Meet the Author: Melissa Reddish
Last week, I reviewed My Father is an Angry Storm Cloud, and today I’m excited to introduce you to its lovely author, Melissa Reddish. Her stories, poems, and reviews have appeared in print and online journals. When not writing, she teaches English and direcs the Honors Program at Wor-Wic Community College. She lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with her husband, dog, and cat, where she does stereotypical Eastern Shore things like eat crabs smothered in Old Bay and go for long walks down by the water with her black lab. She blogs very occasionally at melissareddish.com.
HEY BOO BOOKS: Welcome aboard, Melissa! What can you tell us about your new book?
MELISSA REDDISH: My Father is an Angry Storm Cloud is a collection of short stories, many of which employ a magical realism technique. For the most part, the protagonists are ordinary people dealing with extraordinary events (a father turning into a storm cloud, a little man arriving in a box, children that devour an entire house) while at the same time dealing with more ordinary pressures (the search for identity, anxieties endemic to modern life, etc.).
HBB: Which of your stories is your favorite? Or is that like asking people to choose a favorite child? Even if it is, I’m asking anyway!
MR: “Barley” is probably my favorite. It’s the first story where a lot of things started clicking for me as writer, and it was nominated for a Pushcart prize!
HBB: What does your writing process typically look like?
MR: Usually I start with the weird thing—the little man, the baby growing out the ground—and then the characters and story spring organically from there. I typically go through several drafts before I have what I would consider a finished story.
HBB: What drew you to the short story form?
MR: I studied the form in college and grad school, and I loved how the best authors could create an entire world in such a compressed space. I was really drawn to the challenge of artfully and judiciously choosing what to include and what to leave out. The short story also lends itself a bit more to different techniques—non-linear narrative, attention to language, associate leaps—that are more difficult in a longer work like a novel.
Has teaching changed the way you write, and has getting published changed the way that you teach?
MR: Teaching has made me more consciously aware of certain writing techniques, especially those in stories I teach over and over again, like Flannery O’Connor. Those techniques become tools I can use unconsciously when drafting and then consciously when editing. Being published has really given me a stronger sense of being a writer and making sure that I honor that—giving myself the time and space to write, not taking on too many additional obligations.
Do you have any tips for budding writers or resources to help them get started?
MR: There are a lot of cool online workshops that can give you necessary feedback—Barrelhouse has one, for instance. Going to conferences is another way to meet other writers and get this awesome and necessary burst of creative energy. (Though I find the people trying to ‘network’ or aggressively promote themselves really obnoxious.) There are also some good websites like Duotrope or Poets & Writers that have some excellent resources (many of which that I use). And having at least one person who will read your work and give you solid feedback is always a plus.
HBB: Where else can we find your work published?
MR: Some journals, in print and online, like decomP, Prick of the Spindle, Northwind, and others. I also have a chapbook of flash fiction titled The Distance Between Us from Red Bird Chapbooks. (They’re a phenomenal publisher—I recommend any of their chapbooks.)
HBB: Which author has inspired you the most?
MR: Probably Margaret Atwood—I love the effortless way she combines literary techniques with genre. Plus, her stories are just really cool.
HBB: Who is the most enjoyable?
MR: Aimee Bender’s latest collection really grabbed me—it was just pure enjoyment to read.
HBB: Your guilty pleasure?
MR: I read the Doctor Who/Star Trek TNG mash-up comic. That was pretty nerdy.
HBB: Your childhood favorite?
MR: Watership Down was my jam. I read it over and over and over again. I even joined a couple discussion boards and websites (back when the internet was just a baby) where I created a rabbit alter ego.
HBB: Your current favorite?
MR: Valparaiso Round the Horn by Madeline ffitch is probably the best collection I’ve read in recent memory.
HBB: What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
MR: This quote by Ira Glass. It was a game-changer:
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
HBB: In an alternate universe, writers and teachers don’t exist (or, you know, something). What do you do with your life instead?
MR: I am an astronomer, and all the love and attention I put into words I now put into naming the stars. That’s what astronomers do, right?
HBB: You’re stranded on a desert island and can only have five books. Which ones are they?
MR: Atwood’s Maddaddam trilogy (which I’m counting as one book because at some point it will probably be collected in a single tome); all of the Harry Potters (again, single tome); Return to the City of White Donkeys, by James Tate; New American Stories, collected by Ben Marcus; and War and Peace, because really, when else am I going to read this?
