Steve Fluet and Kirk Barrett will both be reading for us at Twilight Tales on June 9th. We emailed them a few questions pertaining to their writing and process, and thought you’d like to read their answers:
You have a featured reading coming up. What is the title of your piece and has it been published or presented before?
Steve: Two pieces: The first is “The End of The Line,” first presented at a Twilight Tales Open Mike in January. The Second, “Gift of Steel,” hasn’t been presented yet.
Kirk: I will be reading selections from a novel titled Beyond the Pale, & Beautiful. It is currently being submitted various places. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything of it in public before.
Tell us about the story line in a few words, or give us a few sentences from the story that may peak the interest of the reader.
Steve: [The End of The Line:] The sins of Chicago’s past are recorded on the rails of the Black Line. A fan of the city’s most notorious murderer follows the tracks back to the object of his passions. [The Gift of Steel:] The Burnham Society is a secret order within our fair city, cleaning up the magical muck left over from the World’s Columbia Exposition. In Gift of Steel, they meet their competition: A roughnecked squadron of dragonslayers under the employ of the mayor. Can Ned Grenier and Tery Lee face up to the swords of CRATE?
Kirk: It’s a weird southern gothic tale about corruption and the struggle for some kind of redemption in a small creepy town filled with peculiar characters. A few lines: Sweat dripping from his face, eyes shaded by the brim of his hat, he worked on through the wavering heat. Hungry birds overhead, shadows circling on the ground around him, waiting for any leftovers. The tiny body lay limp and soft under the shadowless tree covered by a hand towel; the infant’s burial shroud. Heel on the shovel, the Reverend dug another shallow grave.
What style or genre are you most comfortable writing in?
Steve: I write in magical realism. I think Chicago’s pretty magical and wondrous, it takes very little effort to find fairytales around here.
Kirk: I’ve got stories in most shades of speculative fiction, except hard SF and sword & sorcery-type fantasy. I have always referred to my own stuff in general as just being ‘weird fiction’. I like stories of unease told from an unusual viewpoint.
On the other hand, my two published stories are more general fiction, perhaps even what could be called ‘historical fiction.’
What inspires you to write? What makes you want to tell a particular story?
Steve: I see the people in my head. Talking, joking, engaging in outrageous passions. I watch them walking down the street and living their lives. I like relating what I see. Whether its a young man falling in love with a clockwork doll in Graceland cemetery, or a pack of workers in yellow vests and orange hard hats pulling an angry dragon out of a garbage bin…How can you not talk about it?
Kirk: What inspires me to write…? Breathing; thinking; watching… quite literally, *everything*. I’ve had stories spring from something incredibly odd like seeing a homeless person wearing a coat festooned with magnets to something as simple as watching the sequences of tower lights blinking. It’s as if I go out for a walk and step in a pile of ideas on the sidewalk. Whatever I don’t scrape off my shoes outside, I scrape off at home to write stories with. What makes me want to tell a particular story is when I come up a scene or a character or a situation and try to figure out what’s going on, or maybe why, and then write out what the characters say and do. It’s like watching the scene take place and I’m just jotting down the notes of what happens.
What are you most looking forward to about your featured spot?
Steve: First, the chance to present a ‘clean’ version of “The End of The Line,” with the kinks worked out. I’ve been telling the story for two years now, but hadn’t committed it to paper. Second, to introduce people to the antics of my current favorite characters, the staff of the Burnham society. I hope they like them as much as I do.
Kirk: The chance to share my novel with active listeners and receive any response they may have.
We hope you’ll join us on Monday June 9th at The Fixx Coffee Bar (3053 N. Sheffield) to hear Steve’s and Kirk’s fiction and perhaps more discussion!
