Today’s Pride 2020 interview is with author ‘Nathan Burgoine:
Hi, ’Nathan! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during current events. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?
About a month before the lockdown began, my dog, Max (short for Maximum, his default setting) launched himself at a squirrel on a snow-drift behind me and to the left, pulling my left arm all the way around my body, suddenly and at a terrible angle, and blowing a bunch of my tendons. I was in physiotherapy, getting dry-needling, TENS, and so forth, trying to recover the use of my left hand especially (I still can’t quite type, or at least, not for long), so all writing kind of crashed to a halt, and is still pretty much at a halt.
But I like to remind other people when they’re stuck how much of writing is as much in your head as words on paper, so I am trying to remind myself of that. I’ve scribbled notes and scenes (I’m right handed, so I can at least scribble on paper), and I can accomplish little bursts when my hand cooperates. Mostly? I’ve given myself permission not to be creative on any sort of scale beyond what I can manage, at least until I can get back to physiotherapy.
Since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: how has being gay influenced or informed your writing?
The short answer: in almost every way.
The long answer: I approach writing from a “what if this is the first time someone queer sees themself?” most of the time, especially if I’m writing stories with a remotely heavy (and queer) topic. We all know the damage done by terrible representation, and while I’m not mister roses-and-sunshine, I do try very hard to make sure that even in darker toned stories there is hope, or at the very least a range of hopeful queer characters. Not that I write many dark stories at all. I’ve touched on horror only once.
Even in the happy stories, though—like romance—I also want to do my best to write characters who are facing down the realities of queerness without shying away from the impact of those realities. A few of my novellas have specifically been born from frustration in particular plot patterns repeating that shut the door on me as a queer reader with my own queer lived experiences. I think I had a lightbulb moment a year or two ago where I realized I couldn’t write an “everyqueer,” but I could write a specific person with experiences that mirrored the queerness I see all around me, and that’s been liberating even as it’s doubled down on the sense of responsibility.
You’re almost halfway through a really cool project on your blog: reviewing one short story per day for the entire year. What inspired you to take this project on?
It’s no secret that I’m a lover of short fiction, and also that I get frustrated at the short shrift it gets (no pun intended). I put a lot of the “I don’t like short fiction” attitude down to what we were forced to read in school (even I didn’t like many of those, especially the ones chosen for us in high school), and it colouring opinions even after graduation. Much like how when you talk about Canadian books and many readers kind of glaze over with “Oh no!” looks in their eyes because their only exposure to CanLit was the stuff forced upon them in high school.
Talking about a story I loved every day isn’t hard work (or, well, wasn’t until I blew those tendons, but I’m managing), and if even a couple of people decide to pick up an anthology or collection because of what I’ve said, that’s a win.
Also, as an author, I’m a slow producer to begin with, and completely stuck right now. I have almost nothing to talk to my readership about right now that’s from me, but recommending others? That I can do without blinking. You can take the bookseller out of the bookstore, etcetera.
How are you choosing the stories you’ll review? Is there any rhyme-or-reason to which authors, genres, etc. you’re featuring when?
A little bit of reason, but mostly not. In February I only spoke about stories written by Black authors, and in June I’ve been focusing on queer authors (and being conscious of not only talking about white-cis-male queer authors, especially). October will be horror (well, horror-ish. I don’t read a lot of horror, so…) Early December will likely be full of holiday novellas. And I try not to talk about the same book within a week, so if it’s an anthology or a collection, the “next” story won’t appear until at least a week goes by, so books where I’ve really enjoyed a lot of the stories are taking months to complete, and that’s kind of fun. I have a chart, and I write the blogs as I finish the stories, so sometimes I’m many days ahead with blogs to go, and then other times I realize I’ve got four more until there’s a day without a blog lined up, and I need to dive back into my pile of anthologies, collections, novellas, and magazines and put down the book I’m loving.
So… borderline organized chaos?
I know thanks to physical issues you’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from working on your next novel or short stories. How are things on that front?
I hate it. J
I talk a really good game with my author friends about being okay with low word-counts and taking time to recharge the creative batteries, but I honestly loathe this right now. That said, I did manage to tune up a trunked tale (it’s about nine thousand words long, so it never found a home), and I’m going to take this opportunity to attempt a self-publishing release given the stakes are so low. It’s a comedic and erotic story (which is another reason it never found a home), and we’ll see how that goes, but it’s giving me a project I can poke at with zero time limits.
That is one saving grace: I’m really lucky this happened before I signed a contract and had deadlines. As much as I’m hating not being able to type properly, at least I’m not having to force myself to do it through injury.
I absolutely loved Of Echoes Born, your collection of connected short stories taking place in The Village. Can you tell us a bit about what inspired The Village, and what keeps drawing you back there to tell more stories?
Linked short fiction is my favourite as a reader as well as a writer, so I think it just honestly comes down to being the sandbox where I like to play the most. Also, it allows me to build on what came before without the daunting task of plotting out a whole series ahead of time (it’s much harder to write yourself into a corner with linked short fiction, as you can shift to another character, or if I realize I’ve maybe given a character a bit too much magic or power or closed off plot avenues by giving them a specific gift, say, I haven’t wrecked future stories, just narrowed options for that specific character).
The Village is also my love-letter to the way the queer community was when I originally came out, and while I love so many of the changes that have happened in the past decades, I do mourn the strip/shops that used to be, and so having a dash of magic reinvigorate a fictional version of that place is as much homage as it is wish fulfillment, but also a way to talk about our history for some readers who maybe weren’t there for it and haven’t bumped into it yet, which was basically the whole point of Of Echoes Born, really.
And finally, where can people find you and your work online?
If you head on over to nathanburgoine.com, there’s a handy tag on the blog where you can find all my published work, with links even! But there’s also a tab for some free short fictions I’ve written if you wanted to take me for a test run first.
‘Nathan Burgoine grew up a reader and studied literature in university while making a living as a bookseller. His first published short story was “Heart” in the collection Fool for Love: New Gay Fiction, and was followed by dozens of short stories. His first collection of short fiction, Of Echoes Born, is now available through Bold Strokes Books, and includes six stories unique to the collection. Despite preferring the shorter fiction life, he’s also released three novellas (In Memoriam, Handmade Holidays, and Faux Ho Ho), co-authored a fourth novella (Saving the Date), and written three novels for adults (Light, Triad Blood, and Triad Magic), and one for young adults (Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks), all between walking his rescued husky a lot, usually alongside his husband, Dan. He lives in Ottawa, Canada.