Tell us how the story came to be.
Three months after I returned home from a semester-long study abroad program in Japan, the earthquake and tsunami disaster of 2011 occurred. It took me almost a year to digest the events well enough to begin writing “The Sky Whale”. I put together the first draft of the story while enrolled in a fiction workshop – just before the one year anniversary of the tsunami. I sent an early draft to Shimmer and received a rewrite request; the next draft was written after the anniversary of the tsunami had passed, so I researched how the Japanese had mourned their loss, weaving those events into the story.

The whale itself was partially inspired by images of flying whales that I’ve seen here and there over the years. Although, of course, Hitomi’s whale has special significance.

What drew you to Japan and Asian studies?
A childhood fascination with Japanese cartoons stoked my interest in Japan early on. But as I matured, I discovered that Japan had a lot more to offer than magical moon princesses and Pokémon. My current interests in Japanese culture and history have a lot more to do with my degree than the childhood events that first sparked the flame.

Did spending a semester in Japan teach you anything when it comes to writing?
Staying in Japan taught me a lot – about myself, life, another culture. It also taught me that writing is not, for me personally, a process of simply putting pen to paper. A huge part of my process is going out and experiencing new things. To be honest, I wrote hardly a word of fiction during my entire time in Japan because I was focused on making the most of my time there and overwhelmed by all of the new concepts with which I came into contact. I needed a lot of time to sift through my own thoughts.

While I didn’t produce much in the way of fiction while abroad, I actually kept a blog during my trip. It’s a few years old and I’m not sure whether it’s of much interest, but you can find it here: http://rebeccainjapan2010.wordpress.com/

If you could invite an author, past or present, to an evening of karaoke, who would it be and what would you make them sing?
This one’s a toss-up between Diana Wynne Jones, David Sedaris, and Oscar Wilde. But I’d be much more interested in engaging them in conversation than in listening to them sing.

What is your favorite Bradbury story/novel?
I know it’s strange, but outside of a few journals and the books I read as a young adult, I don’t read very much speculative fiction. I often find myself in the middle of conversations concerning authors I am sadly clueless about. I’m sure most of my peers would shudder to know that I have never read a thing by Bradbury, although it’s something I intend to soon amend.

What’s next for you?
I’m hoping to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing in the near future. I’ve also got my eye on the Clarion West program, although I know the chances of my being accepted are outrageously slim. That’s okay though – I live in a make-believe world, so even if none of this pans out, I’ll go back to skipping through fields of singing flowers and fantastical happenstances in my daydreams.

Tell us how the story came to be.
This will sound crueler than it is. It’s in part based on someone I met at my first and only SF convention about ten years ago, this vendor of arcane action figures and trading cards—a very dumpy man, very boring, spent half an hour telling me about the origin of his last name. He was clearly lonely and just wanted to talk to someone, and I should be kinder in invoking him now. For some reason he crept back into my thoughts  recently, and I quite morbidly wondered if anybody would miss him or even be saddened if he were to suddenly die. In that morbid moment I decided nobody really would, which seemed a far greater tragedy, so in my head I brought him back to try again and hopefully get it right.

So, zombies. What’s the appeal?
Truthfully, I’m not such a big fan of zombie stories except for those that go beyond the usual “eat-brains” premise, which is rather sad, because zombie-ism is a fantastic, versatile metaphor that can be applied to so many aspects of the human condition (disconnectedness, loss of self, etc.). Never had I seen a story where a zombified person’s life was actually better for it, and therein the story began.

Do you have favorite zombie books or movies? Do you watch The Walking Dead?
I always thought the film Fido (starring Dennis Hopper as a zombie made into a pet) was remarkably original. I’ve seen The Walking Dead and always felt they were missing out on some great thematic opportunities—I wish the writers and producers would aspire to more.

Tell us something most people wouldn’t know about Iowa. What, if anything, draws you to it?
What drew me to it originally was a job offer with a regular paycheck. But having grown up just across the river in Northwest Illinois I’m from a very similar culture. Iowans are, by and large, friendly and willing to help one another out, which is something everyone expects, but they’re also intelligent and curious, and open to art and culture, and they understand the value of a good education. Also, Iowa is home to a couple of really good wineries, which I never would have expected, and some quite stunning pizza.

What is your favorite Bradbury story/novel?
Far and away, my favorite Bradbury story is “The Kilimanjaro Device.” It’s a beautiful intersection between fantasy and reality. Novel-wise, I’d have to say Fahrenheit 451, for the same reason.

