Ed Park, "Eat Pray Click"

It’s December 3. Ed Park, author of Same Bed Different Dreams, chooses his own adventure.

How would you describe your story?

ED PARK: A “what if” scenario, framed as an intellectual horror story, in which a private investigator hears from an old acquaintance who has hacked the Kindle, infiltrating the contents of classic books. 

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

EP: I completed the ur-version of “Eat Pray Click” on February 18, 2009, hours before a reading at the Ding Dong Lounge in Manhattan. It was the one and only time I had been to the venue, which no longer exists. I was in the habit, in those days, of writing new material for readings. It was a good way to get me to produce something new and short, amid the longer-scale enterprise of working on a novel. On that day in February, alas, I didn’t have a chance to time myself before the event, and the story took forever to read. (In my mind it was well over 20 minutes, an eternity when you’re on a bill with other readers.) A public reading is the most effective editor. You hear what gets the biggest laughs, and you feel in your bones when the words drag.

I wasn’t happy with the outcome at the Ding Dong, but still liked the concept. A couple months later, I drastically cut and rewrote the story, boiling it down to fifteen short, numbered sections. That fall, I did a reading downtown at KGB, at the invitation of Lev Grossman, whose novel The Magicians had recently come out. (Rivka Galchen was the other reader.) Now built for speed, “Eat Pray Click” went over much better. Then nothing happened; I kept the story in my back pocket for another decade and a half. For the 2024 SSAC, I whittled it down even more, turning it into a svelte ten-parter.

What kind of research went into this story?

EP: None, really! Kindles were pretty new in 2008; I didn’t have one yet, but was fascinated and fearful of the concept. The text of a book was no longer fixed to the page; what if it changed as you read it? I was dreaming of a ghost in the machine.

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

EP: The best ones are miracles, for the writer and hopefully the reader. Language works differently in small spaces. As a writer, you have to get in and get out.

The novel is my religion, but I’ve written stories pretty regularly over the past twenty-five years. For me, they either happen or they don’t. A voice, a situation, gets in my head, so forcefully that it can be a matter of hours before I’ve worked it out in a satisfying way. Some of my strongest stories were written in a day. Of course, most take longer, and there are a few that need several years of incubation before real revision can begin.

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

EP: My website (ed-park.com) has info on my books, events, some articles, and other news. For more of my pieces, there's a LinkTree page (linktr.ee/EdPark). I also post things on Instagram (@tharealedpark). 

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

EP: Most recently, a turntable. I haven’t had one in ages; listening to records has become part of my writing routine.

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What did you think of today's story? Use the hashtag #ssac2024 on Twitter and Instagram to check in with your fellow advent calendarians.