TBR [to be read] is a new feature on my blog, a semi-regular,
invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming,
interesting books who will tell us about their new work as well as offer tips
on writing, stories about the publishing biz, and from time to time, a recipe!
Give us your elevator
pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?
Thank Your Lucky Stars
is a collection of 50 flash fiction and longer stories that lean a little dark
and weird.
Which story did you
most enjoy creating? Why? And, which story gave you the most trouble, and why?
I loved writing so many of these stories, but the one I’m
most proud of these days is “Dance,” which was also in the awesome anthology Pie
& Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence of Booze and Butter. I’ve
always wanted to write a story with a roving third person close point of view.
Richard Yates does this in Revolutionary
Road and Toni Morrison does it in Sula
and it always seemed like unreachable literary magic. When I set out to write
the story for the anthology (it was assigned to me by Sam Ligon with a ridiculously
tight deadline), I finally realized that I understood enough about point of
view to give it a go. That’s when Viv and Matty showed up on the page along
with a taxidermied deer head. One of the requirements of the story for the
anthology was that it had to have either pie or whiskey in it. I was happy to
comply and include both.
The story that gave me the most trouble is not in the
collection. Seriously, it was almost in the collection. I’d been working on it
for almost 20 years and still I had to take it out because it just wasn’t
working. But the one that was equally troublesome and also took me 20 years to
finish is the long story “Open and Shut.” There’s a kind of continuous present
in the story that always kept me coming back to it, but I just couldn’t get the
characters to be likeable enough. I
feel pretty good about that story now though.
Tell us a bit about
the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.
The manuscript for this story collection resides in a folder
on my laptop that is labeled “2012 Story Collection.” That’s when I first
pulled together what I thought would be one story collection from all the
stories I’d written and published over the years. As I put together the
collection it became clear to me that some stories just didn’t fit. They had a
different, darker, and weirder tone. Plus, I had way too many pages for one
manuscript. So I slowly put together what would become my debut story
collection Whiskey, Etc. The outtakes
went into a second Word document and I soon realized that they worked together
in a different way and they became Thank
Your Lucky Stars (It wasn’t titled that then though. I think the title then
was Fucking Beautiful, a great but not really practical title). I sent both
manuscripts to an editor who had requested them at a university press and they
sat with her for two years. Two years. Yep. I queried every 6 weeks. Yep.
Eventually
both manuscripts were declined. That’s when I made a big list of small presses
that had an interest in/history with publishing flash fiction. I asked around,
got some recommendations, and started sending just Whiskey, Etc. out to contests and presses—at least 15 places, maybe
more. I’m not sure why I didn’t send the TYLS manuscript out but it might have
had something to do with it not really having a good title and also that the
really bad story was still in there and I didn’t feel as confident with it,
even though the editor who held both collections for two years said it was the
stronger manuscript. Whiskey, Etc.
was accepted and published by Queen’s Ferry Press, which then kind of imploded
a year later. In the mean time, I’d revised and sent an as yet not correctly
titled manuscript to a bunch of contests and publishers. Christine Stroud at
Autumn House Press liked it and agreed to publish it. In the meantime, Autumn
House also agreed to pick up Whiskey,
Etc. So now both books are published by Autumn House, which is nice and
tidy. The two books are the same size and make a sweet matching set for your
bookshelf.
What’s your favorite
piece of writing advice?
It came from Tim O’Brien and it’s very simple but it has
helped me tremendously in revision. He said, “Don’t forget to look around.” And
he meant look around in your head and in your scene when you’re writing. Don’t
get too myopic. What does your character see, really see?
My favorite writing
advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the
writing of this book?
How many pieces of flash fiction you need to write and
revise in order to have a book-length collection. Between the two collections
there are 107 stories. Most of those have been published. Typing that just made
me very tired.
But that’s probably not what you meant. I love when
characters take off and just say stuff that I personally would never say or do.
