Interview with Ivy Grimes
Anyone who was reading along with Short Story Rex last year knows that 2023 was the year I discovered the work of Ivy Grimes. I couldn’t shut up about her! Well, this year Ivy has been very busy, publishing the chapbook Grime Time and the novella Star Shapes (both of which I’ve written about here). Most recently, Grimscribe Press has released her collection Glass Stories:
Ivy was gracious enough to answer some questions I had about the work and other things. Thank you, Ivy!
I first came to your work through your ‘glass stories’ and I’m curious how the ‘glass stories’ came to you, whether the chicken or the egg came first. Did you set out to write a bunch of ‘glass stories’ or was it only later that you realized you were writing them? I guess what I’m asking by extension, is what role does intention play for your creative work, versus intuition or instinct? Do those terms even figure into the equation?
Different methods work for each person, but for me, having a framework or central idea really inspires me. The idea of organizing these stories around glass gave me many joyful hours of brainstorming and writing. I wasn’t setting out for a particular destination and taking a straight route, though. I had some ideas about what glass meant to me in a story, but I did not know what kind of collection that would lead to.
I got the glass stories idea because I often play around with fairy tales and myths and whatnot, and I wrote the story “Glass Mountain” based on the fairy tale of the same name. It’s not a retelling, but more of an absurdist farce.
I’d been reading the Pentamerone, too, and I was fascinated by stories where the king imposes a seemingly self-destructive rule for his kingdom. Like he has a death wish. There’s one story about a king who raises a flea to be as big as a horse, and then he kills it and asks everyone to guess what creature the skin is from, and whoever wins gets to marry his daughter and become the new king. That idea is already so absurd, it would be hard for me to play with it in the way I like to do. Anyway, the fairy tale “Glass Mountain” has a king who creates a similarly ridiculous challenge, and I enjoyed imagining and describing his daughter’s life on the glass mountain quite a bit.
From there, I started thinking about other glass elements I’ve seen in fairy tales, like glass slippers and glass coffins, and I thought about what those might mean. Why glass? Glass is transparent like a ghost, and it can seem otherworldly. It can freeze things in a certain state. It can be for display. That led me to the idea to write a collection around the theme of glass, where some of the stories would play around with fairy tales. Having this restriction helped me stay in one world for a while creatively, which really made me feel alive.
Speaking of “Glass Coffins”, that’s one my mind keeps coming back to. In it, the protagonist Kellin is forced to abandon one identity or self that she had created for herself, almost as a survival adaptation, and now must seek out a new identity in one of several nearby dystopian “malls” each dedicated to a weird (sub)urban subculture, but of course we later find out something bigger is going on. So I have to know, when you were younger were you a ‘golf grandpa’? An ‘urchin zombie’? Were you into ‘hall monitor chic’?
I wasn’t anything! I’ve never truly identified with a subculture, but I’m curious about them all, and sometimes I look at them longingly. I enjoy theme parties (as long as I don’t have to throw them), and it seems similarly fun to have a themed life. On the other hand, you probably have to commit to one subculture at a time. You can’t be goth one day and preppy the next. Or can you? Maybe there’s a way now! I don’t remember that kind of subculture hopping from my youth, though.
And I don’t think I could pick one. I struggle with visual expression of all kinds, and I have a hard time matching whatever it is I am inside with an external aesthetic. I’m fascinated by people who can do this!
I will say, though, that I was partially inspired to write this story by all the genres and subgenres I’ve encountered since entering the online writing scene. I’m not quite sure where I fit in there either, but at least I don’t have to learn how to put on eyeliner with a steady hand.
“Glass Coffins” might be the funniest and also the grisliest of the stories, and so I’m wondering, is that interplay of light and dark a coincidence, or unavoidable to some degree, or what?
That’s interesting! I hadn’t thought about it, but it makes sense…”Glass Coffins” is probably the closest to an actual horror story in the bunch, and it has a more traditional plot structure and a couple of real horror tropes. I almost never write stories for specific calls, but I did write this one for the anthology Monstrous Futures, so I guess I had my horror costume on. I feel funny with it on, I suppose! I feel out of my element when I’m specifically trying to write horror, and I doubt that I’m capable of writing something that is truly and squarely within the genre. Maybe in my discomfort, I make more jokes.
Speaking of light and dark, though, it reminds me of Flannery O’Connor. She combines the most horrific violence with lots of jokes, and she was an early influence for me. So maybe it’s actually her fault.
OH, and David Lynch! He’s how I found myself in the horror space to begin with, and of course, he’s very funny and very dark.
Now I have a confession to make. At the time of this writing, I am only halfway through the book (the last one I finished was “Glass Coffins”), because it’s one of those books I know I’ll be sad after I finish it. Plus now I get to daydream about what might be coming up in the second half. What was your thought process going into sequencing a collection like this? And what do I have to look forward to in the second half of the book?
I like that approach! There’s kind of a shift in the second half where some stories feel older and have more obvious fairy tale projects. Plus prose poems from the perspectives of Merlin and Princess Alexandra of Bavaria.
