Shoutout Q&A with Amelia Valasek
Author of “Mud Season” in Split Lip Magazine
Welcome back to our Friday feature: Shoutout Q&A.
Check out our archives for access to great short stories published across the last half-year-plus, including this posting from February: an appreciation of Amelia Valasek’s eerie opus “Mud Season” in Split Lip Magazine.
Amelia Valasek is an Idahoan, the holder of a Masters of Art in Technical Writing and Communication. If you haven’t read “Mud Season” yet, check it out at the link above. If you have, you certainly remember it :)—it’s the tale of a small town that is besieged by doppelgängers who suddenly drop into the lives of their unsuspecting doubles.
You can also check out Amelia’s “Cathedral” in Halfway Down the Stairs lit mag, as well as her story “Monkey” in issue 0 of Necksnap Magazine.
Hey Amelia! I’m going to crib from the “Mud Season” origin story you detailed in Split Lip’s Just One Thing interview feature (spend some time over at Split Lip, reader, it’s a gift that keeps on giving) to give everyone a behind-the-scenes sneak peak:
“A while back I was deep-cleaning my office and came across a bunch of random scribbles […] I didn’t remember writing. It was an odd sensation, to read these things that certainly sounded like me, but which I had no recollection of creating–almost like a benevolent doppelgänger had crafted and left them behind for me to discover
Of course, doppelgängers are not benevolent. They are a threat to the core of how we exist in the world. The idea that someone (or something) could be running around wearing your face and fucking with your life is terrifying on a primal level […] I’d like to claim that I set out to explore these grand themes of identity and reality, but really I just poked the anthill of this quiet little town and that’s what came scurrying out.”
How was “Mud Season” received once it was out in the world? And what can you tell us about your publishing experience with Split Lip?
I’m not sure how to answer the first part of the question, since I’m not really on the socials and am still pretty new to the whole lit mag scene…but given that the story got accepted by Split Lip (!) and then made its way onto your radar shows that it has resonated with folks out in the wider world. To be honest, I’m still kind of blown away that Split Lip accepted the story in the first place.
As for my experience publishing with Split Lip, I can say it was fantastic. The editorial crew at that magazine had some really great feedback about the second half of the story, which I took to heart and ended up adding in quite a bit about [the main character] Eliza and expanding her portion of the story more, and they were really supportive of that. They also helped me figure out a much better title for the story, which is something I’m not great at.
Two words came to mind for me after re-reading “Mud Season” (and I strongly recommend reading / re-reading it, at the link above). The first was a feeling of reportage…there’s a calm, almost dispassionate feeling in the third-person P.O.V. telling, which really amps up the creepiness (especially when we reach the murder scene). Did you experiment with different points-of-view, or different tones / voicing, or did you drop right into the choices you ultimately made right from the start?
Reportage! That’s a great way to describe it. I’m drawn to stories where there is a high amount of contrast between the voice and the plot. So, when the stuff happening in the story is crazy or creepy, a matter-of-fact tone provides a lot of contrast. When a story is really mundane, a bonkers melodramatic voice can be really fun.
For this particular story, I dropped right into the voice. It’s funny how some stories land more or less fully formed and just kind of pour out of you. The piece I published at Halfway Down the Stairs (“Cathedral”) was the same way—it tumbled out of me in a single sitting with a rather unusual prose-poetry format. (I will clarify though, that just because something pours out in a single sitting does NOT mean it is ready to publish. Both pieces underwent a significant amount of editing between draft and publication).
Then there are other pieces where I have a really great idea for a story and I struggle to get it off the ground. Usually when that happens, it’s because it’s in the wrong POV or voice. For me, voice and POV is my way into a story and once I get that right, the rest comes much easier.
Couldn’t agree with you more on voice / POV being foundational! The second word that struck me re: “Mud Season” was consequence, which is the thought you leave us with at the very end:
“She thought of every hurtful thing she had ever said or done, whether on purpose or by accident, of every girl she’d made fun of in school, of the boys and men she’d seduced and rejected, of the waiters and workers she’d failed to tip (or even be kind to). Lying there in the dark, her well-appointed home closing in around her, Eliza thought of all the people she had stepped over or left behind on her way to bigger, better things, and she was very, very afraid.”
