Ruby Cowling, "Odam on Till"

It’s December 11. Ruby Cowling, author of This Paradise, wonders whether you have any smaller bills.

How would you describe your story?

RUBY COWLING: A speculative morsel about being an outsider.

When did you write it, and how did the writing process compare to your other work?

RC: I worked on early versions in 2017–8, but couldn’t find a way to make it work until revisiting it this year, 2022. That’s not uncommon for me—sometimes the story needs a very long rest between drafts. The earlier versions didn’t have the word-cloud sections (or, honestly, a functioning narrative arc).

What kind of research went into this story?

RC: It’s a story full of tea and cakes, so.

What, to you, makes the short story a special form? What can it do that other kinds of writing can’t?

RC: The short story can do anything at all, which is why it’s so special. It can go to extreme places more successfully than longer forms, in my opinion. And you can try out more exquisite ideas, delicate things which might tarnish over the length of a novel. The novel comes with so much baggage (not least the self-binding questions of “but is this a novel?” that inevitably arise if you mess with the form)—so many wearying expectations. As a reader, I love a good novel, but as a writer it’s like a going on a round-the-world cruise, when I’m more of a kayaker. Sometimes I think of the short story as like ringing the doorbell and running away, whereas with the novel, you have to stand there on the doorstep and explain yourself at length. Needless to say I prefer to run away.

Where should people go to learn more about you and your work?

RC: Ye olde Wordpress site http://rubyorruth.wordpress.com.

What's the best gift you've ever been given?

RC: Obviously the gifts of love and unconditional acceptance, etc etc, but also—a bike!

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What did you think of today's story? Use the hashtag #ssac2022 on Twitter and Instagram to check in with your fellow advent calendarians.