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If the internet had been conceived in the sixteenth century, we would likely not be celebrating All Fool's Day. We have the French to thank for it. Their failure to timely adopt the Gregorian Calendar which set the New Year as January 1st instead of April 1st, led to their ultimate ridicule by Britain and the new American colonies. The ridicule evolved into a day of pranks and "fools errands"...tied back to the folly of the French refusal to accept (or unwitting ignorance of) the new calendar.
However, no fool's errand here...I am pleased to share Elphaba with you
Q: Elphaba, you are editor-in-chief of Lost In the Dark, which is a heralded online magazine of horror. Tell me about it. Are you the mother of the site?
A: Well, it’s still a baby, so the heralded stage is still a long way off. It’s a small, “4-the-love” horror and dark fantasy zine that I began planning in September of 2003, and opened to submissions in November. My career was going nowhere, I was frustrated with the hurdles that new writers face, so I wanted to run a zine that specifically welcomed new and under-published writers-- give them the chance that I wasn’t getting. It’s gone extremely well, and the first issue launches on April 1. Outside of wanting to repeatedly throttle my graphics and web builder programs, I’ve found that I really love doing this, especially reading the stories that writers send.
Q: Despite many parallels in our bios, your work has taken you to a completely different place. Talk to me about fantasy. Where does dark fantasy come from? Did you love fantasy as a child?
A: I do think it takes a special type of imagination to write fantasy: one that’s quick to come up with new, inventive details that wholly sweep away the reader. It’s not something I’m very good at, so I’m constantly in awe over writers who invent new worlds and all the things, people, places that inhabit them; especially the ones who do it so well that I find myself wishing I lived there!
Although I don’t read much fantasy as an adult, I did love it as a child. I read “The Hobbit” when I was eight, and that was due to my dad, who was a big Tolkien fan. Actually, I think a lot of what my dad read influenced my own choices, because later on, most of the horror novels he brought home from the hospital library (he was a psych. nursing aide) ended up getting snatched by me. We used to have contests to see who could finish them first
Q: How is fantasy and horror relevant in the often unpleasant and difficult reality in which we live
A: I think it boils down to escapism. It’s pretty clear that a lot of people like scary entertainment, and horror is a ‘safe’ scare. Reading stories about the supernatural is a safe way to be scared for a while, and like any other good entertainment, takes us away from the real scary things in life.
Q: Your creation "Miss Millificent" is quite an amazing character (links to her are included below). Is there a piece of you hiding in this seemingly fragile little girl with unique friends who is comfortable in her unusual world? Did she grow up to write dark fantasy?
She’s only like me in that she has a really skinny body, which I also had as a kid, and a love for the morbid. Unlike me, though, she’ll never grow up—she’ll be like the Peanuts gang and stay young forever. But if she did write, I imagine it would be dark, morbid poetry full of angst and describing things that go bump in the night (and then further wondering how she could catch them and make them her pets).
I’ve really become fond of Miss Millificent. I’ve never spent this much time drawing pictures that revolve around the same character. One day, I’d like to finish the book I’m writing about her… one day. It’s tough.
CafePress Shop: http://www.cafeshops.com/mismillificent
Miss Millificent’s Art (companion art site): http://www.angelfire.com/art/1970
Q: You are being published in a print anthology Darkness Rising 2004. What is your ultimate goal with respect to your work being published? Is that the primary reason you write...if not...what other reasons?
A: My primary reason for writing is because I have to; I’ve been doing it so long that it’s ingrained in me, and I don’t know what I’d do if I quit, although last summer, I was seriously contemplating it. But my ultimate goal has always been to get published; since I was sixteen, all I’ve ever wanted was to see my work in print. And on a library shelf, too—that would be really cool, to browse through the stacks and find my book there.
Q: I noticed you submitted a blog about a poem you wrote when a teenager "Out of-- Whack? ...why did you give up writing poetry...or have you?
A: I began concentrating more on writing stories, and slowly left poetry behind. I actually wrote a ton of it from age thirteen to seventeen (poetry as well as song lyrics), but as my focus changed, less and less it became something I wanted to do, so I ended up quitting it altogether.
I did write a poem a couple of months ago, a horror ditty about a slug demon who comes to kill a family in a farmhouse, only to be captured and put on display. Good idea, but as a poem, it sucked. I’m turning it into a story.
