from FantasyBookSpot.com
Jay Tomio: Ms Link, your stories are often and aptly described as ‘defying description’, and offered in a manner that is complimentary to the highest degree. How would you describe your work to a potential new reader?
Kelly Link: Usually I say something like, "I write stories with zombies in them." I figure that either the person who asked is going to be charmed by this, because, like me, they're fond of zombie stories, or else they'll know to steer clear. I believe in truth in advertising. If that doesn't seem helpful, then I'll elaborate by saying that I write ghost stories or that I'm a science fiction writer.
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from MaudNewton.com
"I’m most forgiving of endings. I don’t believe in them. And it’s very rare that you get an ending that’s as perfect as, say, Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle.
"As for sussing out stuff, I prefer reading fiction that resists easy interpretation, or which can be reread in such a way that it’s a different story each time. As a reader, I want to do some of the work. I don’t want to be spoonfed. One thing that you learn from writing workshops is that everyone reads a different story. People take away different meanings, different readings, different stories. I’ve been in workshops now for many years, and it’s possible that without realizing it, I’ve learned to write stories that support simultaneous readings, that reward close readings (because nobody reads more closely than a group of writers in a workshop.) I don’t really know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
"And fairy tales are opaque. There are certain parts of the structure are really strange, and yet we don’t usually look at them. There are conventions that we don’t question when we read them as children. What does it mean that the youngest child usually gets it right? Why do things happen in threes? I love Diana Wynne Jones’s novel Howl’s Moving Castle for the way that she subverts and works with those conventions.
"The more that you understand something, the less resonance and weight that thing has for you. We tend to file away the stuff that we understand — it’s finished business, and we can go on to the next thing. I’m interested by the stuff that I haven’t figured out yet. It’s like being scared by a horror movie. You can’t be scared by something that you understand completely.
"I think endings are terribly difficult, and of all the parts of a story, they seem the least like life to me. I don’t always know the ending when I write, now, which is a relief. I like being surprised by the endings as I’m writing stories! When I do have an image in mind, what makes me want to write the story is wanting to figure out how the character got there, and why it matters that they ended up there."
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from Redivider
KR: How did you come by your interest in ghosts, fairies, fairytales, and myths?
KL: From being read to, and from reading. I liked fairy tales, M. R. James, Angela Carter, Joan Aiken, Edgar Rice Burrough’s John Carter of Mars series, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Caddie Woodlawn, Black Beauty, E. Nesbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Ursula K. Le Guin, Saki, Diana Wynne Jones, H. P. Lovecraft and even books that weren't particularly good, like The Amityville Horror. I can’t tell you why the ghosts and fairy tales and mythological stories stuck harder. They just did. My taste as a reader hasn’t changed a great deal since I was a kid.
KR: Your husband and press partner Gavin’s last name is Grant and yours is (obviously) Link—why did you decide to keep your name? Also, as you travel around to various places such as the MacDowell Colony and various teaching jobs, does he come with you?
KL: Lots of reasons. I'm a feminist. So is he. I like my name. So does he. I'd already been publishing under my own name, and so had he. It never occurred to either of us to change our names.
KR: Speaking of leaving things mysterious, why do you do this with so many of your stories? This makes me think of the story of how during the filming of The Big Sleep, Humphrey Bogart and Howard Hawks had a disagreement over who kills the chauffeur, but when they called up Raymond Chandler, he said that he didn¹t know. Do you know the answers to your own mysteries?
KL: I like mysteries better than solutions. In fiction, at least, I like secrets and misunderstandings and complications and contradictions. I like narratives that can have several meanings all at once. I like misdirection. I like crossword puzzles better before someone has filled them in. I love when other writers don’t know the answers to questions about their own work. Sometimes not-knowing seems more believable and powerful than knowing.
KR: I suspect that you must get asked about your favorite books all the time. But how about this: as a former bookseller, could you give me your Top Five Staff Recs of all time?
KL: My Top Five Staff Recs of All Time is different from my Top Five Favorite Books ever. And it varies, depending on who is asking me. And on when they ask me. But here are Five Recs That I'm Reasonably Comfortable Making When Someone I Don't Know Asks Me For Five Books They Could Take Along On A Vacation When They Might Survive a Plane Crash and Be Stuck on a Mysterious Island for A Lengthy Period of Time (and no, I don't really enjoy Lost):
The Once and Future King by T. H. White
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Cobweb by Stephen Bury
Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones
King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett
The Decameron by Boccaccio
The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten
Collected Stories by Saki
Burning Your Boats by Angela Carter
The Rattle Bag, edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes
(Note that I couldn't stick to 5 books. Your luggage will be heavier, but you'll thank me when you’re trapped on that island. And that list would be entirely different, by the way, if I were making it in about an hour.)
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from YouTube.com
[In this video from Authors@Google, Kelly Link (joined by Karen Joy Fowler) reads from her latest short story collection, Magic for Beginners, and participates in a lively Q&A session]
Jay Tomio: Ms Link, your stories are often and aptly described as ‘defying description’, and offered in a manner that is complimentary to the highest degree. How would you describe your work to a potential new reader?
