The Swamp Killers? The Inside Scoop

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  So... today—let me introduce you to some of the most wonderful people on the planet.  One of the things we all treasure so much is the connection we have with dear pals, and fellow authors, and the delight we have in finding new and wonderful things to read.

Do you remember Night of the Flood? (See below for links.) It was—as my blurb said—Spoon River meets Our Town—or something like that—poignant, touching, and absolutely brilliant.

 

Ad now there’s more.

This month, Down & Out Books releases The Swamp Killers: A Novel in Stories—the second such project from co-editors E.A. (Ed) Aymar and Sarah M. Chen. But while their first book together, The Night of the Flood, took a more kaleidoscopic approach—each contributor crafting a standalone story about a community reacting to disaster—the new book The Swamp Killers attempts something else: sixteen contributors working within a more tightly focused plot.

But how do you get 16 writers on the same page? And what do you do when their versions of events differ or even contradict one another?

That question of “What really happened?” prompted a short interview on storytelling, perspective and point of view, and the nature of truth itself—as you’ll see below.

E.A. Aymar’s most recent thriller, The Unrepentant, was published in March of 2019 by Down and Out Books. His other thrillers include I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead and You’re As Good As Dead.

Sarah M. Chen’s short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies, including most recently Murder-A-Go-Go’s and the forthcoming The Faking of the President, and her novella Cleaning Up Finn was an Anthony Award finalist.

Your interview and moderator today is Art Taylor, author most recently of the collection The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense and a contributor to The Swamp Killers.

Art Taylor: The novel in stories that you two recently co-edited—The Swamp Killers—offers a set of varying perspectives on the central storyline of lovers running away from a crime syndicate: not just multiple perspectives but different versions of events as part of the larger storyline. There are some pretty lofty precursors to stories where points of view collide—Faulkner’s Sound and the Fury or Kurosawa’s Rashomon, for example. What other novels or stories or films do you admire with a similar approach? And how does this novel in stories follow that tradition or twist it in some way?

Ed Aymar: Whenever I think of anthologies revolving around a central theme, I always think of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. Anderson’s collection, revolving around a town and the characters within it (particularly a recurring character named George Willard), and how each defines the other, has always stood out. Anderson was a mentor to both Hemingway and Fitzgerald (although his later novels lacked the momentum and craft of Winesburg, much to the private derision of his mentees in their gossipy letters), and you can see the influence of his work in their writing.

Isn’t that a smart answer? Wow. Sarah, don't steal my response.

Another movie that comes to mind is Four Rooms, a joint effort of four short films all set in the same hotel and directed by Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Allison Anders, and Alexandre Rockwell, with Tim Roth playing a bellhop who is the only recurring character in each work. To be honest, the film isn’t that great, although every piece has its moments, and the movie’s theme song is a delight. But the conceit of the film is top shelf, and there’s something to be said for that, even if it falls short.

I highlighted recurring characters in both of those works as an example of connective tissue, but there’s so much more that connects them—theme, similarities of approach, etc. It’s a wonderful process, similar to asking ten different painters to paint a battle on a blank white canvas, and seeing what emerges, how they work together, how their perspectives are represented. It’s beautiful and messy, and the final piece is ultimately unique.

Sarah M. Chen: I haven’t seen Four Rooms but I remember when it was released, I thought what a clever concept. I liked the idea of a recurring character in all four stories. 

The Swamp Killers also has recurring characters throughout: Olivia Duplass, Sheldon Duplass, Melody Duplass, and Timmy Milici. Some stories really dig deep into these characters while others use them more as launching points or inspiration. 

The central narrative thread throughout the collection relies on what the reader knows about these characters and the events that transpired and then twists it by forcing the reader to call everything into question. Did this really happen this way? Who is telling the story?

One book that I think does an excellent job of telling a story through multiple POVs is Alison Gaylin’s Edgar-nominated If I Die Tonight. A tragic car-jacking leaves a high school football star near death and readers try to piece together what happened that night through social media posts and multiple perspectives. What I thought was extremely effective and clever was the omission of the main suspect’s POV. I found it hard not to view him a certain way based on how events unfolded and what other characters said about him.

