We took the chance to ask L.M. Conkling questions about writing and What She Brought Home. 

Q1. How did you come up with the idea for this story?

I heard Hank’s voice in my head, and he was insistent that he had a story he wanted to tell. I couldn’t deny him!

The dream of having children, and the inability to attain that dream, haunts a lot of people, myself included. That thwarted desire drove the actions of the characters in my story. I wanted to contrast the strength of the love Hank and Ramona had for each other with the love they’d hoped to give to a child. It’s why Hank makes such a extreme sacrifice, and why Ramona tries to save him from his own actions.

Q2. My favourite thing about this tale is that it centres on family and the want of one. Did you spend a lot of time thinking about that theme or did it come out naturally?

I didn’t spend too much time thinking about the theme, but more about the emotion of the situation. The theme developed naturally from there.

There are reams of stories in folklore about barren couples who yearn for a child, and the devious beings who step in to fill that desire. This story is partially inspired by the old stories of fae foundlings, and that temporary joy childless couples must feel when they imagine, for a moment, that their wish has been granted after all.

It was very important to me to show that, even without children, Hank and Ramona were a family already. In its best iteration, family is where we can be safely vulnerable. I wanted to show Hank’s unwavering support of how his wife processes her grief, even though it resulted in a farmyard of rescued animals and a house full of unused children’s clothes. To be able to show this love in action was important to understanding the characters of the story. Just as Ramona’s ability to see a situation clearer than her husband, then move to protect him, is also love in action. She is the one who first feels uneasy, even as her husband is falling in love with the child. Ramona recognizes danger. I imagine that after the story ends, and she realizes what has happened, her clear-eyed and insistent love will be what saves them.

Q3. Pets are such an underused element when it comes to raising tension. I love how subtle it is when you have Dominic and the dogs staring like there’s something wrong. As readers, we feel this strongly. Where did this idea come from? 

This is directly from real-life experience. I grew up on a small farm in California where we often had spooky experiences, and I learned to watch the animals. We had indoor cats and I’d notice that they would often be watching the empty air intently right before something unusual happened. Nowadays I live in town, in an older house, and we have dogs who often will bark at nothing (especially in our hallway) and watch things that aren’t there. I’ve learned to notice when they seem interested, and when their hackles start to rise. If it’s the latter, I intervene.

I also desperately want a donkey, so adding Dominic into the mix was pure enjoyment on my part.

Q4. How much of your time do you spend writing short stories versus other projects?

This past year I’ve primarily focused on short fiction, working to polish my ability to contain a full story in a brief medium. Learning to make a character and their experiences memorable in this way has given me the skills to make them sparkle in a longer format. Also the delicious feeling of completing a first draft in one sitting can’t be beat.

Q5. What other works do you have on the go? Anything you’d like to promote?

I’m currently working on expanding a short story titled “Strange Habits of Secretive Sheep” into a novel. It has been so much fun to dig in and get to know the characters of a story I initially wrote over a decade ago. They are even more twisted than I originally thought.

I’m very excited that my short horror “Without My Spoon” was selected to be in an anthology titled “Fun in the Dark #1,” which will be published by Kilter and Rammel this April.