Kamila Kinyon: Could you discuss what gave you the inspiration for the story A Cheap and Frugal Fashion, which you read at the open mic night?
Heather Martin: I recall quite clearly actually. I was reading Shelley Jacksons collection, The Melancholy of Anatomy. Her stories have a similar design. Youre reading along and feel comfortable in a space and then it suddenly breaks away, leaving you feeling a bit strange. In one of her stories called The Egg, the story begins with a woman going about the business of her ordinary life, and then, all of a sudden, she climbs into an egg and becomes this sort of fetal chick. Its very odd. Anyway, I was reading Jacksons book and later fell asleep. That night I had a dream that I had a pasta spigot like the character in my story. When I woke up, I thought, thats really interesting. From there I thought about what circumstances would make that happen to a person. What would make a body spontaneously create food? My answer was that this woman, Elorraine, was so careful with money, with every penny, that her body responded by creating a way to feed her family for free. Once I got rolling, I had a lot of fun figuring out the different kinds of pasta dishes her body created.

Its great how surrealistic and unexpected this story is. Where did you publish it, and what was your process for getting it published?
I am a regular reader of the journal where it was publishedElectric Velocipede. It has a speculative fiction and science fiction slant to it, so I thought they might be receptive to the story, and they were. This was actually the first place I sent it off to. It appeared in 2005.

What kind of process do you use when you write? Do you usually have a clear idea of how the text will end while you are writing it?
I almost never know what will happen. I once had a professor tell me that every sentence in a novel or story should lead to its end; but thats not how I work, and it was a rather paralyzing, intimidating concept for me. Too much planning makes my work feel contrived. Instead, I start with an idea, a bit of plot, or a character, and I just work from there. I like to do research on my subjects, and thats often when I really uncover what I want to say. I start with a small idea, and, through writing and research, it grows. It feels external, quite outside of myself. Im typing along, struggling with every word, and then suddenly lightning strikes, and I take off writing a lot of material. So, to be honest, Im a terrible planner. I just go for it and see where it leads me.

What is your revision process like when you write?
Im still learning how to revise really. I used to be a really slow writer, agonizing over every sentence as I went along, but Im finally learning how to get down a draft and then go back and revise later. There is one story I have been writing and revising for more than five years now. I keep taking out chunks of things, adding and deleting things; its very frustrating. I just cant figure it out yet. Im hoping that one of these times, something is going to click, and Ill finally be able to finish it. Its about a woman who is an obsessive-compulsive hoarder, so she collects everything, including strange and mundane objects like used tissues or hair from a shower drain. Her situation is complicated by the fact that she has a husband and a daughter, and their lives are overwhelmed by this compulsion that she has developed. Ive been trying to work through that for years and years, and every time I think I have a handle on it, it just doesnt work out. But I havent given up yet.

Are there some connections between the types of characters you create?
There are some connections, yes. Right now, Im working on a novel chronicling five women and their contact with a fabled object (Latimer's Stone) over the last 150 years. As each character comes in contact with the stone, she becomes obsessed with it in her own way. In my work, I often tend to focus on female characters, and obsession is a big part of what I do. The women I like to write about are always focused, even if what they focus on is bizarre or irrational.

Do you see yourself as more of a short story writer or a novelist?
I guess I see myself more as a novelist. I find short stories a challenge to write. Having to create a world in such a compact space is difficult, and its hard to say when Im finished once and for all. In a novel, you have more time to hash it out. The novel Im currently working on is broken up into sections about women in very different historical periods, in different parts of their lives, and under different circumstances. Each of these sections is its own compact, independent piece. In some ways, its a set of short stories connected only by the stone object, so you could think of it as a collection. There is a framing device though. The voice of the narrator, a researcher, introduces the stone and reveals the primary documents that she has found for each of the characters. For example, my character Lucys section consists of a series of ten letters. Another character, Crystalline, is represented through her poetry and journal entries. The only real traditional narrative comes from the researcher, and even that is complicated because her story consists of stories passed down through her own family history. So even though I consider the project a novel, it consists of lots of shorter, very different, pieces.

Would you call the text postmodern?
Yes and no. To be honest, its hard for me to categorize what I do. In my current project, Im playing with multiple voices and the questions of authority. Im engaged with ideas of play and historiography. And in some ways, my novel is in disguise. It reads like a kind of mystery, nonfiction book. At some point, it becomes clear that its a piece of fiction, but maybe not right away.

Do you use the same types of narrative structure in your short stories?
My novel is a departure from what I have done before. Ive played with lots of different structures in past work, but nothing so bold as what Im undertaking in the novel with all of the different types of documents and texts.

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