Q: You mentioned in your writing that your husband (Mr. Calm, and your steadfast supporter) sees a lot of sex in your writing...does that still hold true?
A: Ha! I asked him about this, because honestly, when he said that, I was extremely puzzled. Now, he doesn’t remember saying that. Mr. Calm is not a reader; I think the last book I saw him finish was fourteen years ago, and only because it was required reading for his Lit. class. His bag is more The Wall Street Journal and CEO magazine, so he rarely reads my work. I actually feel like I’m harassing him to get him to do it, and he groans if it’s over 3,000 words. The story he said that about, “Gotcha!”, featured two teenagers who liked to have sex after they played morbid little mind games on their victims, and it was the first time in a while that I’d featured mentions of sex so prominently in a story (although it wasn’t explicitly described). After discussing it, we decided that he was probably either trying to get my goat, or… erm, subliminally suggesting that he’d be willing to read stories that have sex in them.
Q: You have recently re-published an interesting piece I would like to know more about. Jesus in My Pocket, what was the moving force behind it?
A: I’ve put it back up on Lit.org because right now, I can’t find a market for it, and I’m not sure I ever will. It’s an odd story that I’m not sure fits any specific genre, yet I don’t consider ‘literary’, and when I first published it here, was taken in completely different ways than I’d intended (not a bad thing!). I really wrote it for my dad, sort of an in-joke, because he worked on the psych ward for twenty-eight years. I also wanted to explore a “What if?” What if modern psychiatry is diagnosing and medicating people who aren’t having hallucinations, but real visions? It was something I’d been tossing around for awhile.
Q: In Meeting an Inspiration, you recount your feelings and experiences at a reading by author Robert McCammon (Speaks the Nightbird)...what do you take away from an actual "in situ" reading that you do not get from just reading the work yourself?
A: The back-story that the author doesn’t include if he/she doesn’t write a foreword or afterword, and in “Speaks the Nightbird”, there weren’t any. At the reading, we learned how long Mr. McCammon took to research the book (a year, part of which was spent in Colonial Williamsburg), the problems he had with the publisher he was originally contracted with, the reasons he wanted to write the novel (loves history). And it’s an extreme treat just to get to spend over an hour with one of your favorite writers.
I’m still sorry I didn’t have the nerve to tell him how one of his afterwords inadvertently encouraged me to keep going when I was twenty-eight.
Q: In that same piece you touched on the issue of artistic integrity and not bending over to an editor’s or publisher’s will if it interlopes on the artist vision of the work. How important is that to you?
A: I think it would suck if you spent an inordinate amount of time thinking, planning, writing, re-writing, editing, getting your book ‘just right’ in your mind and on paper, searching out an agent, going through rejection after rejection, finally finding an agent, waiting for the agent to do their job, finally getting a publisher, and then finding out that they want a part—perhaps an integral plot point—changed, simply because of their market data, or what they think will sell better, entice more readers. I do understand the bottom line, but I don’t think I could ever bow to it if I didn’t agree with it, because while being paid would be nice, it’s not the most imperative thing for me. I just want to be read. But I don’t want people reading what I’m not happy with. So, it’s very important to me that whatever vision I have for a story is preserved. I’m very happy that the editors of the anthology my novella’s appearing in don’t want to change anything; there are specific things in there that contribute to the story, and can’t be modified without taking away from my overall point.
Q:: I have heard writers (and aspiring writers) say that they didn't mind a little literary prostitution if it gets them the audience and platform they seek...do you think there is merit in that philosophy?
A: I don’t agree with that philosophy. It sounds a little desperate to me. I'd rather stay true to myself and remain happy with what I've produced than do anything as a means to a desired end.
Q: How has the internet impacted your endeavors, both as a reader and a writer?
A: As a reader, I’ve been introduced to an entire new world of zines, which before I’d thought only existed on paper, and other writers. As a writer, this site here has been like a godsend. Like I said before, I was seriously contemplating giving it up, although the road ahead looked pretty bleak without writing. I think I Googled around and found Lit.org, and decided to give it a try. The results were encouraging; before, I didn’t have readers (I don’t particularly like to harass my family), and I certainly didn’t have constructive criticism or feedback. I didn’t really have an idea if my writing was good or not. Here, my confidence was given the boost that it badly needed.
Another plus about the internet is that it certainly saves me a ton of money on submission costs.
