Aimee’s Comments (group member since Apr 29, 2011)

Aimee’s comments from the Ask Aimee Bender group.

Yes-- I know the area really well but definitely did a little driving tour once I had a draft just to doublecheck names/locations-- where the DWP is in relation to La Brea, where the Jon's is near Vermont, all of that. But I did wait until the scenes were far along so it was an easier time to do that sort of info-gathering.

I think this'll be my last post-- thanks so much for all of your great questions and thoughts! Also, just fyi, for future questions and/or comments, you can find new info and ways to contact me in general via my website, flammable skirt.com -- if you sign the guestbook and leave your email in the signature, I can write you back.

All the best,
Aimee

Hi Melissa,

Ah, so glad you saw that Electric Lit story and yes-- there is totally a horror story about a red ribbon and a lady's head falling off. One of those urban legends that terrified me at summer camp. Probably not even an urban legend. A victorian-esque legend. I didn't really intend for Lemon Cake to be embraced by the YA crowd but I'm happy to get younger readers in the mix. About a preference-- not really-- I think I feel more at home in stories, or that's my first love, but I also feel a little addicted to the longer not-knowing of a novel, which feels kind of awful for awhile, and then at some point, or at least twice, has started to form into something and that was thrilling, and both times, surprising, too.

Marie wrote: "I am so sad to be this late in the game. At the beach and just started this very special book today, but I am having difficulty putting it down. So I have no intelligent questions for you yet, ju..."

Thank you, Marie! What a nice comment.

Hi Brittany,

Thanks-- it's been fun answering these. About his toast-- something about it turning in on itself; I think she compares it to a sea anenome? (Don't have the book in front of me right now.) But I wanted to convey that feeling of something almost inverting, collapsing inward, and she can hardly stand it and has to spit it out.

Hi Don,

I did some kind of muddled answer on the chat but am happy to write a note too. I'm not an outliner, so the plot kind of evolves as it goes along and I don't know who the characters are until I'm really done with a second or third draft. But I'll write scenes and move around to other scenes (like in that NanoWriMo talk-- so glad you liked it; I had a great time doing that!)-- and then compile piles of scenes after a couple of years and lay them out on the floor and look at where the story leans. I just don't know how to write it purely forward, and although I tried outlining for my first book, I found I didn't want to do the outline ideas-- they were kind of arbitrarily chosen. (She goes to the beach! I'd write and then when I sat down to write the scene I felt like I had nothing to say about her going to the beach.) I cut a ton of pages and the revision process is intense, but it feels a lot freer/easier at times to just write whatever comes up and then sort it out as it goes along.

Emily wrote: "Hi Aimee,

I've long been a fan of your writing and as a poet appreciate your use of language (you make me fall in love with words every time).

As a poet working on her craft I'm curious about you..."

Hi Emily,

Much appreciated. I love poetry, and in many ways feel it's a huge influence on a certain kind of storytelling in fiction that I just can't get enough of-- (thinking of Denis Johnson, or Carver as both poets before they wrote fiction).

So-- fables/magic realism-- I think the main thing for me is to try not to know what the point is-- to try to shut down the analytical side of my brain and get into the tactile world of whatever magical element is happening. Then meaning can grow and happen on its own, but better for me if I don't know, at least for awhile, what it's about. Flannery O'Connor has a great comment in an essay about a fiction writer trying to cultivate a certain stupidity-- a way of not-seeing as an inroad to deeper seeing. So to shut off judgment, or interpretation, and just to show as is.

Melissa wrote: "I spent my teen years reading science fiction. Your book (which I loved!) read like science fiction to me. I'm curious about whether you have read much science fition and if that influenced you."

Hi Melissa,

Thanks! So glad you liked the book. I definitely think there's a sci-fi influence tucked in there. I really like science fiction-- though there's a lot I haven't read. I read Asimov some as a kid, and a little Bradbury, and a tiny bit of Ursula LeGuin (would like to read more of her), a little Philip K. Dick. Liked reading them all. I do really love that feeling of jumping into some kind of dystopian world with new rules; I remember being so drawn to the concept of The Illustrated Man with his tattooes and stories, or the Martian worlds of Bradbury. Or something like a book like Never Let Me Go which is not sci-fi but also it kinda is sci-fi plus a heavy dose of reality, too.

Trpusey wrote: "Thanks Aimee! That is fascinating to be able to understand your thinking and perspective with the chair. I appreciate your time and insight.

Thanks again for a great book (and discussion fo..."

My pleasure! I really appreciate your thoughts on it all.

Hi Trpusey,

Good question. I'm so glad it led to a good discussion! Makes me very happy to hear.

So-- I really wanted Joseph to be connected to something tangible but inanimate-- vs. nothingness. Wanted it to be something Rose could interact with but not in a real or satisfying way-- but something she could take into that locker and keep, almost as a kind of gravestone. As far as why a chair-- I'm not completely sure. I do imagine he was interested in the grandmother's chairs in particular, and that he and the grandma were bonded in some core way, but I just also like chairs. They seem social and unsociable at the same time-- like a picture of an empty room full of chairs in a circle-- the chairs indicate the people, and also the absence of people.

Join bestselling author Aimee Bender as she discusses her novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.