Amber Sparks, "A History of Heart Disease"
It’s December 12. Amber Sparks, author of I Do Not Forgive You, finds the drive-thru a little too impersonal.
How would you describe your story?
AMBER SPARKS: I'd describe it as a very end-of-year/beginning-of-a-new-year story! It's sad and about failure but there's also a sense of renewal and hope in it, I think.
When did you write it, and how did the writing process compare to your other work?
AS: I actually wrote this one a while ago—maybe six or seven years ago? I was writing more short short fiction then, so it's interesting to see the compacted impact of this story—and it's kind of inspiring me to start doing some short short writing again as I slog through two full-length books!
What kind of research went into this story?
AS: None! Which is funny, because I usually do a decent amount of research, even around fiction. But this story just kind of sailed out, from my own kind of life experience and the experience of others that I know. Everyone knows a screwed-up jerk, and you don't have to do much research to invent one.
What, to you, makes the short story a special form? What can it do that other kinds of writing can’t?
AS: The short story will always, always be my first love. Stories can go places and experiment with form and structure; they can be playful and weird in ways that I don't think novels can. There are so many things you can do with a story, experimentally, that you could never sustain for an entire novel. It's the thing I love most about the form. I can't possibly get bored, because I can make a story out of anything—a menu, a list, a recipe, a pile of leaves. Stories are the most fun form to writers to work in, I think! At least for me.
Where should people go to learn more about you and your work?
AS: They can go to my website I guess, ambernoellesparks.com, or they can just follow me on Twitter at @ambernoelle where I'm a certified annoying person about writing all day long.
What's the best gift you've ever been given?
AS: When we were just dating, my husband bought me a kitten for Christmas, and he ended up being that special cat, the one in a million, who thinks he's a human and is just the brightest best animal in the world. We called him Loki. He's gone now of cancer, but I'll never forget him—he'll always be the best cat in the whole world to me.
Also The Legend of Zelda II for Christmas in 1987.
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