Conversations with the Bookless: Patti Abbott

A couple of years ago Jeff Vandermeer ran a series of blog posts called Conversations With the Bookless. The Conversations with the Bookless series was designed to showcase those writers who are up and coming, who don’t yet have a collection or a novel out, who are making their names known writing short stories. With Jeff’s blessing I will be continuing the series here at BSC over the next couple of weeks, but with a focus mostly on mystery/crime fiction.

From the first generation successes of Anthony Neil Smith, Victor Gischler and Sean Doolittle that came out of Plots With Guns to the later success of zine author/founders Sandra Ruttan and Russel McLean to a lot of others the online zines have, over the years, proved to be a fairly successful and fertile ground for emerging talents to launch a career, highlight their own work and showcase the work of others.

These writers are the next generation and it will be interesting in the next couple of years to see which of them will make it and which will stand out.

Nothing else to say really except to end with a quote from the original series.

The fact is, if you don’t have a book out, it’s harder to get attention and it’s harder for reader attention to crystallize around you. I hope these interviews introduce readers to some of the great talent that, in the coming years, will be amazingly and bountifully bookful. — Jeff Vandermeer

My first exposure to Patti’s work was her story, The Scarecrow, in the first issue of Murdaland. Then, sometime later, I started reading her blog and, I’m a little embarrassed to say, it took me a little bit to make the connection. What you get when you read a Patti Abbott story is a strong sense of the human drama, her characters are real and what they feel you do too.

    
What’s your favorite story written by someone else?

“The Swimmer” by John Cheever; “Giving Blood” by John Updike.

    
What do you most value in the fiction you love?

A sense of place, a sense of dread, a sense of inevitability– all put in the path of a good character.

    
What is the value and purpose of short fiction in mystery/crime fiction for you personally and overall for the form and genre?

I would say good short stories capture a moment in time, much like a photograph does. A short may not tell the whole story, but sometimes the whole story dilutes the meaning of that one moment. I tend to be interested in one moment or one day more than a life.

In crime fiction, shorts can be especially effective, I think, because the need to introduce some action/crime keeps the short from being too static—which they often are in literary mags.

    
What issues or ideas about fiction have been foremost in your mind of late?

Like everyone, I am concerned about the decline in reading. I truly believe that more people are writing than reading right now. And when they read, it’s more likely to be blogs and websites than books. Reading is hard work. We forget that sometimes. It requires more focus than a lot of us have. Myself included some days.

    
Who is the best short story writer that people haven’t gotten hip to yet?

Now that’s a question I can’t really answer. I don’t know how many people read zines—if the stories are read widely or not. And by singling someone out, I am basically saying that person is not well known. I may be avoiding the question here, but I hate to choose. I could never judge a contest.

    
What do you like most about short fiction?

Writing it or reading it? That it’s finished before I get bored with the character. I don’t have to answer “and then what” too often. That the story idea that pops into my head won’t have to wait very long to be written. Reading it, that I know I will probably finish it before I did.

    
When did you start writing short fiction and what prompted you to do so?

I started writing short fiction about ten years ago when a poetry editor wrote to me and said that my poems were actually stories. I had published a few dozen poems and a chapbook—all of it pretty horrible stuff. So I took the chapbook and was able to turn almost every poem into a story. So she was right. I was writing an outline to a short story—not a poem.

    
Of your stories, which is your favorite; the one that showcases best your abilities?

I think my strongest stories are not exactly crime stories. They are about people in trouble. I would pick A Saving Grace which was in THE THRILLING DETECTIVE and anthologized in PRISONER OF MEMORY. I also liked “The Squatter” which was in DEMOLITION. That came from a poem. And, of course, I always like the one I’m writing best.

    
Do you have any short story publications forthcoming?

I have stories coming out in BAD THINGS, MYSTERICALE E and a literary magazine called CORRIDOR. I also have reprinted stories appearing in SEX, THUGS AND ROCK AND ROLL and the new Ed Gorman anthology. I am mostly trying to write a novel right now, which leads me to….

    
How do you plan to rectify your booklessness?

I am writing a second novel in fits and spurts. I gave up the first one after six or seven people didn’t like it for one reason or another. I think I can go back and fix it now. I finally agree that the protagonist was not a very nice person. And a person who isn’t very nice in an ordinary way, is a mistake as a protagonist. So my husband and friend, Anca, the only people who liked this book will have to see her change if I go back to it.

The tortured artist idea didn’t work in a crime fiction novel. She didn’t earn our attention.

But I have to say at my age, going through this whole process just seems too time-consuming. I wouldn’t even try it if I had more outlets for stories. Especially the sort of story I like to write-which isn’t too violent. I may not rectify it but rather celebrate it.

_{Patti Abbott blogs regularly here, and is the mastermind behind the long running weekly series Friday Forgotten Books.}