Kelly Link: Usually I say something like, "I write stories with zombies in them." I figure that either the person who asked is going to be charmed by this, because, like me, they're fond of zombie stories, or else they'll know to steer clear. I believe in truth in advertising. If that doesn't seem helpful, then I'll elaborate by saying that I write ghost stories or that I'm a science fiction writer.
-------------
from MaudNewton.com
"I’m most forgiving of endings. I don’t believe in them. And it’s very rare that you get an ending that’s as perfect as, say, Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle.
"As for sussing out stuff, I prefer reading fiction that resists easy interpretation, or which can be reread in such a way that it’s a different story each time. As a reader, I want to do some of the work. I don’t want to be spoonfed. One thing that you learn from writing workshops is that everyone reads a different story. People take away different meanings, different readings, different stories. I’ve been in workshops now for many years, and it’s possible that without realizing it, I’ve learned to write stories that support simultaneous readings, that reward close readings (because nobody reads more closely than a group of writers in a workshop.) I don’t really know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
"And fairy tales are opaque. There are certain parts of the structure are really strange, and yet we don’t usually look at them. There are conventions that we don’t question when we read them as children. What does it mean that the youngest child usually gets it right? Why do things happen in threes? I love Diana Wynne Jones’s novel Howl’s Moving Castle for the way that she subverts and works with those conventions.
"The more that you understand something, the less resonance and weight that thing has for you. We tend to file away the stuff that we understand — it’s finished business, and we can go on to the next thing. I’m interested by the stuff that I haven’t figured out yet. It’s like being scared by a horror movie. You can’t be scared by something that you understand completely.
"I think endings are terribly difficult, and of all the parts of a story, they seem the least like life to me. I don’t always know the ending when I write, now, which is a relief. I like being surprised by the endings as I’m writing stories! When I do have an image in mind, what makes me want to write the story is wanting to figure out how the character got there, and why it matters that they ended up there."
-----------
from Redivider
KR: How did you come by your interest in ghosts, fairies, fairytales, and myths?
KL: From being read to, and from reading. I liked fairy tales, M. R. James, Angela Carter, Joan Aiken, Edgar Rice Burrough’s John Carter of Mars series, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Caddie Woodlawn, Black Beauty, E. Nesbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Ursula K. Le Guin, Saki, Diana Wynne Jones, H. P. Lovecraft and even books that weren't particularly good, like The Amityville Horror. I can’t tell you why the ghosts and fairy tales and mythological stories stuck harder. They just did. My taste as a reader hasn’t changed a great deal since I was a kid.
KR: Your husband and press partner Gavin’s last name is Grant and yours is (obviously) Link—why did you decide to keep your name? Also, as you travel around to various places such as the MacDowell Colony and various teaching jobs, does he come with you?
KL: Lots of reasons. I'm a feminist. So is he. I like my name. So does he. I'd already been publishing under my own name, and so had he. It never occurred to either of us to change our names.
KR: Speaking of leaving things mysterious, why do you do this with so many of your stories? This makes me think of the story of how during the filming of The Big Sleep, Humphrey Bogart and Howard Hawks had a disagreement over who kills the chauffeur, but when they called up Raymond Chandler, he said that he didn¹t know. Do you know the answers to your own mysteries?
KL: I like mysteries better than solutions. In fiction, at least, I like secrets and misunderstandings and complications and contradictions. I like narratives that can have several meanings all at once. I like misdirection. I like crossword puzzles better before someone has filled them in. I love when other writers don’t know the answers to questions about their own work. Sometimes not-knowing seems more believable and powerful than knowing.
KR: I suspect that you must get asked about your favorite books all the time. But how about this: as a former bookseller, could you give me your Top Five Staff Recs of all time?
KL: My Top Five Staff Recs of All Time is different from my Top Five Favorite Books ever. And it varies, depending on who is asking me. And on when they ask me. But here are Five Recs That I'm Reasonably Comfortable Making When Someone I Don't Know Asks Me For Five Books They Could Take Along On A Vacation When They Might Survive a Plane Crash and Be Stuck on a Mysterious Island for A Lengthy Period of Time (and no, I don't really enjoy Lost):
The Once and Future King by T. H. White
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Cobweb by Stephen Bury
Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones
King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett
The Decameron by Boccaccio
The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten
Collected Stories by Saki
Burning Your Boats by Angela Carter
The Rattle Bag, edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes
(Note that I couldn't stick to 5 books. Your luggage will be heavier, but you'll thank me when you’re trapped on that island. And that list would be entirely different, by the way, if I were making it in about an hour.)
-----------
from YouTube.com
[In this video from Authors@Google, Kelly Link (joined by Karen Joy Fowler) reads from her latest short story collection, Magic for Beginners, and participates in a lively Q&A session]
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