Story title: "Bloody Reunions."
1. How did you hear about the Blood Is Thicker anthology, and what convinced you to spend days (weeks? months?) crafting a story about the attempted murder of a character by a member of their family on leap day?
I can't remember exactly how I first heard about it — online somewhere — but I loved the idea. Some family dynamics can get pretty intense, and I liked the idea of a group of stories that would take this idea to an unusual, and hopefully unrealistic, extreme. Normally, stories involving murder don't come naturally to me, so I had to figure out a way to make the first line work for me in a unexpected way.
2. What was the writing process like? Did your story come out with a bang, or did you struggle to make something of the premise?
I have my best ideas in the first few seconds after waking up in the morning, which is what happened with "Bloody Reunions". After thinking about the first line for a week or so, I woke up one morning and bang! I had my idea. Not wanting to forget, I grabbed my phone and typed in the one word that helped to spark my story (starts with p). The rest of it, thankfully, came out fairly quickly over the next several mornings — that's not always the case! Once the main parts of the story were there, I did countless re-writes and re-workings. The editors at Iguana were also a wonderful help.
3. How long have you been writing, and what are some of your writing goals and/or successes so far?
I've been writing on and off for as long as I can remember but I've only started getting a bit more serious about it this year. "Bloody Reunions" is my first publication. I would love to be able to have more of my short stories published this year and next. I've also just completed a second draft of my first book.
4. What’s your favourite line or passage in your submission, and why?
The first line, of course!
Also, the passage that talks about the cabin's bathroom makes me smile everytime. Although I've never been there, I have a friend whose family cabin bathroom actually operates just like the one I describe in "Bloody Reunions". Every family is so wonderfully different!
5. What’s your writing routine?
I'm a stay-at-home parent at the moment, so I try to write every morning while the kids are at school. Sometimes I can edit at night when the kids are asleep, but I'm pretty un-smart past 8 p.m.
6. What do you do for a living (or if you’re retired, what did you do), and what do you do for fun?
Before I was at home with the kids, I worked for universities, governments, and museums, usually in a research-related capacity. For fun I try to spend time outside — jogging, gardening, taking my kids to the beach, camping, reading. Funnily enough, I've never actually done the outdoor activity that figures prominently in "Bloody Reunions" (though I've always wanted to try it!).
7. If you could have a lunch date with any person living or dead, who would it be and why?
My grandparents. I know that’s two people but I can’t choose. Since they’ve both passed away I would love to have another conversation with them, ask them questions about their childhoods. My grandpa was very funny, so I’d also like to have some more laughs with him.
8. What’s a favourite book that you’ve read in the past five years? Notice we didn’t ask you to name your ultimate favourite. We’re not monsters!
I’ve read several books in the last five years that I’ve really enjoyed, but I’m going to say On the Road by Jack Kerouac, just because I read it most recently and it surprised me. Before I started reading it, I actually thought I wouldn't like it! I usually like a good plot, but this might be one of the first books I've read where I really didn’t care so much about what was going to happen (though that was interesting too) as I did about how it was going to happen — his prose, and his perspective. I don’t think that I’d be able to write anything as personal as he did.
9. What else should readers know about you?
Like Patrick's family in "Bloody Reunions", sometimes my family members actually greet each other with quack quack, rather than hello.