Spineless Wonders

An independent Sydney-based publisher of short Australian stories from single stories to novellas as well as single-author collections and anthologies. Spineless Wonders hosts The Carmel Bird Award for short fiction and The joanne burns Microlit Award for microfiction and prose poems.

Author Q&A with Susan McCreery for Thurs. 8pm AEST - please leave your Qs here

We'll be chatting with the author of Loopholes, Susan McCreery, here on Thursday night. Loopholes is a collection of microfiction - many less than half a page in length - so it will be great chance to hone in on this short short form. Plus Loopholes has just been nominated for The Most Underrated Book Award which will be announced next week at The Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. So this will also be a good chance to chat with an emerging author about her writing journey and how she feels about the attention her book is receiving. I'm leaving a couple of questions below to kick off the evening's discussion. Feel free to leave your questions below too.

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You have published a collection of poetry and your short stories have been widely anthologised. How long have you been writing microfiction and how did you first get into it?

Microfiction sort of found me. Through comps and publishing opportunities. Run by fabulous people such as YOU! Back in 2014 I think. Joanne burns award, Writing to the Edge. The PCWC in Perth has a 600w comp and I entered 2 stories – one of them won, the other HC.

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Why have you called this collection Loopholes?

I brainstormed a lot of titles. Terrible ones! Like Morsels, Bycatch, Fissures, Cuttings. Tried out a couple of story titles as a book title. Loopholes seemed to fit on several levels. It's a narrow opening to look through, let light through. It's an outlet. It's an escape clause. Many of the stories leave us with the Q will they escape/leave/walk out? And the reader gets to peep into their lives.

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Thanks for doing this Q&A! Can you please explain the difference between micro fiction, short stories, flash fiction? Thanks

Thank YOU, Jemma! I love a good grilling. No, really, it's a great platform and great community. I think there are a few diff terms for this really short form - microfiction, microlit, flash fiction, short-short stories. These are the ones I know about, anyway. Bron decided that Loopholes would only contain stories under 250w. I'd submitted longer ones - up to 800w I think. I'd still call these microfiction. Not sure where the cut-off is, maybe 1000w. This would have to be short story territory.

There feels to be a difference between microfiction and very short stories which is more than simply length. I can't quite put my finger on the difference. Maybe it's how much a reader contributes?

Yes, our version of the short short form (which we call 'microlit' and which encompasses prose poetry as well as microfiction) has an upper limit of 800 words. it was just an arbitrary limit - but most publishers and writers' comps will make similar kinds of decisions.

Oh yes prose-poems. That's another one. And in the foreword to Lydia Davis's collection they even use 'fables' 'observations', etc.

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What attracted you to the form of microfiction? And how do you feel about the novella and novel as formats, would you ever be tempted to write a novel?

I'd written poetry and short stories, so it seemed the perfect combo! I get to write a short story and I get to write it as short as a poem. I like working hard on language. Love working hard on language. As to writing a novella/novel, I am writing one! Right. Now.

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One thing I loved about Loopholes was the way you managed to create stories with such depth and complexity in less than 250 words. They never feel cut short. That said, have any of your short pieces - or the characters or scenarios in them - ever developed into something longer?

Thank you, Mark! That's very kind. At this stage I haven't developed them into anything longer, but that's not to say I wouldn't consider it. Maybe when I take a break from this dastardly novel writing. It'd be interesting to see if they still speak to me or whether they've been well and truly put to bed.

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Since you also write short stories, how do you decide that a microfiction is "done"? How do you resist the temptation to add a little more information? When you revise, do you pare away as much as possible?

Hi Marian – lovely to meet you. I do pare away and pare away until I get to the core! In many ways cutting away extraneous matter is the easy bit – the words that don't do much work. Deciding on which details to keep can be tricky. I read aloud a lot. This helps. Leave it, come back to it with fresh eyes/ears. Sometimes it's just the word choice that I change. 'Scared' can be better than 'frightened' for e.g. Rhythmically.

I'll have to go back and read them all out loud. Personal favourite is "Safekeeping', btw. A great emotional impact.

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Susan, I thoroughly enjoyed your collection. So many of the pieces are handled with such skill: deft, subtle, surprising, chilling, original. I've long been a fan of your piece, "Hold-up", which is in Loopholes, but now I find I have added to my list! "Disturbance", "Rescued", "Lights", "Catch-up'. I agree with Mark, the individual pieces 'never feel cut short'. I like your habit of ending with an odd, slightly jarring comment, such as in "Rear Window" where you write "When would this heat break". Such an ordinary sort of thing to say, and yet you seem to be able to invest it with a good deal of spookiness! Well done. I was wondering whether you have a favourite in Loopholes?

