K.M. Ferebee’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and The Brooklyn Rail, and her story “Bullet Oracle Instinct” appears in Shimmer Issue #13.

Tell us how “Bullet Oracle Instinct” came to be.
It was born out of my intense and lifelong fascination with war zones.

Which authors, if any, have had an influence on your own writing?
Hilary Mantel has had the greatest influence stylistically. Robert Aickman has probably had the greatest influence creatively. There are others who have had a profound influence spiritually.

As a child, did you want to be a writer, or did you have different aspirations?
My aspirations as a child were confused, and centered around unlikely spatiotemporal occurrences.

When did you know you were a writer?
This question is open to interpretation.

If you could choose any five literary people — real or imagined, living or not, friends or otherwise — for a gathering (lunch, tea party, etc)… who would they be?
Bruno Schulz, Franz Kafka, Robert Aickman, Hilary Mantel, David Mitchell, and Rory Stewart– for nonfiction’s sake and reasons that are too complicated to go into.

Favorite book that you’ve read recently?
Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam

Favorite book from your childhood?
Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock

What makes you laugh?
Jokes about the French Revolution and/or Wittgensteinian philosophy.

If you could have written any short story or novel in the world, which would it be?
A Place of Greater Safety, by Hilary Mantel.

If you were stranded on a desert island, which ice cream (or other sweet) would you want to have with you?
Poppy seed strudel.