Interview with Rebecca Reynolds editor of The Forge Anthology

Rebecca Reynolds mainly writes non-fiction, particularly about museums and objects. Her creative work has been published in The Reader magazine, Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine and Poor Yorick: A Journal Of Undiscovered Objects. She works as a museum education consultant and also teaches English as a Foreign Language. She blogs here:http://objects-ofinterest.blogspot.co.uk/.

The Forge anthology is a great collection of flash fiction – although I would say that, seeing as some of my own stories are in there! What would you say is the key to a great flash?

Well, there are different kinds of flash. One is what I would call small and self-contained. So it might leave you with a strong image of a different world, or intense situation or striking events. Flashes in the collection like that are Mum’s the Word or Paper Money Jesus and the Garbage Man. Then there are those which stop just before the denouement, and you imagine what comes next. Dear Imogen, about an ex-headteacher writing to one of her students, who is in jail, is like that – it ends as she starts to write the letter. And then there are ones which you feel have strands and elements which are kind of pregnant but not explored within the length of the flash; these ones are a bit like a part of a novel. They can be bit messier, perhaps not so immediately striking. Just Beneath is one of those. You need a mixture.

Do you have a particular favourite story in the collection?

I tend to be drawn to gentler stories. So I really like the last story in the collection, Fish Reminisces to His Owner Who Has S.A.D. It has a playful quality and it’s unusual that the title explains something which is not referred to again in story, which is told completely from the goldfish’s (limited!) point of view.

Like many editors, you’re a writer yourself. What are you working on at the moment?

I write non-fiction, often influenced by my work in museums and inspiration I get from objects. So I’ve just finished a book, Curiosities from the Cabinet: Objects and Voices from Britain’s Museums. I’ve also just started a blog, Objects of Interest, mainly to better explore, understand and communicate things which attract and interest me. I’m currently feeling the need to step back a bit from all the pressure to pitch and market yourself and do a bit of reading, writing and thinking apart from all that for a while.

Tell me about your perfect writing day.

Breakfast and two coffees. Cuddle the cats. Discover something new in the process of writing – about the subject, or about the world more widely. Lose myself in it a bit. Lunch. Then get through everything on my to-do list.

What’s the last fantastic book you read?

I’ve just finished A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence Krauss. It’s so fascinating to know that with the right instruments we can still see the state of matter 30,000 years after The Big Bang (because the light emitted at that time is still with us). We can’t look right back to The Big Bang though, unfortunately!.

Skiing or salsa?

I’ve got to say salsa, just because of the time you spend in queues for ski lifts.h3>

Ideal dinner date?

That guy who played Nicholas Lyndhurst’s brother in the 70s sitcom Butterflies. I had pre-teenage crush on him.

How much is too much?

When your eyes hurt and you realise you are missing the 3D world.

Thank you for your time, Rebecca.

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