What’s next for you?
At the moment I’m slowly piecing together another story collection, trying to maximize the pool of stories I have to choose from so I can include only the very best. On the whole, they seem to be about transformative experiences gone terribly awry.

How did the story come to be?
Ah! I was hoping you would ask. This story was originally intended for only one set of eyes: It was a present for my then-boyfriend, now-husband, John. We met at a convention in 2009 and started dating long-distance a few months later. He lived in New Jersey, and I lived in California. We still spent more time together than we did apart, since we could both work from anywhere, but there were stretches of time when we had to stay on our own coasts, missing each other.

Anyway, at some point we were discussing the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse*, as one does, and it dawned on us that we needed a plan in case it happened while we were apart. So we looked at Google maps and established that Wichita, Kansas was almost exactly equidistant. We picked the landmark where we would meet, and I went so far as to plot my route. Because we are complete dorks.

John’s birthday was coming up–it was the first since we’d started seeing each other–and I had an idea. I got a cigar box from a local tobacconist, and started assembling a survival kit: waterproof matches, a compass, a space blanket, a multi-tool, a MagLite, etc. At AAA I picked up a road map, highlighted my route, and then left it outside for a few nights to weather it a little. I edited a picture of the landmark to look like a postcard, taped that to the inside of the lid of the box, and wrote “In Case of Apocalypse” on the top in red Sharpie.

I also left a small spiral notebook outside, which acquired that wonderful crispy, wavy texture that wet paper gets. I spent the weeks leading up to his birthday writing this story in it by hand, in different pens on different days.

I never intended to submit it anywhere–it was for him–but John encouraged me to. It’s actually really cool that it’s appearing specifically in Shimmer–my husband is an editor (it was intimidating writing a story as a gift for an editor!) and the Shimmer pirate issue was his first lead editorial gig.

*There are no zombies in this story.

You have attended Taos Toolbox, Launchpad, and possibly other writer workshops. What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned from them?
I’ve learned different things at each. I got my new-writer mistakes mostly taken care of at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference; at Taos Toolbox I learned a lot about plotting and writing at novel lengths; Launch Pad is entirely about the science. I think a writer can’t go too far wrong with any workshop or conference because theirs is always more to learn. At Taos Toolbox, while much of what was taught was information I had come across before in other workshops or books, there was something about getting it all fed back to me at the same time that really made it all come together. I think Taos in particular really pushed me off the plateau I’d been on for a while.

Your website name and your Twitter handle, until quite recently, were “inkhaven.” Tell us what that word means to you.
“Inkhaven” was a hold-over from when I had more of a purpose to my blog. As a new writer, publishing seemed like a really cold and scary place where no one was ever allowed to make mistakes. Editors were terrifying, professional writers intimidating, agents practically a different species–I had a hard time getting answers to some of my own questions at first, and I wanted to talk about what I found out in a place where it was safe to just be new and not know everything, and I wanted other people to feel safe there too.

Unfortunately I’m a terrible blogger and my grand plans kind of went off the rails, but I maintain that I would like to be a safe person for people to just be new with and know that’s okay. I only recently changed my Twitter handle to my actual name because it was starting to get confusing–people I met at conventions couldn’t easily find me on Twitter, and I like to keep in touch!

If you could talk to any author from the past, who would it be and why?
I think you already know the answer to that because I know what your next question is. The sad thing is that author actually is part of the past now, when it seemed like Ray Bradbury had surely earned the right to be immortal and share the present with us forever. Bradbury’s work was transcendent, accessible to everyone–he fit everywhere and nowhere. He painted pictures and evoked emotions like no other author I’ve read. And he was so encouraging to new writers! I got to meet him twice, and they are treasured memories.

What is your favorite Bradbury story or novel?
That’s so hard to answer! I think that probably the first two stories of his I encountered made the biggest impression on me, so I’ll call those my “favorite.” They were read to my fourth grade class by our teacher: “The Fog Horn,” and “All Summer in a Day.” I remember getting teary in class over that poor dinosaur, and just livid at those cruel children. I didn’t really know what science fiction was then, I only knew that these were the kind of stories I liked best–stories that had impossible things in them, and that made me feel something deeply.

What’s next for you?
I’m working on a novel now, a portal fantasy with other worlds and creepy monks and a small-time con artist who gets pulled into a tangle of magic and intrigue. And of course I’m writing short stories. I have a couple more coming out in the next few months, in Daily Science Fiction and Kaleidotrope. Right now I’m most looking forward to the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto–I hope to meet many Shimmery people there!