I love when they kind of get away from me and out of my head and I just follow
behind. That happened to great extent with the story “Monkey Head.” It was a
much different story even from when it was originally published in Thumbnail. When I revisited it in the
collection I realized Katey Lynn was more messed up and more complex than I’d
made her previously and it was really exciting to dig back into that story.
How did you find the
title of your book?
This manuscript had many titles along the way. So many I
don’t think I can remember them all. One was Fucking Beautiful, which I
mentioned above, another was Mind Body Heart Lungs, which is the title of the
story that I ended up pulling from the manuscript entirely. I still love that
title and maybe someday 20 years from now I will finally finish that story.
Another was Open and Shut, which is another story title but also very boring.
How I Left Ned and Other Stories was another option, again a story title and
this was a contender down to the finish line. For a while I had Thank My Lucky
Stars as another title option and I liked it but it never seemed quite right.
And then my friend the amazing writer Chuck Kinder read the manuscript. Chuck
is the best titler in the world. He actually suggested quite a few title
changes for stories within the manuscript while he was going through it
(suggestions that I took), but my main challenge to him was to help me find a
title for the whole thing. He suggested Thank Your Lucky Stars and that shift
from “My” to “Your” just made it click. It makes a connection to the reader and
it looks better typed out.
Inquiring foodies and
hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any
recipes you might share?)
Oh yes. I’m a big baker and cook and I also teach in the
Food Studies program at Chatham University so I’m around food ideas and
theories on a regular basis. There is a lot of corn in the first story “How I
Left Ned.” The corn itself kind of becomes a character there. And there’s a
lame microwaved baked potato in that one, too. In “Dance” Matty spends his days
baking so we see him make a pear pie as well as raspberry, walnut mascarpone
hand pies. There’s fried chicken and espresso, diner coffee and those rotating
displays you find in diners with a selection of pie. There’s a dinner party
with wine, garlic mashed potatoes, and steak. There are Pittsburgh women
pinching pierogis and birds pecking at crumbs. There are gardens and a kind of
film noir/American musical mash up of chopping onions for dinner. Thai takeout,
Grapenuts, bakeries, coffee shops, cafes, tea, whiskey, Scotch, and beer.
As far as a recipe goes: The hand pie recipe is in the Pie
& Whiskey anthology if
anyone would like to check that out. My pear pie recipe is as follows below
(scroll to the page jump).
READ MORE ABOUT
SHERRIE: www.sherrieflick.com
READ MORE ABOUT THE
PUBLISHER: https://www.autumnhouse.org
BUY THIS BOOK FOR
YOUR TBR PILE: https://www.cityofasylumbooks.org/book/9781938769351
READ A STORY, “ASHES”: http://www.smokelong.com/ashes/
Click for recipe: “Matty’s Pear Pie”
Matty’s Pear Pie
Courtesy Sherrie Flick,
author of THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS
6 (firm but ripe) pears cored and thinly sliced. Keep the
skins on.
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
3 Tbls flour
½ c. brown sugar, packed
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
2 Tbls dry sherry (optional)
Preheat oven to 425. Core and slice the pears into a big
bowl. Add the lemon juice, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and
sherry. Toss with your hands to coat the pear slices. Go ahead. It’s fun.
Make a double piecrust. Divide in two. Roll out the bottom
crust and drape into a pie pan so the edges peek over its rim. Add the pear
mixture, making sure its patted down in there with few air pockets. Roll out
the top crust, make some little dashes and marks for air vents and place it on
top of the pie pan. Cut off any extra dough and crimp with your fingers in a
zigzag fashion around the edges so it’s all sealed up.
Bake on a sheet pan for 30 minutes, then reduce the
temperature to 350 and bake until the crust is browning and the goo inside is
bubbling up through those vents you made, about 35 minutes longer.
[This is adapted from Williams Sonoma Pies and Tarts, 1992 edition]