Virginia Watts' story, 'Emily', will open Dark Lane Anthology Vol.11. Her stories and poetry can be found in Illuminations, The Florida Review, CRAFT, Sunspot Literary Journal, and others. Her poetry chapbook, The Werewolves of Elk Creek, is published by Moonstone Press.
Q: What are your working methods? Do you sit down every day to write? Do you have a designated place to work? A: I have no specific schedule or location
for writing and I don’t think about writing in terms of process or method. I am
a bit superstitious that way. I try not to think about writing at all if you
want the whole truth. Writing is something that happens to me more than
anything else. What I do is when an idea arrives for a story or a poem, I sit
down somewhere quiet and start in with immense gratitude and hope. I love every
minute of the process from rough draft to critique editing to letting go of
something knowing I have done the best I could for the idea that came to me. I
have taken plenty of writing classes, workshops, and getaways but there is something
about learning too much about the “craft” of writing that I battle against. It’s
important for me to stay close to my gut and my heart as a writer.
Q: Tell us about one of your favourite short stories and why
you like it (not one of your own).
A: This answer will surely elicit some groans
from memories of dreaded middle school summer reading assignments, but I have
to chose Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” I read this
story when I was young too and the thing is I have never forgotten it. I am
sure it was required school reading but there’s a reason the greats are the
greats. Hemingway is so direct and crystal clear in his characters and story
that you can’t look away from the courage of it all even when you long to. In Francis
Macomber we face our own human weakness and cowardice. What reader hasn’t
wondered. Maybe I would have run away from the lion too! And Margot his wife so
cruel and greedy and domineering. And of course, Wilson. The ultimate user. We may not be any
of these characters overall, but we have all been these people at times and we
have the capacity to be like them again. This story is upsetting and troubling
and true. It is you and me and everyone whether we like it or not. If the
characters in a story never leave you, then it was very simply a damn good story.
Q: Tell us about one of your favourite short stories (written by
you).
A: It is difficult to choose a favourite,
but I am proud of a short story entitled “The Bitterest Winter” which will
appear in a collection of short stories of mine that will be published by The
Devil’s Party Press in the spring of 2023. In this story, the narrator is a
young woman with a new baby girl. She lives in a high-rise apartment in the city
of Chicago. She
comes from a rural background and living in a big city is akin to living on the
surface of the moon. And all these strange balconies. Little spaces floating in
the air all around her that begin to haunt her as she becomes more and more
isolated, alone most of the time with the baby while her husband pursues a high-profile
legal career and one of his attractive and smartly dressed assistants. In the
final scene of the story the young mother is outside walking on her balcony
with the baby in her arms getting closer and closer to the railing. My critique
group all had different ideas about what happened next and that became the success
of that story to me. The ending depends on the reader and just how much they
are willing to imagine and feel.
Q: Where do your ideas come from? Do you go looking for ideas – for example by
brainstorming, or do you wait for inspiration?
My ideas come from all sorts of things
and sometimes I am not sure where they came from. I never brainstorm or use any
technique to drum up ideas to write about because that seems like it wouldn’t
be a “real idea” to me. Ideas that inspire my writing have come from past experiences,
news articles, tv shows, songs, things I see walking, things people say that I
overhear, thoughts I have in silent rooms. The story I mention above was written
after I visited my daughter in Chicago.
She was attending the University
of Chicago as a graduate
student at the time and while there was no husband or baby, there was a balcony
and a city all around us so big it felt like it might swallow us up.
Q: Are
you a full-time writer? If you have another job, what is it and would you like
to become a full-time writer if you could?
A: I do consider
myself a full-time writer of almost ten years and I feel very lucky to be able
to say that. I am a lawyer by education. I have learned a lot in ten years mostly
from the company of other writers who have read my work for me and given me theirs
to read. You cannot be your best if you don’t have a critique group of some kind.
At least, that is what I believe.
Q: What
is the most difficult part of your creative process?
A: The tensest part for
me is the rough draft because I am always hoping, just hoping, that I can take an
idea all the way to the end. I never have an outline or a destination. I never
know where I am going so, I just hope I find my way somewhere that matters. The
other challenge is endings. I don’t want someone to read one of my stories or
poems and get to the end and be let down or frustrated. That’s your last chance
as a writer so you have to try very hard to get the ending as right as it can
be.
Q: If you could go back in time,
what would you say to your younger self about becoming a writer?
A: I have been asked
this before and the answer always makes me sad. I always loved to write. From
the sixth grade. I wrote here and there throughout my life but not like I have
recently where I have finally let myself become dedicated to this. So I would
tell her to not wait for the future. Write whenever you can now no matter what else
you have going on in your life.
Thank you for inviting me to
be interviewed here. I am honoured and thrilled to have my story appear with
those of the other authors in Dark Lane Anthology Volume 11!
