“Asking for It” is a tense, visceral tale that explores ritual, both of the mundane and the arcane kind. What inspired this story?
The title came to me first, and I built the story around that concept of asking for it. How I might subvert it. Because that phrase, to me, has always been how someone’s wants are placed on another person. The justification they hunt for to allay any guilt or anxiety or sense of culpability. I wanted to look at that concept through an alternate lens than what we typically see. A woman in a position of power who has cast herself in a role the man expects. How she uses those expectations to her advantage.
Speaking of that intensity, “Asking for It” manages to maintain it throughout the entire story. When writing, how does one maintain that tension while also knowing the best time to release it?
Maintaining that tension, for me, has always been about walking the tightrope between the mundane and the unhinged. Spooling things out slowly so the question remains if what we are watching on the page is just another normal day. I like to plant small details that feel just slightly strange, so that it ratchets up the conflict and tension without overtly revealing everything. Sure, she has strange thoughts. Maybe asks some strange questions. But there’s also a sense of normalcy in it all. So by the time her plan fully unfurls, we feel, maybe not safe, but at least not so complacent that we don’t feel some shock.
We watch this ritual/spell taking place at the end of the story, using Calvin as a sort of catalyst, but “Asking for It” ends just as the results of this spell are realized, which I loved; it gives the reader something to imagine, something to stick with them well after the story is over. What was your intention behind this? Do you have an idea of what the creature that the narrator creates/summons looks like?
In truth, I never wanted to see the creature. It was so much more frightening in my mind not to see it, or to even consider the possibility she’s an unreliable narrator and there is nothing there at all. I’ve always loved stories and films that leave the imagining to the viewer/reader. Just as Calvin proves, there’s nothing more frightening than the images you build from memory.
What’s next for you? Do you have any projects that you’re working on or coming out soon that you can talk about?
My novel Dark Sisters, a multigenerational story that follows three women and the curse that haunts them, comes out December 9th from St. Martin’s Press. I’m currently working on my next novel.