Tell us how “Word and Flesh” came to be.
I wrote the story during my second week at the 2011 Clarion Writers’ Workshop. I’ve always been fascinated by anthropodermic bibliopegy (binding books in human skin) and knew I wanted to write a story about it. The idea was vague, however, and I was struggling to assemble a coherent plot. As I wandered the UCSD campus mulling over the story, I came to realize how disconcerted I was by the architecture around me. The notion of a city-state dedicated to esoteric pursuits got stuck in my head, eventually becoming the Universidad portrayed in “Word and Flesh”. Once I had that physical setting, the rest of the story came more easily.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Since I was very young, maybe eight or nine. I’d always thought I’d be a playwright, however.

If you had a working time machine what advice would you give a younger self?
Stop waiting for inspiration and write everyday. Actually, I’d just shorten that to, Stop waiting.

Print or ebook, what is your preference for reading books these days, and why?
Definitely ebooks. My iPad and iPhone give me instant access to a ton of books, I can adjust the font size and brightness at will, and ebooks and ezines are often cheaper than their paper equivalents.

What is your favorite Bradbury story or novel?
One of my most vivid childhood memories is of sitting under a banyan tree in Kailua, Hawaii, reading The Illustrated Man. I remember that my cheek was stuffed with black licorice and I had a can of RC Cola in one hand, the paperback in the other. A light breeze made the tree’s aerial roots sway and creak, the pages were dappled in sunlight.

What’s next for you?
I’m sending out more short stories and working on a novel. Also avoiding World of Warcraft and Reddit. And reading. Lots of reading.

Tell us how “Opposable Thumbs” came to be.

Well, oddly enough it actually began as a writing exercise for a class in my MFA program. We’d just read Kamby Balongo Mean River by Robert Lopez, and the idea was to write a short story making use of some element of Lopez’s novel. The whole time I was reading the book (which is fantastic and quite strange), I was becoming more and more obsessed with the idea that this particular voice would lend itself really well to a wealth of potential sci fi ideas. So when it came time to write the story, I co-opted his voice and started there. I like to think that EV91’s voice evolved away from Lopez’s narrator, but that’s where it started, anyway.

We both enjoyed Zone One (Colson Whitehead); what other books have you read recently that you think deserve a wider audience?

David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, for one. It’s an absolutely brilliant book. And with a Tom Hanks movie coming out based on it, I’m sure it will GET that wider audience shortly. Another book that I think deserves a wider audience is Jess Walter’s The Zero. He’s an incredible writer, and it’s an amazing book that almost made me cry. Really, all of his stuff (at least that I’ve read) is fantastic.

What’s up with autocorrect, anyhow? What’s the oddest correction you’ve seen?
It’s probably just the first ripples of an eventual global takeover by Siri and friends. The weirdest I’ve had isn’t that weird, I tend to be sort of meticulous about my text messages. I did get “her” autocorrected to “errr” though. Siri must’ve been having some doubts about that girl. The weirdest one I’ve heard about is from my friend Matt, who was autocorrected from “Vidal” to “Visakhapatnam.” That one gets all kinds of points for oddness

Do you stalk Duotrope?
I spend a goodly amount of time there. Though at this point, my list of which magazines have rejected which stories contains almost every semi-pro and pro zine on the duotrope sci fi list, so I often just use that word doc instead of duotrope. Still, it’s a great resource and I spend way too much time on it.

What is your favorite Bradbury story/novel?
I remember really enjoying Something Wicked This Way Comes, but to be honest it hasn’t stuck with me. I couldn’t tell you a thing about it. So my answer is going to be sadly typical: Fahrenheit 451. Something about it just sticks in the mind, which to me is the hallmark of a great story or novel.

What’s next for you?
Well, I’m going to be serializing a novel on a website called Jukepop Serials starting very soon. The novel’s called Multipocalypse, and I’m excited to begin that journey. There will be zombies and some other stuff, in a certain way it harks back to my childhood… but I can’t really say how without giving some important bits away. Aside from that, I’m just going to keep flooding editor’s inboxes with short stories.

Tell us how the story came to be.
Ordinary Souls is a combination of three things, the first being sex. I remember being down on my writing at the time. So, I decided to get back to my roots and write an erotica. And not just the kind you write alone in your room and revisit it whenever you want a good jerk. I wanted to show people tasteful (hot, gay) sex, with an engaging plot and characters worth caring about.