The Swamp Killers kind of utilizes a similar approach in that the story revolves around the two lovers, Timmy and Melody, yet we’re viewing them from a distance, with the exception of a letter Melody wrote. 

We want to talk about more than just the anthology at hand—but one more question with regard to Swamp Killers. Clearly it’s one thing for Sherwood Anderson or Alison Gaylin to construct different points of view and another thing for four directors to bring their individual styles and sensibilities to an anthology of short films or ten painters to collaborate on a single canvas—yikes! What were the challenges in orchestrating different authors in your anthology? And what were (I hope!) the benefits?

Sarah: The biggest challenge I found was structuring a central storyline around four recurring main characters with sixteen different authors. It had to be cohesive yet we wanted each author to bring something unique to the table. We weren’t sure exactly how it would work (or if it would work at all!) but by having each author construct their “truth” of what happened, we were able to illustrate the theme of the anthology as a whole as well as through each individual story.  

But what was challenging was also a benefit because we had such terrifically talented authors. We entrusted everyone to come up with their story using specific parameters while also adding new elements and surprises that really made the anthology shine. 

Ed: It was a pain in the butt, and a more complicated endeavor than our prior anthology, The Night of the Flood. That anthology took place in a single night and didn’t involve recurring characters. The Swamp Killers took place over a longer period of time, divided up by three sections, and had those four recurring characters. It also had a central narrative that each story advanced. WHY DID WE MAKE THIS SO HARD, SARAH?

But I will say, to build off something Sarah said, that working with talented writers eases a lot of concerns. Not only did the writers happily accept the challenge, but they all added their own spin, particularly (I thought) the stories by Tom Sweterlitsch, Gwen Florio, and yours (Art). I really liked the way the three of you took the concept and played with it.

Thinking about points of view and wrestling with the idea of some central “storyline”: In a bigger way, we’re living in an era where the question of “truth” has become slippery at best. Once upon a time—Faulkner, modernism, etc.—there was a belief that some “truth” existed, even if it might take many points of view to get to it. Then came the idea that maybe there was no core truth—that perspective really was everything. And now we’re… where? Post-truth? Fake news? Everyone living in their own reality? Long lead-up, short question: How might all of that change how fiction writers today write about the world?

Sarah: I’ve been feeling, especially in the past year or so, that fiction writers are more essential than ever. It’s such an exhausting world we’re living in now where we’re bombarded with news and with social media telling us how to feel and what to be afraid of. We find ourselves seeing everything through such a cynical and/or fearful lens. With fiction, we can explore what it’s like to be “the other” and to tell those stories that may otherwise be silenced or ignored. Fiction is essentially, in my view, the best way to reveal our truths and remind readers how we are all connected to one another on some level. 

Ed: We’re definitely in a period of upheaval—socially, politically, and artistically. I don’t think this current period has been identified yet but, like you said, we’re stepping past the trappings of post-modernism and moving into something else, something where authenticity and marginalized voices have an importance they never did, and I do think that will identify this next literary period (as well as this social and cultural moment). Like all movements, there’s a backlash to authority and establishment and narrative, and I think that fosters the “fake news” label. My day job is working for a media company, and I can tell you firsthand that, politically, the distrust for media isn’t exclusive to one party.

Some fiction writers will be cognitive of this, and those that aren’t will still be affected by it. I think the recent cries for authenticity in fiction (which, it should be stated, differs from and doesn’t discount the necessity of imagination and assumption other voices in fiction) will lead to a period of “new truth,” a discovery that some of our classics were shortsighted, and a reluctant widening of the canon.

If people start calling this literary period “new truth,” then I want credit, FYI.

HANK: Oh, Ed. You get credit! And you all get credit for this brilliant idea. Times have changed so much since we did this interview. Where do you all get your truth, Reds and readers? Talk about upheaval.  Do you  think we’re heading toward a new “period” ?   And check in, you wonderfuls! Where are you today, and what are you doing?

 

And a copy of  THE SWAMP KILLERS to one lucky commenter!

(oh, PS: the winner of  Samantha Bailey’s WOMAN ON THE EDGE to lucky winner Cindy C! Email me your address and I will send your book!)