1. ‎The title story is a historical flash about plantation workers Matdiey and her parents. Tell us more.

“These Worn Bodies” explores not only a brief moment in Matdiey’s life, but also the specific moment that will change everything, the vital moment that creates tension or resonance in flash. Matdiey’s moment, leaving the plantation, also depicts the significance of choice: a woman choosing what she wants after leading a life of decisions forced or expected of her, a theme highlighted throughout the collection.

2. Why flash fiction as a narrative choice?

I love how flash forces a writer to focus, to select one moment or a series of condensed events and explore their significance. Each character in this collection is searching or headed towards something. I use the flash form to focus on what triggers this moment and sets the character in motion, or the moment of pause to reconsider everything and start again.

3. Form complements narrative in “A Letter to My Breasts,” candid yet deeply insightful. Why write in the form of a letter?

I love the personal touches of letter-writing that don’t need to be stated on the page, trusting my readers to acknowledge all the time taken to ensure my character is writing towards something. That she is writing everything she can’t say out loud. What she needed time to process. What she might have edited out in order to avoid saying something wrong.

4. “Call Me Verdean” summons the undead. How do weirdness and reality coexist in this collection?

There’s always a sense of weirdness in reality, the unbelievable becoming believable, the unheard happenstance unfolding right before us. “Call Me Verdean,” is a story about wanting to belong: alienation, just told from the point of view of a zombie. I enjoy stories that take familiar themes and add a touch of weird, because that’s what makes the story memorable.

5. Tell us about the inspiration behind “Draft No 1.”

I love when my characters speak to me. The problems arise when they stop. In exploring that feeling, I wondered how a character might feel if they become self-aware of the author, the one in control of their story. What happens if the character disagrees with their arc or development, or grows tired of being a secondary or prop for the main character?

6. Your next project?

I’m really enjoying this time of not knowing what’s next. My plan is to edit, since I’ve put off revising the growing horde of flash and short stories long enough. I’m also easily distracted by the next new, shiny idea. Maybe I have another collection in me somewhere. A novel? More new drafts of flash or short stories? Who knows!