CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT:
Interview with Joel Fishbane

Rappahannock Review Fiction Editors: The stories of Odessa seem to parallel Henry and Valeria; was that intentional from the start or did that idea come later as you wrote the story?

Joel Fishbane: I developed the ideas in tandem. I always had the idea of a story within a story but I realized I needed to find reasons why it would appeal to my protagonist. I also didn’t want the parallels to be entirely obvious at first and for them to only become clear as things develop. At first, when we have little context for the marriage, it just seems like some random historical story. As we learn things about the relationship, we can then start piecing together the connections. There are a lot of clues peppered throughout and I think it’s a story that rewards multiple reads. In earlier drafts, the parallels between the Odessa stories and Henry’s marriage weren’t always as distinct so I kept adjusting things as I kept writing. Sometimes, I tweaked Odessa’s story so it would parallel Henry and Valeria’s and sometimes I did the reverse.

RR: How did you land on writing this narrative within a narrative (the story of Valeria discovering and reading the writer’s work)? Were there any challenges to writing it in that structure? 

JF: When I’m traveling, I write in hotel rooms so I had this idea of the cleaning people finding my drafts and getting hooked on knowing how things turned out. I didn’t know what to do with the idea until I realized that the story would need to be something that appealed to them personally. Then it was about figuring out the two stories: the story that the writer is writing and the story of the people reading it. That took a lot of time. Odessa’s story is adapted from some ideas I had for a possible film while Henry and Valeria’s story developed organically. Structurally, it was very challenging because I had to keep both stories moving. The Odessa story is interesting but our investment is meant to be in Henry and Valeria.

The turning point for me came when I settled on the structure we have now. We get a chapter of the novel they’re reading and then we get their response to it. It’s in the response that the story develops because their relationship starts coming to light–they’re arguing about the story but, of course, they’re really arguing about themselves. Of course, this led to some meta-textual moments since they’re commenting on plot mechanics and the process of writing itself and all the little decisions writers make. That was a lot of fun but it was also challenging because I wanted it to feel organic to the characters.

RR: How do you get started on a new story, and do you have a preferred way of drafting, on a computer or on paper or something else?

JF: There’s no set way. I often have a notebook on me and I usually jot down ideas if something comes to me. Sometimes, I’ll write a draft on paper. But I have lots of files on my computer of unfinished stories, incomplete ideas, or just paragraphs that were cut from some other work. I’ll often comb through them when I’m looking for inspiration and sometimes I just take a piece of something and use it to begin something new. Each method has its own advantages. I like working on the computer because I can cut and paste with ease which allows me to play with structure. But when I’m writing on paper, I’m forced to keep going with whatever decision I’ve made. Whatever happens for the first draft, I always end up on the laptop and do all my rewriting there.

RR: How has living in Canada shaped your approach to storytelling? 

JF: Canadians love a good short story–in most Canadian literature classes, we’re forced to read Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Stephen Leacock, and many others. That’s not the only reason I gravitate towards the short story but if you told me it was baked into my Canadian DNA, I’d be hard-pressed to disagree. I do try to use Canadian settings when I can and this probably works its way into the sensibility of the story and the characters. I lived in Montreal for many years and I always love when I can use that as a setting, especially as the French/English dynamic always adds something to the story. However, I’ve always made a point of reading as many different kinds of writers as I can and I suspect my approach is a hodgepodge of influences since some of my favorite writers are Russian (Anton Chekhov, Sergei Dovlatov), Columbian (Gabriel García Márquez), Irish (William Trevor), South African (Nadine Gordimer), and American (John Irving). 

RR:  Do you have any other projects or pieces that you are currently working on?

JF: Always! I work in a lot of different genres so I’m developing a few plays and screenplays. I’m working on a new novel and continue to work on short stories. After I write a draft, I always put it aside for a while so I can come back to it with a fresh perspective. In the meantime, I start writing something else. This means that, if I haven’t decided to work on something new, I always have projects to go back to. Even now I have a lot of drafts of short stories which I intend to keep working on. Not everything will make it to a final draft or become something I’ll send out into the world. Some projects end up being just good writing exercises that help me try out a particular style or idea.