Anything you can tell us about what brought you to that idea? And on a similar note, are there any prominent individuals currently on the national scene that you’d like to place this story in the hands of?
For me, the ending to this story was a logical, inevitable extension of all scenes and characters who came earlier. Even though [the main character] Eliza’s part in the story is the most violent and disturbing, the whole town is this tinderbox of repressed longing and intrusive thoughts.
Everyone’s doppelgängers are acting out their dark fantasies (even the dog…who longs to eat his neighbor’s chickens). The only entity who really embraced its double was the fox, who was seen running with its twin down the alley. I don’t know what that means, but it feels significant now that I’m thinking about it. Perhaps a wild thing can’t really have repressed longing in the same way civilized animals do.
Anyway…as for Eliza, what was interesting for me in writing the ending was how she isn’t really ashamed about the way she’s lived her life. She’s not looking back on all those decisions thinking “Wow, I was really an awful person, I need to make amends, I need to do better.” She’s still this essentially selfish person whose primary worry is that someone else will do her harm. I don’t know if she’s really learned anything or grown as a person. Unfortunately, some people are just like that.
As for individuals on the national scene—assuming we’re referring to powerful people who make major decisions (whether billionaires or politicians)—I imagine they probably operate in much the same way as Eliza does. I enjoy a good bit of schadenfreude as much as the next person when it comes to powerful people getting their comeuppance…but I’m not sure it will really make them better, more empathetic people.
For writers new to the short-story-submission-for-publication game, what can you tell us about your journey? And how have you dealt with the onslaught of rejections that befall us all?
I’m still pretty new to this whole publication game. Compared to some of the other folks you’ve interviewed, my list of published pieces is quite short. But in my non-literary (i.e. working) life I’ve done a whole lot of grant writing, so I’m pretty used to rejection. It just comes with the territory.
So far, I’ve been pretty picky about where I submit, which I do think has helped my success rate. I really try to make sure I’m submitting to magazines that are a good fit in terms of vibe and tone. I like to write weird stuff that’s hard to categorize. So I try to find magazines that are looking for that kind of thing. I wouldn’t submit a story to a magazine if I wouldn’t also read that magazine for fun in my free time.
Something I did recently that I highly recommend was volunteer to be a reader for a literary magazine that I like. It was a really great experience to be on the other side of the selection process because I got to see the number and quality of pieces that are considered and understand a bit better what really makes a story or poem or creative nonfiction essay stand out from all the others. I’m using that experience as a lens to revisit some of the pieces I’ve had out on submission for a while that aren’t getting any traction. It has helped me take my ego out of the equation and look at those stories again from an editorial perspective.
Can you shoutout a fellow writer / story / book that you think the world needs to have its eyes on now?
I was reading Propagule Magazine recently and came across a piece that really creeped me out. I immediately looked up the writer and discovered that he has a whole bunch of wonderfully weird stuff published. His name is Robert John Miller. If you like weird stuff, I recommend checking out both Propagule Magazine and Mr. Miller’s writing.
With regard to books…oh man. There are so many good ones. One surprising one that left me rather floored recently is an older book that’s been around a while. The book is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind. The name is kind of hokey, but the writing and story are amazing. It’s one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time.
What are you working on now? Are you sticking with short form writing, or are novels or other long form stories in the future for you?
I’ve had a novel-length project in the works for a few years now but it’s far from finished so I won’t bore you with the details except to say it’s historical fiction with some elements of fantastical weirdness and maybe a cult for good measure.
I’ll keep writing short-form though. I love how short stories allow for a higher level of weirdness and experimentation. I’ve been dipping my toes into flash and micro fiction lately and am loving how bonkers I can get when working in those extreme formats.
Thanks again, Amelia. We’re bonkers for your regular use of the word bonkers. And we’re looking forward to those weird, new stories and your novel-in-progress, so shout when they’re coming so we can broadcast them :)
Support up-and-coming writers. For free!
All it takes is an email address…
Thanks for reading Short Story Shoutout.
Check out our archives for more bracing, new short stories, more about the journals that publish them, and interviews with the writers who brought them to life.
And if you’re feeling it, please recommend us to your friends so we can bring more eyes to writers on the come up, weekly.
Comments