Vincent Valkier is the author of the new story collection Digital Soul. He is also a small animal veterinarian, and he's based in Atlanta.
Q: Over how long a period did you write the stories in your new collection?
A: I started on the first story, "Missing Links," in early 2010 during a trip to Alaska with a friend. It was a little over 10 years later that I finished the final story ("Raven," which is actually the first story in the collection). I spent the last five years editing, rewriting, and learning as much as I can about the publishing industry.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The two novellas that bookend the collection mirror each other in a lot of ways, and both deal with beliefs/faith. My hope was to use the stories to show the effect technological evolution has had (and will have) on how we relate to the world and to each other, and how our belief systems are formed and changed.
The title is a reflection of that - how technology is increasingly involved in the development of our core beliefs about ourselves over time.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: I think that the ways in which technology is beneficial to us are very obvious. I'm a veterinarian, and rely very heavily on it every day in order to do my job.
I think that the dangers and costs of over-reliance on technology are much less clear (but still very real), and I think it affects us in ways that we don't fully realize.
I hope that the book will start some discussions about that, and make people more cognizant of the negative effects that technology (in particular, social media) is having on us.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I recently finished a first draft of another short story collection. I've also got the (long-abandoned) novel that I was working on, which I may get back to at some point.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: There's a writing sample available on my website, vincentvalkier.com, for people who want to get a taste of my writing style before committing to the whole collection. I also have a monthly newsletter that includes some other writing samples, as well as recommendations for books and movies I enjoy.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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