Q: Confessions of a Blue-Ribbon Junkie was a delightful journey for me. How many blue ribbons do you have, and which are you the most proud of?
A: I have three blue ribbons so far—one for amateur art (a drawing of the three fates from Greek mythology), one for a collection of mine (presidential campaign buttons), and one for parmesan-oregano bread. I’m most proud of two ribbons: the first one I got, second place for amateur art at the Topsfield Fair in MA in 1998, and my Best in Show in 2001 for a decorated cake. That’s a nice big purple ribbon.
I truly am a nut about it this year; I think, so far, I have seven entries perfected, and in the baking category alone, I’ll end up with about a dozen. I about passed out last year from just six entries, so I might end up putting myself into a coma this time. But hey, if I get a ribbon, it’ll all be worth it.
Q: Please select your favorite among your many writings and tell us about it and why it is your favorite.
A: It’s really hard to choose just one. I’ll choose “Picker”, which is here at Lit.org. I set out to gross people out, and I did. Out of all my stories, it received the best response, and when it was published at “The House of Pain” zine, I received my first piece of fan mail. The guy said something along the lines of, “This story made me want to puke, but I couldn’t stop reading it.” I sent him back a nice thank you.
Q: Is there a particular incident or event that sparked one of your stories...I'm ferreting out the "back-story " here... please share
A: I generally don’t like to write from real-life experiences (although I will add tiny things from real life; those are easier to handle), because I tend to get bogged down or overwhelmed by the details. I tried to write out of revenge several times, to constructively get out my anger against a man who harassed me, but all attempts fizzled. But a few weeks ago, I wrote a long story entitled, “Fireflies”, that turned into sort of an autobiography of a part of my childhood in the ‘70s, although I changed a few names, situations, and added a fantasy element. I’d thought it would be painful, because part of the story deals with molestation from a neighbor, but it really flowed out, and reminded me that despite (the fact) that we were poor, lived on the ‘wrong side of the tracks’, I was goofy-looking and shy, and experienced something traumatic, most of my childhood memories are very happy ones. Writing it was cathartic.
Q: You seem to write dialogue with ease, which is often the place where a story is made or lost...Can you give your readers any sage advice about writing dialogue...how do you keep it from sounding forced or stilted?
A: That’s something that’s always come pretty easily to me. As well as writing realistic dialogue, I love reading it; if done well, it adds a great sense of place to a story. I think part of it, for me, comes from unconsciously picking up different speech patterns and adding them to my own. I’d say listen carefully to the way other people talk, say what you want to write aloud to see if it sounds plausible, and don’t be afraid to throw grammar out the window. I think that’s a big part of it; although there are a lot of people who speak correctly, there are just as many who don’t (just like there are Southerners with thick accents, there are some who don’t have one at all; and not all Northerners say ‘wicked’ and ‘tonic’). Just like your characters have different… characteristics, looks, their speech will be unique, too.
There is a downside, though. I wrote a long story a while back that was mainly dialogue, and one of the two main characters was a Southern woman with a thick country accent. When I finished, I’d wondered if I’d overdone it. So many ‘o’s dropped out of ‘to’ and ‘a’ instead of ‘of’—I wasn’t sure anyone would be able to follow what she was saying.
Q: In your recent write-off submission, The Wedding, there was a quirky twist with a chicken wedding...where did that idea come from?
A: My head, and my youngest sister. She and her husband don’t have children, but they do have Chihuahuas. She had a mock wedding a while back, with her first two dogs, and I think still has a framed picture of the bride and groom, dressed in wedding garb, in her living room. So, I just changed the dogs to chickens for “The Wedding”.
Q: What is the worst thing you have ever written...give us a synopsis and why it has the distinction of "worst"...feel free to include it if you like..
A: I am a genius, and have never written anything bad at all (the sound of crickets chirping meets that response…)
Seriously, I think the worst thing I’ve written was a story I wrote a year or so after I started writing horror, in my mid-twenties. It was about some old men in a bar, and a young woman comes in one night. Eventually, they learn that she was someone they’d raped and killed when they were young men, and she’d made a deal with the Devil to come back and exact her revenge. What made the story suck was the non-stop violence during the last half. Although there was reason for it, there was no rhyme, no nuances at all, and it read more like a list of how to torture and kill old men. I’ve since lost the story, so I don’t even remember the name of it.
Q: Does being a "southerner" impact your writing at all?
