GRIME TALK

You have set up home (online, at least) in the horror genre, even though your stories are often not really horror-specific. As a writer of strange stories, did you find it tricky trying to define what you are and where best to place yourself?

I didn’t set out to place myself anywhere in particular. I wrote poetry earlier in life, so I got used to feeling like no one was paying attention to what I was doing anyway. (I’d like to write more poetry at some point, but I haven’t felt the spark to do so lately.) Some of my main inspirations are somewhat horrific, though. I feel most excited when I’m writing in the vein of Lynch, Kafka, Murakami, and Beckett…with healthy dashes of other scary stuff like sitcoms and Hallmark movies and reality TV. I’m also a longtime fan of Flannery O’Connor and Shirley Jackson.

I’m not an expert on what the genre is or what it should be. I don’t want to disappoint hardcore fans who open a horror magazine seeking gore and instead find my story about a mildly threatening man at a grocery store! I want them to know I’m writing something more absurdist and eerie than truly bone-chilling so they don’t waste their time or money. Right now, we’re grouping this eerie stuff under “weird fiction” or “strange fiction,” which falls under the broader horror umbrella. I would rather someone else solve the problem of how to classify the work!

What is the starting point of a story for you? A central idea, a character, a ‘feel’, even? Or something else?

My favorite starting point is to take something from a dream…then I get into a mood where it’s like I’m dreaming while writing. That’s what happened with my story “Hitchcock.” Sometimes I’ll just think, “Wouldn’t it be funny if…” and start there. Most often, I start with a central idea, one that explores something that I find very frightening, like the idea of doing something horrible and forgetting about it, or about being disliked and not knowing why.

How ambitious are you in your writing career?

I don’t want writing to feel like a job. I love it too much. That limits my ambition! I want to do things that come organically, and I don’t want to push myself to do stuff I hate, like public speaking. I don’t want to force myself to write something that wasn’t my idea or that I’m not enjoying. I’m happy with how things are now. I am very ambitious in the sense that I want to produce what I consider to be the best possible version of what I can do. Fortunately, that’s a life’s work, and it doesn’t depend on anyone else.

Is there a genre you’ve yet to fully tackle that you could see yourself writing one day?

I enjoy mysteries so so much. I’ve tried writing them before, but they always end up weird. Maybe someday I can write a true traditional mystery tale, or at least one that’s somewhat more faithful to the genre. I have my doubts that I could! But it would be fun.

To read the complete interview (and a pile of Ivy’s strange fiction!) CLICK THIS LINK