Friday Indie Q&A with Author Erica Sage

During our Friday Indie Q&A we talk with Author Erica Sage about placing first in our Summer Short Story Contest with her “pitch perfect” story Starling. Erica spends time with us discussing how she crafted her first place story along with her love of writing and where it came from.

Projection

Indie: Congratulations on your 1st place win in our Summer Short Story Writing Contest with your story Starling!  Way to GO! What inspired you to write this winning short story?

Erica: When my family and I moved into our new house a few years ago, we unfortunately had a mother bird build a nest in our home where the wire had fallen away from preventing just this issue. I won’t go into details here, as many are included in the story, but it was gut-wrenching to me. I projected my human-mother instincts on the bird-mother. I like to write in metaphor, so of course this experience became one as I told the story of Star, a story about the grief and longing when mothers and children are separated from one another. 

On Style

Indie: What did you learn about yourself, and the craft, while writing Starling?

Erica: I learned that I love writing (and reading) a subtle story, one that allows/requires the reader to do some rethinking and rereading, to put the pieces together themselves and sometimes to lack all the pieces. I enjoy that space of inference. In terms of craft, writing this story reminded me how much I love style. I love stories down to the sentence structure and word choice. My last reading of this story, before I submitted it to the contest, was focused on individual word choice. It isn’t always that way, particularly when I’m writing a novel. But, the shorter the piece, the more important the individual word. I remember the last two words on which I was perseverating were “bring” and “arrive”. 🙂

Fiction and the Human Experience

Indie: I know you are an English Teacher. Thank you for teaching our kids. It’s not an easy job. Tell us how you came to writing?  What is your focus in regards to the craft?

Erica: As far as my memory takes me, I have always written. I still have my first pieces — super cool song lyrics that sounded a lot like (plagiarizing) Joan Jett, a newspaper I delivered only to my parents, countless diaries with those brassy, little locks, so many stories and essays printed out on dot matrix printers… When I was 37, I decided I wanted to either get my PhD or publish a book. I went the book route. My personal focus when it comes to the craft is to write fiction that is true. Even when it is weird, absurd, disturbing, surreal, it still speaks to something true in our human experience.

Jacked Up

Indie: What other work(s) do you have out there that you’d like to share with us?

Butt In Chair

Indie: Can you give us some sage advice about being a creator?

Erica: I will share the advice my friend Mark Teppo (author and publisher) gave me when I started my publishing journey. It goes something like this (deleting the swear words): Sit your butt down in the chair and write (or paint or sculpt or play your guitar or knit or design your game or whatever). It’ll simply never happen if you don’t.

“And in terms of stories, I’d like to say this — write what you’d love to read. It makes it more fun.”

Erica Sage, Author

Agent Feedback

Indie: What is one BIG WIN that you’d like to share with us?

Erica: This is a big win for me. I certainly didn’t expect anything from my submission; the contest was my motivation to do some writing practice. I don’t think of myself as a short story writer, but I try to write them every now and then because it’s good practice. That “Starling” made it to the Top Ten was a win. I truly did not think for one second it would place first. And the generous feedback that agent Elizabeth Copps offered blew me away. I’ve been floating in delight since you shared the news and her review. In all honesty, every time someone shares they enjoyed something I’ve written feels like a win. It could be a positive review or a one-on-one conversation with a reader or a student posting a book project. I’m really grateful that readers give time to my work.

The Love of a Mother

Indie: There are so many people who help us along our creative path. Who would you like to give a shoutout to?

Erica: My mom will always get this shout out. She was an avid reader, and I became one on account of her reading aloud to me and always having books around. She also wrote clever little poems throughout my childhood. She loved story, and she loved playing with words. At the core, I think I’m always writing for her. Unfortunately, she passed away five years ago, so she never read any officially published works, but she was my first Beta reader and my greatest cheerleader.

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