Sitting Down in a Virtual Swamp With Remy Barnes
Remy Barnes' short story "Invisible Fires" is available in Saw Palm 11.
What’s your connection to Florida? What most compels you about America’s Australia?
I was raised in North Florida, which is more like Georgia, but have spent time on both shores and all down the spine and the gut of the gulf. There is a certain magic to Florida, one born of heat and carried by humidity (and probably mosquitos too), which makes people just a little bit weirder. But if you tap into that weirdness, it’s ripe for fiction. People know this. Harry Crews, Joy Williams, Karen Russell. They knew or know this.
Tell us a little about your piece in Saw Palm. What inspired it?
Most of my stories take place on one side or the other of the gulf— Texas or Florida— and this story, I guess it’s a little bit what people would probably call “magical realism” and the swamps and the way people are in Florida, specifically Central Florida, just fit what was going on. There is no Taciturn, Florida like there is in the story, but I would assume it’s probably pretty close to Apopka. You couldn’t place a story like this in Massachusetts or Idaho or Oregon. Just wouldn’t make any sense.
What do you hope readers come away from your work thinking or feeling?
Well, to be honest, I hope that they think “Man, this guy’s stuff is pretty all right. I wonder what else he’s published. I should Google him or something.” But I certainly hope it makes them feel a certain way. Maybe nostalgia for a time in their lives when things were a little simpler and they could honestly believe a metal detector could detect parallel universes.
Do you have a writing routine? Describe your writing process.
Life is a lot like Tetris, right? Or at least mine seems to be that way. I’ve got all these weird little pieces and am charged with figuring out how to get them all to fit together and build something. So I guess I write when I can slide that piece into the right place. Empty house certainly makes it easier. The sun shining is good. Maybe some coffee. Maybe something else. Gestation takes some time. So there’s some time before head gets to page. Probably a lot like a lot of people’s.
What writing advice has stayed with you?
“That’s movie stuff.”
It’s something a good friend of mine would say when he would come across something in a story of mine like a character kicking a can down the street. We are so often influenced by other forms of media that we forget that writing is based almost solely on reading and literature. I’ve gotten better at it but I still find it in my own writing and, likewise, I often find it in the writing of other, fledgling writers. It’s important, to me anyway, that things based on movie tropes or that come across as too “cinematic” get eliminated from the written form.
What is the most surprising piece of writing you’ve come across recently?
My sister’s stepson (my step-nephew?) wrote this oral story about his stuffed lion and stuffed elephant and their relationship and that was really something else. I can’t remember exactly what all he said but I remember being kind of taken aback, like, “Wow, man, where’d you come up with that?”
Is there a certain piece of writing you find yourself turning to again and again?
“What makes Iago evil? Some people ask. I never ask.” The opening line from Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion. She remains a controversial figure but that book and that line are incredible. Sometimes I’ll be out mowing the lawn or sitting on the bus and I’ll say the line over and over in my head. It’s a perfect opening line, asking a question, slapping it away and chastising the reader for even considering it.
The “Florida Man” Twitter account curates news headlines of bizarre domestic incidents involving state residents, such as “Florida Man Fights to Keep Pizza-Loving Alligator.” If you had to write a Florida Man-style headline about yourself, what would it be?
“Florida Man Vows Never To Return To Florida but Probably Will Someday that Sad Sucker"
Where can we find out more about you? Social media, website?
Twitter: @remybarnes and I have a website www.remybarnes.com, which is down but will be up soon probably!
What’s your connection to Florida? What most compels you about America’s Australia?
I was raised in North Florida, which is more like Georgia, but have spent time on both shores and all down the spine and the gut of the gulf. There is a certain magic to Florida, one born of heat and carried by humidity (and probably mosquitos too), which makes people just a little bit weirder. But if you tap into that weirdness, it’s ripe for fiction. People know this. Harry Crews, Joy Williams, Karen Russell. They knew or know this.
Tell us a little about your piece in Saw Palm. What inspired it?
Most of my stories take place on one side or the other of the gulf— Texas or Florida— and this story, I guess it’s a little bit what people would probably call “magical realism” and the swamps and the way people are in Florida, specifically Central Florida, just fit what was going on. There is no Taciturn, Florida like there is in the story, but I would assume it’s probably pretty close to Apopka. You couldn’t place a story like this in Massachusetts or Idaho or Oregon. Just wouldn’t make any sense.
What do you hope readers come away from your work thinking or feeling?
Well, to be honest, I hope that they think “Man, this guy’s stuff is pretty all right. I wonder what else he’s published. I should Google him or something.” But I certainly hope it makes them feel a certain way. Maybe nostalgia for a time in their lives when things were a little simpler and they could honestly believe a metal detector could detect parallel universes.
Do you have a writing routine? Describe your writing process.
Life is a lot like Tetris, right? Or at least mine seems to be that way. I’ve got all these weird little pieces and am charged with figuring out how to get them all to fit together and build something. So I guess I write when I can slide that piece into the right place. Empty house certainly makes it easier. The sun shining is good. Maybe some coffee. Maybe something else. Gestation takes some time. So there’s some time before head gets to page. Probably a lot like a lot of people’s.
What writing advice has stayed with you?
“That’s movie stuff.”
It’s something a good friend of mine would say when he would come across something in a story of mine like a character kicking a can down the street. We are so often influenced by other forms of media that we forget that writing is based almost solely on reading and literature. I’ve gotten better at it but I still find it in my own writing and, likewise, I often find it in the writing of other, fledgling writers. It’s important, to me anyway, that things based on movie tropes or that come across as too “cinematic” get eliminated from the written form.
What is the most surprising piece of writing you’ve come across recently?
My sister’s stepson (my step-nephew?) wrote this oral story about his stuffed lion and stuffed elephant and their relationship and that was really something else. I can’t remember exactly what all he said but I remember being kind of taken aback, like, “Wow, man, where’d you come up with that?”
Is there a certain piece of writing you find yourself turning to again and again?
“What makes Iago evil? Some people ask. I never ask.” The opening line from Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion. She remains a controversial figure but that book and that line are incredible. Sometimes I’ll be out mowing the lawn or sitting on the bus and I’ll say the line over and over in my head. It’s a perfect opening line, asking a question, slapping it away and chastising the reader for even considering it.
The “Florida Man” Twitter account curates news headlines of bizarre domestic incidents involving state residents, such as “Florida Man Fights to Keep Pizza-Loving Alligator.” If you had to write a Florida Man-style headline about yourself, what would it be?
“Florida Man Vows Never To Return To Florida but Probably Will Someday that Sad Sucker"
Where can we find out more about you? Social media, website?
Twitter: @remybarnes and I have a website www.remybarnes.com, which is down but will be up soon probably!
Remy Barnes' work has been featured in SmokeLong Quarterly, Five [Quarterly], whiskeypaper, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin, Texas.
