Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.
Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?
The nine
stories in this collection explore class, identity, loneliness, and the specter
of violence that looms over women and the LGBTQ+ community. For personal
reasons, I spend a lot of time with characters who try—and often fail—to
make peace with their pasts while navigating their present relationships and
notions of self. I often say that I write sad, funny stories, and I
think that is true of this collection.
Which story did you most enjoy writing? Why? And which
story gave you the most trouble, and why?
The answer to both questions is the same: the final story,
which is a short novella entitled “Just Another Family,” gave me the most
trouble and the most pleasure, probably for the same reason. That is, when you
struggle for a long time with a story, as I did with this one, the pleasure of
finally figuring it out is considerable. I don’t know when I started the story,
but my records indicate that I got my first rejection in 2015. I kept rewriting
and sending it out, and it kept getting rejected. I set it aside finally for
around five years, and when I returned to it in late 2022, the voice just
kicked in and pulled me along, and the story nearly tripled in length. In the
process, the story became more hopeful, the humor darker, the main character
more dynamic.
Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s
road to publication.
During the pandemic, my former agent went out with a novel
that was not quite ready. She was struggling with the pressures of the
pandemic, as we nearly all were, and the submission process fell apart. We had
always had a good relationship, so it was with some sadness that I parted ways
with her. By this point, I had stopped writing, a fallow period that lasted a
couple of years. I wondered whether I would ever write again, but then one day
something turned back on, and I sat down at my desk and opened up the novella
that I mentioned above. I wrote several more stories, and these combined with
stories that I had written and published in journals earlier formed the basis
of ARE YOU HAPPY?, which meant that I found myself in the awful position of
having to query agents with a story collection. I was lucky enough to secure
representation by an agent I had long admired. The process of selling the
collection in some ways went smoothly, and in other ways was stressful as hell.
I got an offer from Emily Bell, whom I had nearly worked with on my last book. Since
then, she had moved from FSG to Zando, and shortly after I accepted the offer
for a two-book deal, she moved to Astra House, ultimately taking me with her.
There were lots of twists and turns along the way, but that is the tame
version.
What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?
Kurt Vonnegut’s advice to write for an audience of one. The
advice, on the surface, seems counterintuitive, but the most unusual
voices—which is what I am always drawn to—details and observations evolve out
of this advice, I think. In my case, if my wife—who is my first and usually
only reader—laughs or understands the nuance, I go with it.
My favorite writing advice is “write until something
surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?
Oh, lots of things surprised me, but one of the things that
surprised me only later, when a reader pointed it out during the galleys
process, was that there were lots of cats in the book and they were all
named Gertrude. I have never had a cat named Gertrude, but I thought it was a
funny name for a cat, I guess, and somehow the joke just kept getting retold.
How did you find the title of your book?
When I submitted the book to my now agent during the
querying process, I had tentatively titled it JUST ANOTHER FAMILY, which was
the name of the novella. The title works for the novella, but felt flat as a
book title, not memorable. Another story was entitled “The Peeping Toms,” and I
had toyed with that as a title also, since some of the stories deal with themes
of voyeurism and being or feeling watched. When my agent and I had our first
conversation about the book, he said, “Why not call it Are You Happy?”
That was the name of another story, yet somehow I had never considered this as
a title, but as soon as Henry said it, I knew that this was the title.
Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any
food/s associated with your book?
In “Clear as Cake,” several of the scenes take place in a
dive bar that I spent a lot of time in during college, and the only food
available came from a huge jar that sat on the counter. It was filled with
pickled gizzards, which I occasionally sampled. In the story, I went with
pickled eggs.
*****
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS AUTHOR:
ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: Either your
favorite independent bookstore or Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/are-you-happy-stories-lori-ostlund/21741930
READ A STORY FROM THIS BOOK, “The Gap Year”:
