Editor’s Note: This exchange is part of a series of brief interviews with emerging writers of recent or forthcoming books. If you enjoyed it, please visit other interviews in the I’ve Got Questions feature.
- What’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?
My book is fiction. It’s a short story collection called The Monsters Are Here. The publisher is ELJ Editions, and the publication date is 10/31/24.
- In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?
This book is about people struggling with problems like depression, addiction, heartbreak, love, loss, becoming a vampire and not being able to see their reflection in a mirror. The protagonists in these stories, mainly women, are trying to navigate the realities of their everyday lives while also dealing with logistical challenges like suddenly becoming a werewolf or being unrelentingly haunted by the ghost of a dead husband.
- What’s the book’s genre (for fiction and nonfiction) or primary style (for poetry)?
It’s a speculative fiction collection, and it includes shorter flash fiction pieces and longer stories. It kind of walks the line between literary and genre fiction. It draws on genres like horror and science fiction as well as satire, but I would say it still falls under the umbrella of literary fiction.
- What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?
One nice thing people have said about the book is that it’s original. Stephanie Vanderslice, author of The Geek’s Guide to the Writing Life and The Lost Son said,
“You’d better strap in because Lori D’Angelo is taking you places. A little bit of Kelly Link, a little Kathy Fish, D’Angelo is most of all herself, bringing us the most imaginative collection of fiction I have had the pleasure of reading in a long time. The Monsters Are Here heralds a new voice in contemporary fiction—I can’t wait to see what Lori D’Angelo does next.”
- What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between? [Is your book like Moby Dick or maybe it’s more like Frankenstein meets Peter Pan?]
The book draws inspiration from multiple traditions including science fiction, literary fiction, and horror. But it also owes a lot to the strong tradition of American satire including the work of Ray Bradbury. I feel like it’s comparable to Aimee Bender’s The Girl in The Flammable Skirt but with a more The Lottery and Other Stories undertone. I owe a lot to Gothic writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Bram Stoker, but this book tackles the subjects of witches and vampires from a more feminist (and humorous) perspective.
- Why this book? Why now?
I feel like speculative fiction allows writers to deal with important social issues in an innovative and interesting way. Some of the complex issues that this book attempts to wrestle with are racism, sexism, and addiction. I feel like now, in American politics, we’re seeing a surge in anti-immigrant sentiment, and one of the questions the book attempts to reckon with is how do we treat people who are different from us, and what does that say about who we are?
I also just love science fiction and horror films, books, and TV shows, and I wanted to borrow from those genres. In terms of subject matter, I enjoy reading stories of vampires, witches, and werewolves, and I wanted to use those creatures to talk about subjects that matter to me. One Gothic fiction technique that I utilize in some of these stories is the unreliable narrator. Given the subject matter and the characters in these stories, It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I love the movie Beetlejuice, and my favorite holiday is Halloween.
- Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?
One really fun job that I had was as a summer intern for The Erie Times-News in Erie, Pennsylvania. I got to write such interesting articles on diverse topics such as shoreline erosion, summer beach reads, national ice cream month, and living on houseboats near Presque Isle State Park.
- What do you want readers to take away from the book?
I want readers to believe that though the world can be difficult and sometimes terrible, life is filled with everyday magic. I also want readers to be able to laugh at life’s absurdities and difficulties rather than being defeated by them. I hope my plucky determined protagonists will inspire people to keep going even in the face of potentially crushing despair.
- What food and/or music do you associate with the book?
“What Remains” begins in a coffee shop, and I personally love coffee shops, so there’s that connection.
Hot dogs are also mentioned in several stories including “Hot Dog from Heaven” and “Street Show Magic.” In “Hot Dog from Heaven,” a family trying to enjoy cookout food is forced to use condiments and picnic sides to defeat a giant flying hot dog.
Air Supply’s “All Out of Love” and “Space Cowboy” by the Steve Miller Band are two of the songs that are referenced in the book. These songs, I think, capture both the longing, the heartbreak, and the humor that I’m attempting to portray in these stories.
I was born in the late 1970s, and I love music from that era. Songs from the 1980s especially, take me back to memories of my childhood.
- What book(s) are you reading currently?
I’m currently reading Charlottesville Fantastic, a speculative fiction anthology featuring work by local authors. I’m also reading Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea, Ellen Datlow’s body horror anthology Body Shocks, and Leila Slimani’s The Perfect Nanny. I’m usually reading and writing a bunch of things at once rather than focusing on one project at a time.
Learn more about Lori on her website.
Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Buy the book from the publisher, Amazon.com, and Stone Soup Books.
