Conversations with the Bookless: Anonymous-9

A couple of years ago Jeff Vandermeer ran a series of blog posts called Conversations With the Bookless. The Conversations with the Bookless series was designed to showcase those writers who are up and coming, who don’t yet have a collection or a novel out, who are making their names known writing short stories. With Jeff’s blessing I will be continuing the series here at BSC over the next couple of weeks, but with a focus mostly on mystery/crime fiction.

From the first generation successes of Anthony Neil Smith, Victor Gischler and Sean Doolittle that came out of Plots With Guns to the later success of zine author/founders Sandra Ruttan and Russel McLean to a lot of others the online zines have, over the years, proved to be a fairly successful and fertile ground for emerging talents to launch a career, highlight their own work and showcase the work of others.

These writers are the next generation and it will be interesting in the next couple of years to see which of them will make it and which will stand out.

Nothing else to say really except to end with a quote from the original series.

The fact is, if you don’t have a book out, it’s harder to get attention and it’s harder for reader attention to crystallize around you. I hope these interviews introduce readers to some of the great talent that, in the coming years, will be amazingly and bountifully bookful. — Jeff Vandermeer

Anonymous 9 is one the best crime fiction writers that you aren’t reading. As her work progressively get better and stronger it’s in the select company of other authors whose work reduces me to shouting Randy Jackson like exclamations like a cracked out mattress salesman.

Who is Anonymous 9? Why is she anonymous? Does she know John Twelve Hawks?

    
What’s your favorite story written by someone else?

Serenade, written in 1937 by James M. Cain, who is widely accepted as the father of hardboiled. He’s famous for The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce. But my favorite is Serenade, and it’s so politically incorrect, you probably couldn’t even get it published today. Cain always goes for the niches of humanity seldom seen, the areas we’d rather pretend aren’t there, or wallpaper over with civility. Tom Wolfe said, “Nobody has quite pulled it off the way Cain does, not Hemingway and not even Raymond Chandler.”

    
Who are your influences and what is your most unlikeliest influence?

In addition to Cain, I love Jim Thompson, and all the old noir movies. The Grifters film, based on Thompson’s 1963 novel has a dark, mother-son sexual tension seldom explored in fiction, but seen increasingly in the news today, mostly involving female teachers and their young students. Art doesn’t seem to be keeping up with real life these days.

I had never heard of Andrew Vachss before Tequila Spike got published in Thuglit and a few readers started a comparison. Like him, I’m aware of the terrible suffering of some children at the hands of their supposed protectors. My unlikeliest influences are Tom Robbins and the new age writer, Louise Hay.

    
What do you most value in the fiction you love?

A writer who puts me under the skin of the character. I crave intimacy. I want to know what’s driving that person on the page. I have no interest in stories that manipulate stick-figures around a mystery-puzzle.

    
Why do you write?

Because I have to.

    
What is the value and purpose of short fiction in mystery/crime fiction for you personally and overall for the form and genre?

For me, shorts were a way of getting back into writing fiction. A novel was too high a wall to scale at first. Now that I have published shorts under my belt, it seems do-able. Mystery/crime is just part of my internal landscape, and I like the idea of experimenting with style, voice, sentence structure, without the commitment of a full-length novel. I feel a writer is made or broken on the cross of the novel, though. At some point you have to go for it.

    
What issues or ideas about fiction have been foremost in your mind of late?

I always want to write what’s not being written. I ask, “What story would I like to read that’s nowhere to be found?” I like peeking through gaps in the fabric of reality. I want a glimpse of the monster’s tooth we’re suspended on.

    
Who is the best short story writer that people haven’t gotten hip to yet?

Andy Henion. Check out When the Strangers Come over at Plots with Guns, issue #4 . I found the story almost hard to read it was so revealing of a couple’s sado-masochistic head-game. But Henion doesn’t stop at description—he gets to the root of why. “You’re the bastard son of James M. Cain,” I told him.

    
What do you like most about short fiction?

You can write it and get instantly published online. I outlined Claw Marks on an envelope, while waiting outside a restaurant. Polished it over a few days and sent it to DZ Allen’s Muzzle Flash. It was up in a matter of hours. The site had a comments section, and I got reader feedback instantly as well. The immediacy of e-zines is very encouraging and makes you want to keep working.

    
When did you start writing short fiction and what prompted you to do so?

I discovered online zines a year ago. I loved that a lot of sites were interactive and you could correspond with writers and editors. E-zines are more personal than magazines, and cultivate their own communities. I discovered Thuglit first, and left a comment for Glenn Gray. I was hooked. (Glenn’s Mr. Universe has just been chosen for the next Thuglit crime anthology, BTW.)

    
Of your stories, which is your favorite; the one that showcases best your abilities?

That’s like asking me to pick a favorite child. They each showcase something different. Comedy: Organic Chicken Tequila Soup with Chopped Finger Garnish. Best Ending: Tequila Spike. Best Voice: Killer Orgasm. Most Depraved but Still Offers Redemption: M-N-S.

    
Do you have any short story publications forthcoming?

I was contacted by a publisher of noir anthologies for the Dutch countries, but I haven’t signed yet. It’s gratifying that we’re not writing in a vacuum online. Agents and publishers seem to be trolling zines all the time for new material and talent.

    
How do you plan to rectify your booklessness? Both Hard Bite and M-N-S are just brilliant stories, any chance of either of them being expanded into something longer?

Thank you for thrilling me with those words, even more than the female response cream in my night stand. I’ve had plans for a while to expand Hard Bite into a novel. I have another chapter written on M-N-S.

BTW, just a quick plug here for Anthony Neil Smith, the editor at PWG, who read M-N-S and offered inspired suggestions. He was a dream to work with. Also, David Cranmer at Beat to a Pulp isn’t afraid of edgy, unique material and is a talented, helpful editor. My fiction isn’t something I need to struggle to get published. My struggle is with the word and the page. I rewrite every story dozens of times. I can deliberate for days over a comma. So in my opinion, when the novel is ready, the publisher will appear.

    
_{Anonymous 9 keeps a myspace page which, in keeping with her secret identity, is not current. Like last minute house parties on a Saturday night you just have to keep your ear to the ground for new stories then tell all your friends and spread the word when you hear about them.}

About Brian

Brian loves both kinds of books -- fiction and non-fiction. He is an all around book john and reviewing roustabout. His semi-regular columns at BSC include BSC Radar Screen, The Electric Mayhem, Conversations with the Bookless and Short Thoughts on Short Fiction. He blogs at Observations From the Balcony.