while downplaying or dismissing it). It doesn’t take many things like this to create a world. But they should all be on the side; the focus should be on people, what’s in their hearts, in this case on two young people, what they’re like, what their problem is, their fears, and what they hope to do.