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| Photo by Sarah Pruski |
Kelly J. Ford is the author of the new novel Real Bad Things. She also has written the novel Cottonmouths. She lives in Vermont.
Q: What inspired you to write Real Bad Things, and how
did you create your character Jane Mooney?
A: With everything I write, I’m following an obsession. In this case, it was
the idea of a crime that binds, and there’s nothing more binding than murder
when you’re a couple of closeted queer teens.
But I also have these snapshot memories that feed the narrative:
photos of my mom’s old boyfriends; a really mean stepdad who I would not at all
have minded if he’d turned up dead; and all these weird little stories my dad
has told me for years, like bodies turning up at the Lock and Dam.
As for Jane, I've always been fascinated by human psychology. So much of my
story planning is noodling on a character, imagining them as a real
person, and then wondering what was the worst thing that happened to them. What
led them to that situation? How did they survive it?
In a way, Jane's an amalgamation of so many Gen X, latchkey kids I've known who experienced various levels of trauma in childhood and their teenage years. There's a certain levity to living through and coming out the other side of darkness and chaos. For me, Jane captures that spirit of both deep emotion and dark humor.
Q: The novel takes place in a town in Arkansas--how
important is setting to you in your writing?
A: Setting is everything. I love books where the setting feels like a living,
breathing lifeform that affects characters as much as an
antagonist, showing how they can be crushed by the weight of the societal
norms of the very specific place they inhabit. Stories that
are divorced from vivid settings often fail to come alive for me.
So when I’m developing characters, I inhabit the characters' lives and walk through their shoes, see what they see, feel what they feel, in an effort to capture who they are and how they've been shaped by their environment.
Q: The writer John Vercher called the book “a moving meditation on misplaced
loyalties, love, and the legacy of violence and abuse, all wrapped in a mystery
filled with guy-wire tension.” What do you think of that description?
A: John is a writer whose work I greatly admire. He’s also a beta reader,
friend, and discerning reader, so it’s thrilling and also humbling to read his
thoughts on Real Bad Things. So much about the
writing life is about connecting with other writers who share your
aesthetic and understand what you’re shooting for creatively. John’s one of
those people for me.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did
you make many changes along the way?
A: I often don’t know the ending until I’m near the final draft. I’m
always tinkering to see if there’s more I can do, if there are little goodies
in the text that I’m not even aware of at the time I wrote them that I can
use as breadcrumbs or red herrings.
That happened with Real Bad Things. Before I settled on
the final ending, I was very much like that drawing of Winnie the
Pooh, poking my head, saying, “Think. Think.” And then it kind of hit
me how I could create an ending that felt both resonant and true to the
characters.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m currently in the developmental edit phase for my third book,
tentatively titled The Hunt.
Of course, things can change significantly in this phase, but the gist is that a small town stands divided as the local classic rock station prepares to host its first post-Covid Hunt for the Golden Egg scavenger hunt.
Self-proclaimed “Eggheads” ready themselves for the largest payout ever, while anti-Eggheads rally against the Hunt and brace for the return of The Hunter, the alleged serial killer who has been using the Hunt as their killing ground for 17 years.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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