An Interview With Laura Stamps (North Carolina Writers Network)

This month I was interviewed by the very sweet and talented Joan Leotta for her North Carolina Writers Network group. I received two sets of questions: one from Joan and one from the members of her group. You'll see both here, as well as my answers to all these questions. Enjoy!  

An Interview with Laura Stamps

 North Carolina Writers Network

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Questions from Joan

 1.) Please tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up? When did you start writing?

Currently, I live in Columbia, South Carolina. But I grew up in Dalton, Georgia, a small town in the Appalachian Mountains of north Georgia (about thirty minutes south of Chattanooga, Tennessee). I majored in fine art in college and had been winning awards for my art since elementary school. After high school, I attended Dalton Junior College for two years and then transferred to the College of Charleston, which is how I ended up in South Carolina. I had been selling my paintings in galleries and at art festivals since high school and continued to do that during college. But I have always loved to read and had also been writing stories since I was six years old. In fact, I would borrow a needle and thread from my mother and sew together the pages of my little stories, binding them into books. So I guess you could say I’ve been “writing books” since I was six years old. Lol! 

I took four years of Latin in high school and college, as well as honors classes in literature in college, which I enjoyed very much. But even though my English professors in high school and college told me I had writing talent, I never considered writing as a profession because I’m dyslexic. Fifty years ago they didn’t have a name for that condition or a way to diagnose it. The school counselors just told my mother the reason I had this problem was because the schools weren’t teaching phonics when I was in the first grade. But I knew something was very wrong. Grammar and spelling are incredible difficult to grasp when the letters are always twisting around, and I knew that had nothing to do with phonics. 

So I decided to pursue art (painting) as my profession. By the time I was thirty, my paintings were sold in galleries across the country. Art prints of my paintings were also published by my fine art publisher in California and sold to galleries worldwide, as well as chain stores like Kmart, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and Target. But thirty was also the year everything changed for me. That’s when I discovered a Writer’s Digest magazine on the newsstand at my local Waldenbooks. Back then Judson Jerome wrote the monthly poetry column for WD. That column inspired me to start writing again. All I had to do was write one poem, and I was hooked! I always say my art career ended the day I wrote that first poem, awful as it was. At that moment I knew I’d found my true profession. So I dug out my old college English textbooks, studied every page, ordered a zillion books from Writer’s Digest Book Club about how to write poetry and fiction, studied all of them, read the books of all the contemporary novelists/poets/short story writers I could find (especially Anne Sexton, Ann Beattie, and Raymond Carver), worked to overcome the worst of my dyslexia, and eventually learned how to write publishable fiction and poetry. 

2.) When did you become aware of flash fiction, and when did you start writing it? 

I began writing flash fiction 35 years ago shortly after that first poem.

3.) Is most of your flash fiction, or do you write CNF as well?

All of my flash is fiction. I don’t write CNF.

4.) What do you see as the major difference between flash fiction and flash CNF—besides the fact that CNF is true?

Flash fiction and microfiction must have a complete story arc (beginning, middle, and end). The last line is always the most important. It must pull the whole story together. It must sizzle and zap the reader with instant revelation or recognition. That’s always possible with fiction. But not with CNF, which must remain true to the actual event.

5.) Do you write in other genres as well? Poetry? Standard length fiction? CNF?

I also write narrative prose poetry, novels, novellas, and longer short stories. For example, my poetry book THE YEAR OF THE CAT was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 and won two of the Muses Prizes that year.

6.) What magazines, journals, and websites have published your flash fiction?

I have published in over 1000 literary magazines and journals worldwide. 71 of my flash fiction stories and narrative poems were accepted for publication in literary magazines in 2021. I have also received 7 Pushcart nominations for my flash fiction and poetry. Some of the magazines that have recently published my flash fiction are Spillwords, Flash Fiction North, Squawk Back, Punk Noir Magazine, Crush Literary Magazine, The Amethyst Review, The Agape Review, Ellipsis Zine, The Birdseed, and Roi Faineant Press, and many others.

7.) What is the best piece of advice you can give someone who wants to write flash fiction?

“Show don’t tell.” It’s 101 for writing good fiction of any kind, but absolutely essential for flash fiction. Every word in flash has to move the plot forward. You must grab the reader from the first sentence. From there you only have a limited number of words to weave your magic. “Show” by moving your plot forward through dialogue, action, and placing important details strategically throughout the piece. Think of it this way. As a flash fiction writer, you are sprinkling bread crumbs through a dark forest, leading the reader to an expected ending. “Telling” is straightforward and boring. “Showing” is enlightening.

