A second post this month from Susan Tepper, whose dear Petrov was published in 2016--earlier this month she penned a guest post about becoming a writer.
EWN: Your short story collection, dear Petrov, was published in 2016. What story within the collection had the earliest publication history outside of being in the collection, and what was that history?
Susan: The first story I wrote (with no intention of writing a book) was one I titled “Dear Petrov”. It had the Dear capitalized which the book does not. It appeared in Apocrypha & Abstractions. Then that story seemed to jump out and take on a life of its own, far beyond the little I’d written at that point. I felt a compulsion to continue this saga of inter-connected stories, set in late 19th Century Russia during a time of war. The whole thing just took me over. The pieces are narrated by an unnamed female protagonist. She’s very much in love with Petrov who is a Russian career soldier. Mostly he’s never around. The book’s dear (title in lower case) was done to illustrate her affection for him. In each story he is referred to as dear Petrov (a term of endearment): “You ask what I fear.. I fear, dear Petrov, what I fear.” The narrator lives alone in a remote house that’s crumbling from age and neglect. She has very little money. It all takes place in a rugged part of Russia, mostly bitter cold and snowing, with a mountain that looms. The summer is a quick season. Guns and cannon fire can be heard from the other side of the mountain. Most of the time she has only her trusted horse for companionship. So I would write a story and send it out and the acceptances were coming back pretty quickly. But that didn’t matter. My compulsion to write their story was driving me. The book is about love and war, and the brutality humankind inflicts upon other humans, animals, the land. Everything in its path is subject to potential brutality. I didn’t realize this was at its core until at least a year after the book was published, and I’d re-read it several times. The narrator, however, understands this to her core though she struggles to accept such a thing.
EWN: How did the publication of this particular collection come about? Were you solicited by the publisher, win a contest, agent submission, etc.?
Susan: I pitched this to the publisher of my novel “The Merrill Diaries” which came out in 2013. That book was a full length traditional novel. He liked the Petrov stories that had been published and he agreed to take on this project.
EWN: Where do short stories fit within your life as an author? Primary form to work with, or something you write when an idea hits, or …?
Susan: Wow, that’s hard to answer. I write everything, including plays, interviews and essays. I have two other novels completed that I have to begin to send around. I just write with no preconceptions and if the work continues and continues, I assume it wants to become a novel. If it finds a good end point, then it’s a short (or long) story. I really don’t ever control my work. In my opinion, that’s the kiss of death. Artists who work spontaneously understand this. I co-wrote an experimental novel of short letters exchanged between the painter Jackson Pollock and a fictitious young woman. Pollock certainly was a spontaneous artist. I think I work in words the way he painted. No forethought. Just throw it out there and see what you get. It’s exciting.
EWN: Where do short stories fit within your life as a reader?
Susan: I love all good writing. I read a lot of story collections. If an author grabs me, I generally love all their work in both the short and long form.
EWN: How will you be celebrating National Short Story Month this May?
Susan: Well I have a Facebook Group called ‘Second Chance Books’ that showcases a sublime ‘older Indie book’ each week. The group has been ongoing for more than a year, and I’ve personally read and loved every book I feature. My plan is to offer some story collection giveaways, from that list, to celebrate NSSM.
EWN: Thank you very much for your time!
Susan Tepper is a twenty year writer and the author of six published books of fiction and poetry. Her seventh book, a novella, will be released late this year by Rain Mountain Press, NYC. Tepper was 7th Place Winner in the Zoetrope Contest for the Novel (2006), and 2nd Place Winner in The Million Writers Award (2014). Other honors include 10 Pushcart Prize Nominations, NPR's Selected Shorts, long-listed on Wigleaf 2014, and a Pulitzer Nomination for her novel 'What May Have Been' (Cervena Barva Press, 2010).
She has been an editor at two literary magazines, and has taught fiction writing in private workshops and on the college level. FIZZ her reading series at KGB Bar, NYC, is sporadically ongoing these past ten years. www.susantepper.com
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