Carolyn R Russell writes flash fiction, short stories, poetry and YA fiction. At the heart of her work is a constant curiosity about meaning in life and how we find it through navigating everyday troubles. In October she’s releasing a collection of flash fiction and short stories – Death and Other Survival Strategies. She says its overarching theme is how we surmount and survive what we must in order to move on.
Some pieces orbit an existential threat, some revel in the tricks of the brain we deploy to stay sane, some suggest that sanity is not always the best defence against the vagaries of fate, some are joyous tributes about rising to everyday challenges.
I didn’t set out to explore this theme; rather, the book is a collection of stories written over the last few years, and when I studied them as a group, I realized they all pointed in some fashion to the idea. Overcoming what we must and finding some sort of resolution is central to the human condition, and that’s the work of art for me: to reinforce that we are all in this together in our need to find meaning in this life.
Some of my characters are diabolical and that reinforces this notion; they may have heinously warped ideas, but they are striving nevertheless, no matter what the cost.
The book contains a wide variety of genres, including literary fiction, magic realism and sci fi. There’s even a surreal Western. A writing buddy described the collection as Twilight Zone meets O. Henry meets Chicken Soup for the Soul.
You also have two novels, both for the YA audience, In the Fullness of Time and Q & A. Why do you write for that age group and about that time of life?
Adolescence is such a formative period. So much goes on that will continue to reverberate throughout our lives; the good, the bad, and the wish-it-never-happened ugly. Like the protagonist of Q & A, my own teen years were leavened by my family’s love, support and humorous approach to life’s challenges.
Books were also an important lifeline during those years, in terms of learning to pay attention to a world of choices outside of my lived experience. I read voraciously, across all genres. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle thrilled me when I was in grade school and set the stage for my lifetime love of science fiction. Ray Bradbury, Issac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, and Ursula K Le Guin were my favourites when I was a teen.
I loved classics like Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Catcher in the Rye, Treasure Island, To Kill a Mockingbird and anything by Edith Wharton and Shirley Jackson. I could go on and on. I didn’t know at the time how famous a lot of it was. My mom was a devoted reader and guided a lot of my choices. Her suggestions were good ones.
Fairy tales also had a huge impact on my burgeoning sense of identity. It occurs to me only now how much. I think it’s called ‘positive illusionism’ by psychologists; the idea that everything will work out for the best in the end. Those fantastical stories of survival taught me about human nature and our collective wish to find paths forward no matter what the circumstances.
I wanted to give my readers a similar extension of their realities.
I see a strong streak of eco-concern in the settings of both your novels.
I’m interested in ecosystems of all kinds. Concern for the health and viability of our planet is represented in very different ways in each book. In the Fullness of Time is a dystopian novel that takes place during the aftermath of a human-instigated ecological disaster, while Q & A is a humorous mystery wherein environmental concerns are the book’s catalyst for a disparate group of characters to engage.
And family is also an ecosystem, isn’t it? That’s a great concept to explore at the YA stage of life. We only have one family ourselves, and close experience of maybe a few more, but we can taste many others through books.
Both books share a strong focus on family ecosystems. Our families, those we’re born into and those we choose, have a huge impact on our ways of being in the world, and how we respond to its everyday chaos. Both of my YA novels concern these central relationships in our lives. And in both books, family is an ultimately positive and sustaining force.
There are lots of books for teens that validate how difficult it can be to be part of a family; I wanted to put something positive out there, so the troubles and crises of each novel are ultimately resolved in great part to the crazy glue that bonds a family together. I hope the books present a possible alternative model for kids who are struggling within their own.
You’ve also had personal essays and poetry published. How do you decide when an idea deserves a full-length treatment or a fragment? Or a part of a novel?
This is going to sound weird, but I wait for an ineffable click to happen. Then I know it’s done, finished, whether it’s six words or 60k. If I never hear the click, it’s in a file somewhere to one day be cannibalised.
I see you’ve written a book on The Films of Joel and Ethan Coen. Tell me why you’re such a Coen devotee.
After teaching high school language and writing-based subjects in my 20s, I went to graduate school in my early 30s and studied film criticism. Although I have a couple of unproduced film scripts in a drawer, my emphasis was on writing about film. A revised, more mainstream version of my grad thesis on the early work of the Coen brothers was picked up by McFarland & Company; I delivered two children and the book within the same three-year period. Then I rediscovered the joys of other kinds of writing, and I was hooked.
The Coens like to break reality, which I notice in some of your own work.
I think my love for the Coens’ work says something about the sensibility I bring to my writing. Their playfulness with form and genre, their humour and their visual style are, in my opinion, unmatched in terms of their contribution to independent filmmaking. Best of all is their respect for their audiences; we are always in on the joke, which is often film historical. The Coens trust us to understand their references.
How have you ended up on such a creative life path?
My family of origin is very creative – musicians, artists, and writers galore. I started writing at a young age, but never dreamed of publication until much later because I was focused on singing, acting and teaching. My husband is a singer-songwriter (that’s how we met) who plays a bunch of instruments and gigs out a lot with his band. And my daughters are both creative. So I’ve been very lucky.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on a pilot for a TV series with a bi-coastal writing team, a tech thriller.
Quick-fire questions –
What’s on your desk?
Lots of pocket-sized notebooks, stacks of paper, my laptop, and my pup’s chin right now; she sits on my lap while I type.
Favourite time of day?
Early evening.
Books you wish you’d written
A Wrinkle in Time
The Poisonwood Bible
And everything by Ian McEwan
Find Carolyn on Facebook and on her website http://carolynrrussell.com/ . Find Q & A here
Preorder Death And Other Survival Strategies here
There’s a lot more about writing in my Nail Your Novel books – find them here. If you’re curious about my own work, find novels here and my travel memoir here. And if you’re curious about what’s going on at my own writing desk, here’s my latest newsletter. You can subscribe to future updates here.
Nail Your Novel 
Very interesting post. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Rae!