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Here’s a Q&A I did with the newsletter The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, out from behind a paywall…
Author Q&A with Elizabeth Stix
TSNOTYAW: Do you have a go-to mantra or pep talk for the days when writing feels hard?
One mantra that has resonated down to the cellular level for me is the old Stephen King credo: “Writing equals butt plus chair.” Another is, “You can’t edit a blank page.” It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. You can’t write if your butt isn’t in the chair, and you can’t edit something that doesn’t exist. So if your butt is in the chair long enough, at some point you’ll have the words that you can clean up. It’s okay. It’s not always muses and artistry.
TSNOTYAW: Were you ever close to giving up on writing and, if so, what stopped you?
Honestly, no. And this doesn’t mean that I didn’t have dry spells that sometimes lasted for years. It just never occurred to me that I wouldn’t do it. Even when I was stuck, to paraphrase Willie Nelson, “It was always on my mind.”
TSNOTYAW: What one piece of advice (craft- or publishing industry-related) has always resonated with you?
One thing my writing partner, Ericka Lutz, and I came up with years ago was the phrase, “Circumvent the gatekeeper!” One time Ericka poured her heart and soul into a short story and sent it off to a magazine with great hopefulness. Eventually a reply came back and it was a note that said, “Ericka — Not gonna take it. Rum and Coke! Jason.” We were like, wait, these are the hands into which we are gently placing our hopes and dreams? Um, no. It was then that I decided to start my own literary magazine. And also not to be my own gatekeeper. You should never think, “Oh, I can’t submit to the New Yorker.” No - start there. There are so many gatekeepers ready to hold you back - you can’t let yourself be one of them.
TSNOTYAW: How did you get your literary agent? What was the querying process like for you?
I was lucky, because I found someone I thought was an ideal match, and he said yes. I researched agents and found Henry Dunow, and I just felt a kinship and connection. I saw a video of a panel he was on, and the moderator asked all these agents what they looked for in an author. The other panelists had long and deliberated answers. Henry paused thoughtfully, then just said, “Voice.” That was his whole answer. I thought, I want that guy. I wrote him a query letter and he asked for the manuscript. Then I didn’t hear from him for a year. During that year, I worked on the collection and added some stories and improved it and I thought, Well, he never told me no! So I sent him the new draft and said if my manuscript was still in his pile, he should read this version instead. Unbelievably, he wrote back within an hour, apologized for his silence, and said he remembered my manuscript clearly and hadn’t replied because he had been so torn that he couldn’t say yes or no. He read the newer version, loved the changes, and took me on as a client.
TSNOTYAW: What is something you’ve learned about yourself later in your writing career that would have surprised your younger self?
When it looked like the book might never find a home, I asked myself, what would my life be like if I never published a book? Because that quest has always been so primal to me. It seemed impossible that I could live my life and never have that happen. But when I really visualized my life without it, I realized the answer was, “The same.” If I never published a book, my life would be, and would have been, exactly the same. I would love the same people, and spend my days the same way. Publishing it is awesome, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not life-defining. It’s just one (very cool) thing that happens in your life.
Five stars from the San Francisco Book Review! "The 20 interconnected stories in Elizabeth Stix’s collection Things I Want Back from You are some of the most original I’ve read in years. I cannot stop thinking about these bizarre, dark, poignant stories."
The KALW series New Arrivals (a ‘pocket-sized book tour’) aired an audio excerpt from Things I Want Back from You twice, once during Morning Edition and again during All Things Considered. Listen below and read more here! (“Suburban angst and magic cross paths in a cul-de-sac.”)
The San Francisco Chronicle published a profile of me and Things I Want Back from You (online here — the print version will run in the Sunday Datebook July 21). Here’s a picture they ran of me and my favorite squirrel, Ethel Vermin.
Photo: Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle
Rick Kleffel interviewed me for his KSQD radio show and podcast, Narrative Species - It was a great conversation about the collection and writing in general, with a very kind introductory essay that you can read on his site. You can listen to our conversation at the bottom of that page or right here!
My story “Concessions” is up at The Los Angeles Review!
A wonderful write-up in The Masters Review! Rebecca Paredes calls Things I Want Back from You "compulsively readable... deeply observational... precise, surprising, and off-handedly hilarious."
Selected Shorts performed “The Acorn” on April 27 for broadcast later this year.
“Resurrection Man” in the Summer 2022 Boulevard, (Vol. 37, Nos. 2 & 3) available for sale on their website.
“Sleeping Giants in the Daylight” in print and online with audio, in the Fall issue of The San Franciscan.
“The Acorn” is now up at McSweeney's!
“Your Feedback Is Important” in Alaska Quarterly Review Spring 2021 issue.
“The Acorn” in McSweeney's big 21st anniversary issue, #57.
“Tsunami” in Best Microfiction 2019, edited by Dan Chaon.
“Gustavo and Emiline” inThe Fabulist.