Q: What inspired you to write Little Fortified Stories?
A few years ago I was in Lisbon at The DISQUIET International Literary Program. In my spare time I went to the port institution for a tasting. I sat in the dim room, sipping, when a character suddenly came into my head. A character whose words somehow echoed the particular qualities of that port. And so was born my first series of very short fictions, Little Fortified Stories. When I returned home I continued writing stories based on other liquid spirits and gradually the collection expanded to include Ekphrastic works, stories from dreams and travels and stories based very loosely on my ancestry.
Q: How did the characters come into being? What is your writing process?
It always feels like a bit of voodoo how my characters show up. Most often, a voice comes into my head and I follow that voice into a story. It’s a mysterious and murky adventure. I don’t develop a story arc in advance or try to pre-structure. I freewrite as long as I can without reading what I’ve written. On rare occasions a story may write itself in one sitting. Otherwise, I continue to freewrite to see how the character and setting develops.
When writing micro and flash fiction, especially in workshops, I sometimes use written or visual prompts or I write within restricting structures which, contrary to what you might think, actually stimulate not stifle creativity. Sometimes if you’re stuck and the story’s not working, searching for an alternate structure or approach can revitalize it. This happened with my piece about Saint Barbara. Once I transferred the fragments into a list structure it was more energized, with enticing gaps and contrasting tones.
One of my favourite prompt methods is writing Ekphrastic pieces based on visual art. It’s another way of “inducing” a story or character. There are ten Ekphrastic art-inspired stories in my collection, including a fallen saint who falls in love with a creature named Gryffix; a disfigured ballet teacher with a secret life; and a mysterious little Daughter of the North Wind who unexpectedly (and literally) falls into a couple’s life. I also find characters while listening to music.
Q: What other books have you published? How do they differ from Little Fortified Stories?
I have one previously published book, Music from a Strange Planet, an award-winning collection of short stories. Although the stories in that book are shorter (2000 to 3000 words) than most short stories, they’re longer than the 50 to 1500 word fiction in Little Fortified Stories. Also, many of the fictions in Little Fortified Stories lean into the surreal or at least the engagingly improbable! I like to let the story go where it wants. You might think it would be easier to write lots of shorter stories, but I found it challenging “herding” a cast of well over 100 characters.
Q: How fundamental are life’s experiences to the writing muse?
It amazes me how, after writing Little Fortified Stories, I see snippets of my life scattered throughout the collection. I notice themes of climate change, of mothers and daughters, of grief, fertility and dreams, and women’s agency (or non-agency). None of these themes were planned, they simply arose from my state of mind during the span of time I was writing the manuscript.
Thinking about life’s experiences, there’s something about writing in a story form that allows you to process deeper issues or memories that can’t be framed in the usual logical thinking mode. Once filtered through a fictional lens, these deep seated emotions have a place to reside.
Q: Tell me about your book cover.
Sure! Just as with my previous book, my publisher Caitlin Press once again asked if I would like to design the cover for Little Fortified Stories. Of course, I said yes. The collaged image is a take on one of the stories in the book titled “The Jaeger Family Theatre,” about a young girl who is in a rite to enter the clan of the Jaeger people (a jaeger is also a bird). It’s in the section of the book titled “Ancestral Fabrications,” meaning stories based on my ancestry, some of which are entirely fictional and others which are only somewhat fictional. Information on my heritage was scarce.
Q: If you could meet one of your characters in real life, who would it be?
It would be the woman in the story “What May Console Those with the Loss of Their Lexicon,” who kept my words alive by singing them (in a “voice like a rusty pair of scissors”) while I was agonizing through writer’s block for a year. Of course, she’s purely imaginary, but she exists somewhere deep in my psyche.
Q: Are there any books you can recommend on how to write very short fiction?
There’s an excellent, comprehensive book, The Art of Brevity, by Grant Faulkner, that elucidates the freedom and complexity of this genre. It’s full of insights into the craft of writing very short stories, but is also very enjoyable to read and chock full of examples. This is an art form that has boundless possibilities and Faulkner is definitely on the pro almost-anything-goes side. The thing to remember about short-short fiction is that it’s not necessarily a fast read but an immersive one.
Q: What do you do when you’re not writing?
I dream about travel. I get on my Triumph motorcycle and live in the wind, without words. I go tactile. I roam and ruminate in my garden and occasionally swear at my gooey, thick clay soil that mocks my shovels, but I love every plant and insect in that finite space that is my personal heaven.
Q: Where can readers find you?
Find me at my website at https://barbarablack.ca/ or on my Facebook Writer Page at https://www.facebook.com/barbarablackwriter/.
I’m on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/bblackwrites/ and X here: https://twitter.com/BarbaralbBlack
Thank you so much, Mandy, for hosting me here.
Blurb: Little Fortified Stories
A spinster in love with a tobacco-smoking ghost. A lonely one-eyed monster who wanders the desert. A Medieval saint who delights in her “miraculous ruine.” In Little Fortified Stories, award-winning writer Barbara Black conjures a microcosm of characters that defy convention. Black’s writing has a signature tone and precision that readers and reviewers call out for praise. In this suite of startling, haunting stories, curious worlds are encapsulated like a series of snow globes, swirling with deep emotion and teeming with strangeness. Inspired by art, music, alcoholic spirits and what Black calls “authentic fabrications” from her own ancestry, these eclectic tales buzz with a hypnotic intensity you will never forget
Bio:
Barbara Black writes short and flash fiction, poetry and libretti. Her work has appeared in national and international publications, including The Cincinnati Review, Geist, The Hong Kong Review, Prairie Fire, and CV2, and in many anthologies, including Bath Flash Fiction Award 2020. Achievements include: Fiction Finalist, 2020 National Magazine Awards; Winner, 2017 Writers’ Union of Canada Short Prose Competition; Winner, Federation of BC Writers Contests (Prose Poem) 2018 and (Flash Fiction) 2021/2022; and Shortlisted for the 2023 Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award. She recently won First Prize in The International Plaza Prizes Microfiction Contest 2023 and placed Second in their Flash Fiction Category. Her debut short story collection Music from a Strange Planet was released in 2021 to critical acclaim and was a finalist or winner in 10 Book Award competitions. Black’s highly anticipated flash and microfiction collection, Little Fortified Stories, is forthcoming in May 2024. She lives in Victoria, BC, where she gardens and rides her trusty Triumph motorcycle.