Q&A with Victor Chege
We had the opportunity to publish some wonderful new flash fiction this week! This genre is notoriously difficult to pull off, and we are so excited to be the home of a flash story that we loved. Read below for a discussion of “There’s a hole in my shadow” between one of our fiction editors, Laura Jensen, and Victor Chege.
I love when stories offer room for interpretation, and after reading “There’s a hole in my shadow,” I thought about how many different ways “the hole” could be understood. Did you have a specific idea of what the hole in the shadow represented, or did you write the story with the intent to leave it more open ended?
At the time I was writing the story, what I really wanted to convey with the hole is that it had a physical representation. I didn't want it to be an “emotional” hole like with sadness or depression. I thought conveying that it was a separate place, commonplace in its world, would help me flesh out different dimensions of it and yes leave it to interpretation as to what the hole is for, who gets it, that kind of thing.
Flash fiction is hard to pull off, it’s very tough to encapsulate a whole story with such a low word count. I found this story very effective, it packed such a strong punch. Do you often write flash fiction? What do you find difficult or appealing about it?
I do like writing flash fiction because just like a good quote you can say a lot in just a few words. Brevity is challenging when you're trying to create a unique story, with unique characters, set in multiple places. What I really like about it is how difficult it can be and how much you have to resist over-explaining yourself and you have to distill every word until you have exactly what you need.
“It didn’t take any objects, it didn’t take things that I could hold, it didn’t take things with a price; but it still took.” I love this line. Is there a line in this that you feel especially proud of writing? Or one that you feel really encapsulates the story?
There are definitely lots of lines that I feel proud of writing but you're asking me to pick my favorite child. I like the last line “the hole is just there, and it knows I'm here too”. It's almost like the hole will start to have an arc/adventures on its own in the next chapter. I like the possibility that it could go on even if it didn't.
Can you speak a little bit about what inspired “There’s a hole in My shadow”?
It's hard to explain but I love the responsibility the author has to draw you into their world. Through their writing you can see things from their perspective but the interpretation is your own and, while the author’s ideas can spark or fuel your own, it’ll still mean different things based on who is reading, what they're going through as they read, and even what time of day they read the story.
Are there any authors or genres that particularly inspire your writing?
I'm a big fan of speculative fiction and dark fantasy. My current loves are China Mieville, Scott Hawkings (i will never get over The Library at Mount Char) and Clare North.
The story leans a lot into absurdist fiction, reminding me a bit of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. You have this fantastic, odd image of a hole in the head that hums and gives off heat, that can be walked into, that makes dogs bark and women cry. But it’s also an incredibly relatable, emotionally complex story. What draws you to this style of writing?
There's some genres that are comforting because the characters are steady, the lines are black and white, and even though you can see the ending coming you still enjoy the ride. I like this style mostly because I can relate. It reminds me of those times your thoughts are spilling out faster than you can arrange them and the sentences you thought were gold fall flat when you read them back.
But mostly I like that no matter how absurdist, crazy, out there, imaginative your story is, you still need to recognize that the characters at the heart of the story are real with real needs. I like having to balance this with the tension a story needs to keep it alive.