A: I go back and forth on that. When I was living up north, my settings were mainly Southern, and living up there made it difficult, research-wise; I rarely visited down here. When I moved back down here, my settings were mainly Northern, but luckily I remember enough to fill in the details. Now, I’m trying my hand at a good ole Southern gothic novel, and I’m glad I’m down here. You can’t properly research RC Cola and Moon Pies, Christian talk radio, NASCAR, and swarming cicadas up north.
Cornered! Rapid-fire want to knows:
Q: Favorite poem of all time?
A: Warning by Jenny Joseph.
Q: Favorite non-fiction work
A: Any of the old paperback cookbooks put out by the Culinary Institutes of America and Good Housekeeping.
Q: Favorite fiction work
A: Gone South by Robert McCammon
Q: Favorite short story/writer?
A: The Mist by Stephen King
Q: Kind of music you like (since music is so
closely related to and intertwined with writing)
A: Different kinds… right now, I’m listening to classical on NPR, Puddle of Mudd, Foo Fighters, Matchbox Twenty, Liz Phair, Stacey Orrico, S Club 7 (credit my kids for those last two), Maroon 5, Lucy Kaplansky (folk), Lo-Fidelity All Stars, and Seal. On the turntable is Cat Stevens’s “Tea for the Tillerman”, my first musical memory.
Q: Pet peeves in others writing
A: Long technical explanations that fly over most readers’ heads, and only serve to stroke the writer's ego. Excessive exclamation points, especially in horror. Too-vague endings that make me want to knock my head against the wall
Q: Favorite guilty pleasure?
A: Adding horseradish-bacon powder to food and not telling my family about it. Drooling over certain actors on TV. Sneaking up on my cat Figaro and scaring her (although she’s thirteen, and I should quit that soon before I give her a heart attack). Watching "Teen Nick", although my kids think it's cool. Too many others to list here.
Q: Most loved movie?
A: “The Shawshank Redemption”. Every time it’s on, I watch it, and every time, I cry.
Q: What do your two daughters like in the way of stories and/or books
A: My older daughter loves manga, the Harry Potter series (what got her into reading in the first place), The Babysitters Club series, and a series about a coven of teenage witches (I can’t remember the name). My younger daughter takes after her dad, and doesn’t particularly care to read. Although I did find her a series of books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor a few weeks ago, three books that I’d read when I was her age (eleven), and she loved them—read them in four days.
Q: Q: Close your eyes and picture yourself in April, 2009. Describe your world.
A: I will be 38, my younger daughter will be in twelfth grade, readying to graduate. I guess I’ll be gearing up for ‘empty nest syndrome’, as well as in periomenopause, which, if my mother and all the other women in my family are any indication, I’ll be having erratic, irritating mood swings, and my husband will be saving money to send me to a mountain retreat. I will be the focus of a Publisher’s Weekly article: “Where in the World is Athena Workman?”, and my book sales will soar from the publicity. Yoga and fruit juice and herbal tea fasting won’t help, and I’ll churn out a book of gobbledygook about the honkerboogers (my childhood name for ‘dustbunnies’) under my bed. And then I’ll flee to Intercourse, PA, and feast on all the samples in the Jam Kitchen of Kitchen Kettle Village until they throw me out for nauseating the other customers.
In reality, I will be 38, and my younger daughter will be ready to graduate, but I’ll probably be planning to go to culinary school to learn to be a pastry chef. I’ll probably be worrying over my older daughter, who’ll be in college then and turning nineteen. Hopefully, I’ll still be running Lost in the Dark, because I enjoy it so much. And my husband will be running his own company; something he wants very much. I’ll also be doing extensive research into odd festivals around the country, so my husband and I will have places to visit when we go a-roaming in our RV at vacation time.
Q: You can visit anyplace in the world...with six people (living or dead)...where are you and with whom?
A: I’d be in England with Edward Gorey, S.K. Epperson (mystery/horror writer), Catherine the Great, Samuel Pepys, and Goran Visnjic (eye candy).
My thanks to Elphaba for taking her time to be EXPOSED! If EXPOSED! is a success, it is because of readers and participants who have inquiring minds and wonderful experiences to share...Next week, we'll be romping through the mind of Beckett Grey
Claire
Questions, comments and volunteers welcomed at exposedwriters@hotmail.com
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EXPOSED! at lit.org (williamhill)
