It’s the first Tuesday of the new year, and we have a brand new Issue 048 author interview to share! Get a little insight, and perhaps a little inspiration, from Katrina Carruth as she talks with us about her story “Omen“.
LSQ: Wow, I’m both terribly impressed and a little creeped out by this story, I loved it! What was your inspiration for writing “Omen”?
Katrina: Honestly? It ended up as my very therapeutic projection of my current attitude towards the world. Everyday when I turn on the news it just feels like things are so bleak, and I almost feel guilty wanting more for myself. There’s a moment in the story where the main character is fed up with her suffering and prepared to take things into her own hands. While I haven’t quite hit the point she has, I frequently find myself struggling to push through and remember my own power. I liked the idea of her surrendering completely to her transformation regardless of what’s happening around her. It’s something I have to remind myself to do pretty often.LSQ: This story is an emotional rollercoaster—I felt like the emotions you evoked from me as a reader were perfectly mirrored by the pacing and action too, from curious and calm in the beginning to a much more excited ending. Did you work a lot on pacing when you were writing this story? What about writing it came easily, and what was more challenging?
Katrina: Actually yes, I have been working on pacing quite a bit! For the last two years I’ve been writing more short stories because it’s really difficult for me to keep scenes in my novels condensed. Practicing pacing in short story form has taught me a lot about pacing in novels that are well over 100k words.
The idea for a story is always what comes easiest to me. I have more ideas than I’ll ever know what to do with! But the element of writing I find most challenging is description. My first drafts are typically just dialogue and very vague descriptions, so for this story I wanted to push myself to write something that focused more on the world. It really took me out of my comfort zone, but I’m so glad I did it.
LSQ: This feels beautifully complete for such a short work. Do you think you’ll ever revisit this omen in a future story?
Katrina: I briefly considered it as the new shiny idea I could work with (typical behavior for me) but, for now I’ve got it on the back burner so I can prioritize other projects. I would love to see the world expanded one day, so.. maybe in the future I’ll revisit it. (And, being the total shiny object spaz that I am, I’ve just thought of a way to incorporate this world into my current novel and I’m feeling a bit brilliant. I probably wouldn’t have thought of it without this question so, thank you!)