8.) Please tell us a little about your current book. Do you call it a collection of flash pieces or a novella in flash?

THE WAY OUT is a collection of 39 flash fiction stories (350 words or less). There is also one little novella at the end about a woman suffering from PTSD and her quest for healing, but it is not a novella in flash. THE WAY OUT is a collection of empowering stories about 40 different women in different occupations, living in different locations, involved in different yet challenging situations. Some of the stories are humorous, some serious, some heartwarming. But all are empowering in one way or another.

9.) How did you find a publisher for it? Did you use an agent? Or did you find a publisher on your own?

The publisher for THE WAY OUT is the same one who published my latest novella IT’S ALL ABOUT THE RIDE: CAT MANIA in September 2021 (Alien Buddha Press). However I’m almost finished writing my next novella, and it will go to a different publisher. I have had many publishers during my long career, and I find them the way most writers do: through networking on social media and by submitting manuscripts to open calls and competitions. I have also had several agents during that time (literary agents and movie/television agents) for my novels and novel series. But I have accomplished much more in the publishing realm without an agent, so I prefer not to use them. Fortunately, you don’t need an agent with small press publishers.

10.) Are publishers open to novellas in flash or collections?

Yes, small press publishers are very open to flash collections and flash novels. However, traditional publishers and agents are not. And that is due solely to the money/economics issue. Page count is very important. Big thick books with lots of words sell better than smaller books. Genre novels sell better than literary novels. Novels sell better than short story collections. Publishing is expensive, so agents and publishers go where the easy money can be made. 

Questions from Group Members

1.) What are the usual word counts for the different types of flash fiction?

Any story with a complete story arc (beginning, middle, climax, end) in less than 1000 words is considered flash fiction. Microfiction is generally 200 words or less.

2.) What topics are most amenable to flash fiction?

All topics are fair game in flash if written skillfully.

3.) Can you write flash in nonfiction as well as in fiction?

I don’t know. I only write flash fiction.

4.) What is the best way to cut down a longer piece to make it fit a small word count?

Stick with the essentials. Cut everything else no matter how much you love it. The 39 flash stories in THE WAY OUT are only 350 words or less. That was the challenge I set for myself with this collection. However the first draft of each story was much longer. Then it was just a matter of deleting the unnecessary and adding only what was essential to move the plot forward in order to achieve the desired response from the reader.

5.) How do you decide what words should be taken out?

I’m a ruthless editor. All my flash stories, short stories, novellas and novel chapters go through 30-50 edits before they’re finished. By then every word in the story or chapter is there for a specific reason. Nothing is window dressing. Every word is the right word in the right place. Nothing more. Nothing less.

6.) What is the difference between flash fiction and prose poetry?

Flash fiction may be the same size or smaller than a prose poem. But a flash story must be a complete story (beginning, middle, climax, end). Prose poetry does not contain a story arc. Its job is not to tell a complete story. Instead it highlights a moment, feeling, scene, or experience, and the language is often lyrical. 

7.) Can you give us some insight into the plot arc for a flash fiction piece?

1.) Begin with action (cut to the chase). 2.) Build rapidly to a climax. 3.) End with a line that shakes the reader out of his or her comfort zone. Your end line should elicit some kind of unexpected emotional response from the reader. It should always surprise.

8.) In the short space of a flash piece, how do you lead readers down one path and then twist the ending?

You just said it. Lead readers down one path. Then twist the ending to shock readers by revealing they were actually on an entirely different path but didn’t know it. Great fun for the reader and writer!

9.) Do you have anything to recommend on fictionalizing a piece of nonfiction? Can you tweak the characters or do you have to make them completely different?

I’ve never fictionalized a piece of nonfiction, and I don’t write CFN. However, I can say I definitely use nonfiction elements in my fiction. All fiction writers do. For example, several of the characters in THE WAY OUT were random women I saw in my daily life on the street or in stores or walking across a parking lot or elsewhere. Something about them made me stop and take notice. It might have been their hair color or an article of clothing or an activity they were engaged in. I didn’t know any of them. I never spoke to any of them. I just made a note of what interested me about them, and then I created a flash fiction story about them.