Thank you for all those lovely comments, Amanda! And congratulations on your Bath Flash Fiction award! Amazing. So...a favourite out of 67 babies! I'm quite fond of Loose Ends – I feel so sorry for Alan. I do like Rear Window – that one took a LOT of work. Mona Lisa – really happy the way that turned out from a fairly mediocre start. Monoculus ( I'd love to write more like this). Well, then is another I quite like.

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With such a tight word count, the choice of title is crucial, I'd imagine. How do you choose them? Does your choice of title cause you to revise a story?

Titles, hmm. Sometimes easy, sometimes not. But I do think it's an opportunity to add depth to the story. If a title can take on a double meaning so much the better. For e.g. 'Missing' – she's not only missing as in lost, but she's missing the family as it once was. 'Anchor' – it's not only the anchor doorknocker, but it's the anchor as in mainstay (the girl's father. Then you have 'Hold-up' which is just a hold-up so, yeah wow, not very clever.

We often get asked by entrants in our microlit comps (200 words max) if we will count the title. What do you all think?

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Hi everyone, good evening and thanks for being here. Please say hi in reply to this post and also remember to REFRESH regularly in case you miss a new comment.

Would like to welcome author, Susan McCreery - you've got lots of questions to respond to. but first up, have you been ocean swimming today?

Hi Bron and hi everyone! This is a lovely cosy little group and lots of great Qs. Not in the ocean today, only pool! Saltwater though.

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Thanks, Mark! And I look forward to meeting you in person in Melbourne next week!

I am looking forward to it! I love going to Melb esp for something literary, and it's been a while. I'm nervous of course. The other shortlisted books are pretty special. The thing about this award is that each book on the shortlist receives that little bit of extra love and attention. I'm so happy that Loopholes is getting attention, esp for the publisher and illustrator too! You've always championed this book. I'm proud of it, and the recognition is lovely. Once I'm off stage I hope a big hole opens up and I can fall in though and go scuttling off underground!

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Has anyone seen a comment from Marjorie Lewis-Jones this evening - she was here and now i can't see her...

So Marjorie is on her way - had some things to say about two of your Loopholes pieces. And Richard Holt sends his apologies. Is in a battle to save his local community. We'll accept that excuse. This time.

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So ... what I said in my own recent little hyperworld of Tablo where I was invisible to you all was ... I've been looking at Loopholes in between deadlines today. And it struck me that each time I dip into it a different story leaps up as my new favourite and/or whacks me freshly between the eyes with devastating sadness. Today's were 'Something you're not' and 'Burden'. So I guess I just want to say, 'Thanks Susan, for writing and thanks Bron and Spineless for publishing'. This is a book that will keep on giving, which makes it a very fine achievement I think ...

Marjorie is always so very kind! 'Burden' is an interesting one. Made for a bit of discussion if I remember – whether to include or not, right, Bron?

It's definitely an edgy subject ... was there something particular you deliberated about? (Sorry if I'm a bit slow this evening. Big day dominated by the screen!)

It was such a confronting scenario - the wife needing to share the burden of her husband's violence to women.

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Also, we have discovered that to get to see everyone else's comments you need to hit the arrow up on the masthead

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I am still curious about the process Susan. How did the rich variety of subjects come to you – given that you set yourself a goal of writing a story each week for a year? Did you need prompts, or did the characters and situations arise spontaneously. How did you finesse these little gems?

I think the key is that I wrote a piece a day and could take lots of risks. And the fact that only 67 made the cut from 365 shows there were a LOT of duds! I'm not a planner. I usually find the story by writing. On the other hand there were definitely days when that was difficult. Sometimes I open a favourite writer and pick a phrase and start from there. Or write about what's in front of me (e.g. the cat). And of course I've said this before, but Account was a transcription of a news broadcast! Tweaked slightly.

There were definitely a couple of stories where I wondered if you'd witnessed a brief exchange in a cafe, or seen someone sitting by themselves at a restaurant table, and then imagined the scenario around them.

I'm trying to think, Mark. I don't think so. Or rather – maybe I had in the past and they were in my subconscious. I don't think I witnessed and then wrote about it immediately. There was one story that was a real exchange, but I won't mention it! Got me in trouble.

OMG Susan - a story a day. It's funny that I misremembered your feat as a story per week. At my glacial pace even one per week seems incredibly ambitious! ;)

Yep. Nine. Better go all, as I have yet to eat dinner, and I'm starving. Lovely to 'see' you all ... And thanks Susan for your candour and graciousness. Hope to see you (and other Spineless Wonders peeps here tonight) for real sometime soon.

Marjorie, I can't think which was the hardest right now. Although maybe one that took a lot of work was Rear Window. I still don't think many readers know that's based on the Hitchcock movie. But doesn't seem to matter. Are we saying goodnight now? Been lovely chatting with you all! And thanks for reading!

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