Meet NUNUM's Contributor: Janel Comeau

NUNUM

Blending Flash Fiction & Art

Interview with ​Janel Comeau

What was the first book you remember picking up and reading by yourself?
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The first one that stands out in my memory was a Nancy Drew book - specifically Nancy Drew #7, The Clue in the Diary. That was my first hit, and I was completely addicted after that; I maxed out my lending limit at the local public library trying to get through them all. There are a total of 175 Nancy Drew books, so I don’t think I got through them all, but I put a pretty good dent in the list. 

What writer(s) or which book(s) influenced your decision to become a writer?
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I can remember making up stories from a very young age, but it was Lemony Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events” that really solidified the idea that I could be an actual writer someday. It was the first book I can remember reading that was thoroughly, unapologetically weird, and that was a big deal for me as a kid who was still very much apologetically weird.

Is there a writing craft book that you would recommend to new writers?
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It’s not specifically a writing craft book, but I always recommend “Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils and Rewards of Artmaking” by David Bayles and Ted Orland. It’s not so much about the mechanics of making art as it is about getting out of your own head and getting out of your own way and just creating something, and that’s the advice I’ve always most needed to hear. 

Is there a writer who has influenced your current writing style?

I love writers with a distinct voice, the kind you can pick up and recognize from the writing alone - writers like Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, and Christopher Moore. I am under no illusions that I can write like any of them, but I’m having an awful lot of fun trying. 

Why write flash fiction?

I like the challenge of it. In a lot of ways, I think it’s more difficult to write flash fiction than to write fiction that isn’t subjected to strict word limits. I am naturally a very verbose person who likes to pontificate and extrapolate at length, and writing flash fiction really forces me to distill a story down to its most essential elements. 

What advice would you give someone who is just starting to send their work out to journals?

​I think the best thing you can possibly do for yourself is to develop an immunity to rejection that would be downright pathological in any other aspect of your life. Send your work everywhere you might possibly want to be published. Journals you’ve heard of. Journals you haven’t. The New Yorker. Everywhere. Stand on your mountain of stories and rain your work down on the literary world. 

What is your typical writing routine? 
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I am very easily distracted and I have the sleeping habits of a cave-dwelling goblin, so I do almost all of my writing very late at night. I wish I could be one of those writers who can sit and tap out a masterpiece amid the comforting din of a little coffee shop, but, unfortunately the only way I can reliably get anything done is to just wait until everyone else has gone to bed. 

Where did the idea for this particular story come from?
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As it so happens, I did actually witness a neighbour’s house catching on fire due to faulty DIY hot tub wiring. I was probably about 10 years old at the time, and I remember coming home from school and complaining about a strange smell, which turned out to be ozone from the electrical fire. This flash piece is sort of a dramatic re-imagining of that event.

Do you ever worry about running out of story ideas?

Fortunately I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which supplies me with an ample amount of old buildings and atmospheric fog for inspiration. It’s very difficult to run low on story ideas when you have the option to simply go outside and wander around in the mist at the edge of the ocean until you have more. 

Janel Comeau is a writer, illustrator, comedian and youth worker based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her work has been nominated for Best Small Fictions, and has appeared in Haven Spec Magazine, Paranoid Tree Press, HAD, and several other fine publications and anthologies. She also writes satire news for The Beaverton.

NUNUM

Blending Flash Fiction & Art