Give us
your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?
Claiming
a Body is a collection of short stories, many of them
in the literary crime genre. It’s set in the Midwest and focuses on characters
dealing with relationship issues, climate change, and economic uncertainty. It
also contains stories of those living life after trauma. Their worldview has
permanently shifted, and they’ve come out with a certain amount of levity and
dark humor. Yet, these characters don’t want your pity. They are down but not
out.
Which
character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And, which character gave you the
most trouble, and why?
One character I really enjoy is Liz from “The
Calumet”. Yet she often makes choices I wouldn’t. I suppose she’s not as
careful as I am. Maybe I’m drawn to Liz’s motivation to be judicious about who
she loves or who she befriends. Yet,
it’s her soft spot, her sympathy for Rich, that ultimately gets her into
trouble. She’s certainly not heroic, but she is human as well as strong in some
unrealized ways.
I struggled most with the narrator in
“Buried”. The genesis of this story was grounded in some personal experience in
the construction industry. So, I had some firsthand experience with the
logistics of housing during the start of the fracking boom in North Dakota. But
I wouldn’t have made the choices the narrator makes. Certainly, her love and loyalty
to her brother is more understandable. At the same time, I like the gritty
action scenes that came out in that piece.
Tell us
a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.
Certainly the high point was the phone call
from the editor Mike Czyzniejewski to say I’d won the fiction prize. Then it
was telling friends and family. I also enjoyed revisiting characters while
making small edits to the galley.
The lows for this book were the amount of
times I was a finalist for fiction prizes at a number of contests. I won’t give
you the number here, but it’s pretty substantial.
What’s
your favorite piece of writing advice?
I think it’s “Write what you’d like to read.” This always seems like the most straightforward advice. I think I’ve reached
the other incarnation of this which is “Why am I writing this?” I feel like in
the face of our contemporary political system and culture, this is something I
constantly say to myself now. It usually forces me to drop any pretense and
write something that really means something to me.
My
favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What
surprised you in the writing of this book?
All these stories went through several
iterations where I was trying to uncover what they were actually about. “Faker” is the story that surprised me
the most. I went into it thinking it
was about a high school student, Brett, who does not want to work on his dad’s
chicken farm because it’s brutal, and his dad isn’t taking care of the waste
properly. A lot of these stories have this environmental concern that gets
wrapped up in the landscape.
So, he is thinking about how he might make an anonymous
tip and trigger an unscheduled inspection of the farm. But as the characters
took on a life of their own, it began to be about this young guy who has
cheated on his girlfriend. The girlfriend has a
fantasy of taking revenge, which she begins to act on as the story
progresses. And the boyfriend tries to figure out how likely it is that she’ll
enact these plans.
What surprised me about this story is how
scary it is. A lot of characters in this book struggle to make the right
decision. But Zoe is having some strong emotions absent any impulse control.
And, I think many of us remember what it’s like to be an impulsive teenager.
But this story deals in extremes.
Most of these stories also have this subtext
of how identity is formed by film and TV. So, because characters spend so much
time watching visual media, their only point of reference is this shared
experience with TV / film. But, it’s double-edged because they don’t form their
own identity in a more meaningful way. And so that’s why the main character at
the end of “Faker” asks Amy about their shared experience in the state parks.
The subtext of identity being formed by TV and
film leads to moments of absurdity. And one challenge for me, when dealing with
dark subject matter, is to balance the gallows humor with respect for the
character’s circumstances.
What’s
something about your book that you want readers to know?
I would like to talk a little more about the
theme of “life after trauma” in this book. There are a lot of people walking
around with some level of trauma. Many deal with it differently. Some have
buried it, put it in the past, or have sought professional help. I’m interested
in highlighting the perspectives that come after trauma, however messy they may
be. I feel that there’s hope and optimism in those voices.
Inquiring
foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your
book? (Any recipes I might share?)
In “Werewolf DNA” there’s a lot of cataloguing of Chicago cuisine as characters have
tension-filled business lunches. I was picturing Fulton Market as the setting.
So, in association with this book, I would recommend upscale comfort food,
which Chicago is great for -- the inspired street taco or the booze-infused
donut. Any of the Stephanie Izard restaurants are amazing.
But when I’m making food for friends, I return
to this recipe below. So, let’s imagine we’re meeting for book club. Here’s my
toffee.
This recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Coffee Toffee Recipe
Peanut Butter Toffee
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon salt (Reserve some salt to sprinkle
over the peanut butter layer.)
Dash of cinnamon (This is optional. I have a
thing about cinnamon.)
1 cup peanut butter chips
2 cup dark chocolate chips, of chop up
whatever dark chocolate bars you have stashed in your cupboard
1/2 cup toasted and chopped walnuts
Toast the walnuts. Chop finely and set aside.
In a medium heavy saucepan add the butter,
brown sugar, white sugar, molasses, and ½ the salt. Use a candy thermometer.
Ideally, clip it to the pan. Do not have small children around. Watch out for
your pet. Use a seriously protective hot pad of the mitten persuasion to hold
the handle of the pan. This brew has to get up to 300 F. And, you can’t skip
that, otherwise it won’t crack or have the right consistency.
As it heats up, it gets a little frothy, so
whisk it. I whisk continually, and that works well.
Pour it immediately onto a parchment covered
baking sheet and spread evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle peanut butter chips and
let them melt. Spread the melted chips evenly and lightly salt. You know the
drill. Add that dark chocolate. I pop the whole thing in the oven at 200 for
five minutes. Spread the dark chocolate evenly. Sprinkle with walnuts.
I let it sit overnight. Need to be someplace
ASAP? Put it in the refrigerator. Just be aware that chocolate can get weird if
it doesn’t have a chance to rest comfortably--just like us.
Break it into pieces and share.
READ
MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: Amanda
Marbais
READ
MORE ABOUT THIS PUBLISHER AND THIS BOOK: Moon City Press
ORDER
THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR SHELF: University of Arkansas Press
READ A
STORY FROM THIS BOOK: Horribilis - Electric Literature; May 2019
