After posting the amazing story The Fun Times Gal of Rockway Boulevard, we sat down to ask J Nathan her thoughts on the writing of the tale. There may be spoilers ahead!
Q1. I love the narrative voice of this one. I feel like I’m right there with our ‘fun gal’. Did you spend a lot of time thinking about how you’d achieve this or did it come naturally?
I have spent a good part of my life (20 years) in the theatre world working as a director, designer, and sometimes playwright. This story is essentially a monologue. Once I figured out what kind of girl Anna was, it just flowed. I think it took me less than two weeks to write this start to finish, which is very fast for me.
Q2. We know nothing about the person the fun gal is talking to. Was this a conscious choice?
Yes. I wanted the reader to be in the driver’s seat, be who Anna is talking to. The Phantom Hitchhiker is my favorite urban legend, and I often wonder what it would be like to pick up a ghost on the side of the road. This story is, in part, exploration of that idea.
Q3. Who are your biggest inspirations and did any of them have a hand in what you’ve accomplished here?
Shirley Jackson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Alice Hoffman, Wendy N. Wagner, Chloe N. Clark, Stephen King, Chuck Wendig…so many wonderful writers inspire my writing.
Shirley Jackson was a huge influence for this story. She writes wonderful unreliable narrators that the audience connects with. Eleanor Vance and Merricat Blackwood have really stuck with me.
Q4. How much of your time do you spend writing short stories versus other projects?
I probably write about 10 hours a week. The rest of my free time I spent outside away from screens—gardening, trail running, or just reading on the deck.
Q5. What other works do you have on the go? Anything you’d like to promote?
I have about 10 short stories floating around the publishing world waiting to be snatched up for publication.
Stories I have out currently include:
Cozy Fantasy: Hoofbeats at Inner Worlds
https://inner-worlds.ghost.io/issue-9-hoofbeats-by-j-nathan/
Weird West: Will Purdy and the Sky at Pulp Asylum
https://www.pulpasylum.com/will-purdy-and-the-sky-by-j-nathan.html
Horror: The Majestic in the Back Into the Ground Anthology
https://www.amazon.com/Back-Into-Ground-Anthology-Northwest-ebook/dp/B0FCCZS38Y