All Things Pankish

Ask the Author: Eric Shorey

[ / December 11th, 2009 / Interviews ]

Eric Shorey’s Sirius appears in the November issue. Today, he talks with J. Bradley about a soundtrack for his story, the sound of screams in space, and the best sci-fi.

1. How did you prepare yourself to capture the isolation and the alienation of the protagonist in “Sirius”?

Well, I didn’t prepare myself, necessarily.  The piece was a sort of reflection on a strange experience:  My parents moved out of the house we had lived in for 20 years while I was away.  When I went to the new house, everything felt the same but totally different.  It felt like I had been on another planet, and had returned to find everything wrong.  Around the same time, I kept having nightmares that my dog died.  Put those two together, and there’s the story.

2. What songs would be on the “Sirius” soundtrack?

Candyland by Cocorosie, Memory by Yoko Kanno, Frosti and/or Submarine by Bjork, The Horror has Gone by Antony and the Johnsons.  Oh god, indie overload.

3. Which is superior, *Babylon 5* or *Deep Space Nine*?
Alien or Fifth Element beats either of them any day.

4. “Her mouth was the moon” is such a gut punch line.  What line does that to you from a story or poem?

The last line of “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried,” by Amy Hemple and the line “For the second time in his life, Luzhin realized what a terribly fragile thing chess is.” from The Defense by Nabokov.

5. Write a pick up line using the moon.

I’ve been pondering this for half a month.  I really am just not that clever!

6. If you’re in space and no one can hear you scream, are you really screaming?

Yes.

7. How much does poetry and visual art influence your writing?

Yes.  Probably as much as other writing.  Which is a lot.  In my head, all of my stories are either cartoons or Tim Burton projects.  If I’m writing a scene, I always see it in my head as this over-the-top tableau.  Lorca, Silvia Plath, and cummings are huge inspirations; their words are so delicate and quiet and I always want my stories to be that fragile and expressive.

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