12 or 20 (second series) questions with Stephanie Austin

Stephanie Austin is the author of SOMETHING IMIGHT SAY out now from WTAW Press. Her short stories and essays haveappeared in more than 25 literary journals in the United States and Canada. Sheruns the Mugshot Writers project on Instagram @mugshot_writers2 You cansubscribe to her newsletter or learn more about her writing at her website:stephanieaustin.net

1 - How did your firstbook change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous?How does it feel different?

My first book just cameout July 18. I don’t know how it feels yet. I’ve spent twenty years workingtoward a book publication. It feels surreal. Also, oddly, hard to accept?Success is, bizarrely, sometimes a harder pill to swallow than failure. 

2 - How did you come toshort stories first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?

When I was growing up, Iwanted to write screenplays. (I still want to write screenplays.) Then Istudied creative writing and thought I’d write novels. But you don’t studynovels in early CRW classes, you study short stories, which is awesome, butthen it’s also unsustainable because no one publishes short story collections[except for the people who do but those people are fledging small presses (orbigger presses you get by lucking into an agent because you have an interlinkedstory collection which is basically a novel)].

3 - How long does it taketo start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially comequickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to theirfinal shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?

Sometimes it’s lighting tothe heart and sometimes it’s a slow burn.  

4 - Where does a work ofprose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end upcombining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" fromthe very beginning?

I start with whateversadness rises to the top that day. I’ve written two novels and am working onthird and a bunch of short stories that when put together aren’t exactly interlinkedbut aren’t not connected.

5 - Are public readingspart of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer whoenjoys doing readings?

The first reading I didwas about 18 years ago. The journal I was reading for was new, so new theyprinted pages from a Word doc and put it in a single binder which people couldbrowse when they entered the room, which was not a literary event, per se, butit was a multicultural event that included a fashion show. The journal askedthe readers to get up and read between breaks of the show, but they forgotabout me and/or didn’t plan well so by the time it was my time, I read to myfew friends who stayed all day and the editor of the journal and the otherwriter who I think they also forgot about. The fashion show portion ended. Mostof the audience had left. We’d been there four or five hours. After I read, Iwas so overcome with hunger, I left and took my friends with me. We left thelast reader to read just to the editor of the journal in an empty room and tothis day I feel both guilty about that but also remember how desperate andconfused I was during the entire day. Readings are better now! I’ve only done ahandful of public readings but that seems to be picking up steam lately.Readings can be super boring or the most awesome thing you’ve been to all week.I try to be lively and entertaining when I read. I’m a work in progress.

6 - Do you have anytheoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are youtrying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questionsare?

Sadness, family trauma,childhood trauma, sexual assault, anxiety, addiction, nostalgia. I think latelythe question I’m trying to answer is: Is it possible to co-exist with your ownbullshit? Can you reconcile your own bullshit and find a path forward?

7 – What do you see thecurrent role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? Whatdo you think the role of the writer should be?

Writers can often putwords to what others are feeling but can’t say. That’s the kind of writer Istrive to be.

8 - Do you find theprocess of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?

It is difficult andessential. I absolutely need an editor. Everyone needs an editor. Sometimes (Ihave not had this experience) editors can be heavy-handed and want to take overbut 99% of them work toward making the work better.

9 - What is the best pieceof advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?

Find the heat in yourstory and stay there, the more uncomfortable the better.

10 - How easy has it beenfor you to move between genres (short stories to essays)? What do you see asthe appeal?

The truth here is most ofmy short stories could be essays and vice versa. I write from personalexperience. Everything I write stems from some lived experience.

11 - What kind of writingroutine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day(for you) begin?

I work full-time, and Ihave a kid. I don’t have a routine. I write when I get a chance, mostly late inthe evening or early in the morning (like 5 a.m. even on weekends).

12 - When your writinggets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word)inspiration?

Music. I’ll go back andfind music from whatever particular period of my life I’m sorting out that day.Sometimes the music is bad, but hat’s between me and my playlists.

13 - What fragrancereminds you of home?

Ashtrays. Not kidding.Cigarettes. I was a child of the 80s. Everyone smoked.

14 - David W. McFaddenonce said that books come from books, but are there any other forms thatinfluence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?

Music all the way. Butagain, I sometimes like very bad music. I am/am not ashamed of some of themusic I listen to. I’ll be like, oh hey guys, I listened to Ruston Kelly forfour hours and felt the earth move. I don’t necessarily admit that I boppedalong to Extreme’s Hole-Hearted.

15 - What other writers orwritings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?

I’m a huge fan of otherwriters. Sometimes when I’m lagging in my own work I give up for awhile and go backto reading and almost always find the way forward by remembering what moves mewhen I read. The reading comes first.

16 - What would you liketo do that you haven't yet done?

I’m looking for a timemachine to take me back into the 80s where I plan to burst onto the scene withJay McInerney and go to high profile literary events wearing all black, smokingCamels, and drinking expensive red wine paid for by Vintage Books while Amanda Urban’s assistant tracks me down for a cocktail lunch.

17 - If you could pick anyother occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do youthink you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?

Psychiatry. Counseling.I’d lean forward and ask people to tell me about the moment when they realizedthey were no longer a child and we’d process that profound sense of losstogether. Also I would like to be a jazz singer but I can’t sing.

18 - What made you write,as opposed to doing something else?

I literally have no otherskills. My single talent in this world is to analyze my own bad choices. I amnot an athlete, I can’t sing, I don’t have artistic ability, my fashion senseis poor, I don’t know how to work TikTok, no one cares if I’m drinking out of aStanley mug-thing, and I have no rhythm.

19 - What was the lastgreat book you read? What was the last great film?

Jonathan Escoffrey’s IfI Survive You.

I don’t get to watch a lotof my own shows. My daughter gets most of the TV time. We saw Barbietogether and I openly wept at certain points. I think that counts? I also saw Promising Young Women recently (it’s already like 5 years old I think) and I loved itbut later read mixed reviews so taste is always subjective.

20 - What are youcurrently working on?

A novel about going to asupport group for people with bad dads. Revising a novel about a teenage ghostwho gets trapped on a baseball field. Polishing a story collection about howlosing one’s virginity is a set-up for a decade of dating failure. An essaycollection about grief and loss.

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