There’s always at least one line that stands out to me in these stories, these sort of multivalent thematic pronouncements that occur to the characters, but one in particular (from “Glass Mother”) was: “Blessings seemed to operate on another level with angels and fairies.” And it occurred to me that your stories, or stories in general, might be an attempt to access that ‘blessing’ level. If so, to what end? What are we meant to do once we get on that level?
That’s the crux of the matter! It’s hard to get there, to the place Rudolf Otto was talking about when he explored the idea of the numinous. When we find that place, I think we experience awe and the freedom that comes with self-forgetfulness. That’s what art and spirituality can do for a person. I want to access that world more than I currently do, and if I weren’t so lazy, I think I could. I’m not sure what we’re meant to do when we get there (if anything), and it might be different for everyone. It’s something I’m very curious about.
Your bio states that Ivy Grimes is “quiet and likes puzzles”, and your stories often show affinities with myth and folktales, which often feature some kind of puzzle to be solved. A riddle, a challenge, some spell to be broken. As a writer, is there an aspect of “puzzle-making” to what you do? Is there some solution you want readers to arrive at?
Oh yes, I love starting stories that are puzzles for me to solve. It’s scary, too, because sometimes I can’t solve them. When I do, I feel fantastic. And yet, solving these puzzles for myself absolutely doesn’t mean solving them for readers. I’d be worried if all readers of these stories emerged with the same meaning.
I love it when readers tell me what these stories made them think of or wonder about, and I like to learn something I didn’t know or encounter an interpretation I never thought of. Some puzzles lead you inward, where you define the borders and then fill in the middle, while others lead you on a haphazard journey through a wonderland of existential angst. I like both kinds.
Also, as a self-professed puzzle-liker, what sort of puzzles do you dig, mostly? Jigsaw, crossword? Logic puzzles, brain teasers? And why, what attracts you to a certain kind of puzzle?
I can be entertained by almost any kind of puzzle, but I especially love puzzling over books and people. When I was younger, I was even more annoying in thinking everyone could be figured out, but as I get older, I have less faith in the idea, and certainly less energy to try.
As far as genres go, mystery has always been my favorite. Mysteries are much more horrific to me than monsters. It might also be useful to point out here that I have OCD, which causes one to have a tragic and ridiculous relationship to uncertainty. Anyone with OCD can come up with the strangest stories you’ve ever heard for why something is a problem, and then they create intricate puzzles for themselves that will magically keep them safe.
But finally, I will point out that this is also a Simpsons reference. Lisa tells Homer she has a crush on a boy named Langdon Alger, and Homer says he doesn’t know him, and Lisa says, “Nobody does! He’s very quiet and enjoys puzzles.” I’d like to think I carry the spirit of Langdon Alger to the already obscure world of short stories.
Aw dang it, if only renowned critic of the Weird and Simpsons expert Zach Gillan were here, he would have caught that reference! So what is next for Ivy Grimes? 2024 has certainly been an eventful year for you publishing-wise, is there any new projects or big ideas you’re working on for the future?
This was a year when various experiments of mine were released at the same time. I doubt that will happen again in the same way. I don’t really like the idea of publishing stuff all the time, because I feel like the few people whose readership I’m lucky enough to receive won’t have time to read and digest it all if I put too much out there.
Lately, I have made some experiments with longer fiction (a draft of a novel and a novella), but I’m not in a rush to put them out there. There are many other experiments I’d like to make too, but they won’t all be fit for public consumption. Only time will tell!
You’ve probably been asked questions like the ones above before so: what’s something no one’s asked you about this book yet that you’d like the world to know?
Do you feel guilty for your internet promotions for the book?
I hate wasting people’s time or making them feel like a means to an end (the end of buying my book so I can feel good about myself). The book wouldn’t be enjoyable to everyone, and I don’t want to waste the time of readers with different tastes. You might like the book if you like the writers I reference as influences on the Grimscribe site, and if you don’t, you probably won’t. If you like dramatic or action-packed storytelling, you probably won’t like this book. I respect everyone’s taste, and I have no interest in converting anyone to my style of writing.
On the other hand, I am fond of the book, and I plan to keep talking about it so I can get it in the hands of various people who might enjoy it.
Also, since this is Short Story Rex I was hoping you could make some recommendations for our readers. So if you please, give us one Short Story Rec, one Not-Short Story Rec, and one Not-a-story Rec (movie, music, whatever)?
Short Story: I’m going to recommend “The Year of Spaghetti” by Haruki Murakami, because it’s so slippery. It’s quick and joyful and stubborn, with darkness threatening at the edges, but the narrative never gives in to expectations. It just lies there, being what it feels like being.
Not-Short Story: I have to talk about Barbara Comyns wherever possible, and the most recent novel of hers I read is The Juniper Tree. I love her slipperiness, too…how she uses a light, joking tone to take you through the heaviest things you can imagine. I love what she does with the premise of the fairy tale “The Juniper Tree,” and I can’t wait until enough time has passed that I forget enough of the plot to be able to enjoy rereading it.
Not-a-Story: The algorithm recently presented me with a great band called Orchestra Super Mazembe. I recommend all their music, but here’s a song I’ve been listening to a lot:
Thanks so much for allowing me to invade this space! I love Short Story Rex!
Our pleasure! :)