The second part of Ordinary Souls is loss. Not long before this story, a good friend of mine had passed away. Her name was Judith Christopher, but we all knew her as “Pod.” She was in her 60s, a feminist, a lawyer. She said things like, “Every mother should have a gay son,” and always asked to read my stories. When I wrote the ending of Ordinary Souls, I thought of her. I cried the last pages of that rough draft out. Endings are the worst. They hurt. Especially when it’s the end of a person’s life. So, I wrote a story about endings.

The last part of Ordinary Souls is probably the most notable: experimental form. I had read The Lies of Locke Lamora recently, and loved how Scott Lynch had played with time. I wanted a weird timeline. It took lots of rearranging and strategy, but was fun to craft.

On your blog, you talk about how you blindfolded yourself to better write a blind person in a story. How did that experiment work out? What did it teach you about writing?
I don’t know why I’d never tried it before. I try everything! This experiment re-enforced that notion. It was scary, though. Every step really did feel like my last. My very rude imagination placed monsters around corners and black holes under my feet.

I did try to boil water, but discovered when I’d “finished” that I’d lit the wrong burner–whoops! I got bored before I lit my apartment on fire, though. Luckily, the character in question has more pressing issues than making pasta.

If you could talk to any author, living or dead, who would it be? Would you talk about writing or something entirely different?
I’m such a Harry Potter nerd, I should say J.K. Rowling, I would love to get inside her head with regards to plotting out series and world building. I think, after a couple rounds of Firewhiskey, I’d yell at her a little for not putting more queer teens in Hogwarts.

Red wine or white?
I used to swing exclusively towards white wine, but lately my poison has been sweet red. Never has less writing been done than after a few glasses of red wine.

What is your favorite Bradbury story/novel?
Is it too cliche to pick Fahrenheit  451? I remember reading it in high school alongside Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron and Lois Lowry’s The Giver. The trio had quite an influence on my sense of individuality.

What’s next for you?
I’m an advocate of dreaming big. So, in my dream world, I finally finish and sell my novel. It reaches people around the globe. They love its characters and want to live in its world, just like I wanted with my favorite books. But, more than that, my protagonist makes a difference–and not just in his own story.

I am tired of walking into bookstores in search of queer protagonists and baffling the sales clerks. I know that if I expect change, I need to make it. I write queer characters because queer people exist and should be able to see themselves in fiction, too. I’ve been frustrated my whole life reading heterosexual pairings and not identifying with them. So, hopefully, “next” is a novel with a gay protagonist, by yours truly.

Tell us how “Tasting of the Sea” came to be.
“Tasting of the Sea” is one of those odd stories where I thought I was sitting down to write one thing, and I ended up writing something else all together. The story changed again during the revision process, and once again became a completely different beast. So, I guess the answer is: the story made its way up from some deep, dark corner of my brain, despite my best efforts to write a different story entirely!

You co-edit the Journal of Unlikely Entomology (now Unlikely Story). Why bugs?
Oh, there are so many ways to answer to this question! The short version is that is started as a joke, and morphed into something serious. For the longer version, you’ll have to find me at a con and ask in person. I do have to say I’ve gained a new appreciation for bugs since working on the Journal. I’d still prefer they stay out of my house and off my immediate personage, however.

What’s your favorite thing about Philadelphia?
Probably the people I’ve met here. I also have to say Philly is an incredible town for food. I think it gets over-looked a lot, being so close to New York City, but there are some really incredible restaurants here.

I know we both loved The Drowning Girl (Kiernan), but what other books have you read lately that you think should gain a wider audience?
The first book that comes to mind is Livia Llewellyn’s collection Engines of Desire: Tales of Love and Other Horrors. It’s absolutely brilliant! It’s not an easy read by any means, and it’s downright brutal at times, but it’s also gorgeous, and well worth it if you enjoy fiction that’s dark in the truest sense of the word. I also have to give a shout-out to Benjamin Parzybok’s Couch. I’d never heard of it until a friend gave me a copy, but it’s a wonderful, surreal, epic quest novel about…a couch.

What’s not to love?
What is your favorite Bradbury story/novel?
I’m going to cheat a bit and say the related novels Death is a Lonely Business, A Graveyard for Lunatics, and Let’s All Kill Constance, taken together make up my favorite Bradbury story. But really, I love pretty much all his stuff.

What’s next for you?
I’m sort of, kind of working on a novel, but shhh, don’t tell me, or I might freak out! I’ve also got a handful of short stories in various states of completion simmering away. On the editing side of things, Issue #5 of the Journal of Unlikely Entomology, and our special one-off architecture themed issue are next on the horizon.