Interview at Late Last Night Books

I was interviewed by Sally Whitney at Late Last Night Books about the magical realism in my debut novel, The Tide King, and my forthcoming novel, The Summer She Was Under Water, about labeling writers, about loneliness, and more:

[finding home] I think, being comfortable with yourself, loving yourself. Trusting yourself to know your needs and know how to fill them. Like I said, there’s a great fear, I think, to go deep inside, to find that you’re lacking. It’s such a scary, terrible feeling to open that door and find a dark, empty closet. So much so that we try to fill the closet with other things from the outside. But to be in the closet, alone, and feel safe and strong and content. And discover there’s actually a window in there covered with dirt that just needed a little cleaning.

To read the interview, go here.

New Essay: "A Jolt of Vertigo" at Late Last Night Books

I had the pleasure of guest blogging at Late Last Night Books this week about magical realism:

I have never been interested in magical realism, or so I’d thought. One Hundred Years of Solitude has sat in my pile of to-read books for almost a decade now, and although I enjoyed Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore and his collection of short stories, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, I thought his use of magical realism as metaphor could be a bit gimmicky. I have always written fiction that concentrate on domestic lives, those quiet intersections of reality that ignite into disaster...

 But, surprisingly, my first two novels rely heavily on magical realism. I have always dug in dark, difficult places in my writing, psychological landscapes even too hard for me to examine without couching it in some alternate place where I could explore it with some protection.

To read more, go here.