Author Q&A with L. L. Babb

L. L. Babb has been a teacher for the Writers Studio San Francisco and on-line since 2008. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming at the West Marin Review, Cleaver, the San Francisco Chronicle, Goldman Review, Green Hills Literary Lantern, the MacGuffin, and elsewhere. She received a special mention in the 2022 Pushcart anthology for her short story, “Where Have You Been All Your Life.” Lorraine lives deep among the trees of Forestville, CA with her husband Cornbaby Johnson, her dog Smudge, and her cat Cosmo.

Tell us about yourself.

My writing life started when I was seven years old and I read The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland. It took me an entire week to struggle through it. Then I read it over again the next day and discovered the joy of being totally immersed in a book. I wanted to be able to do what Carrol did—write a story and take the reader somewhere magical, alien, and fantastic. Ever since then I’ve been creating people and watching what they do when I put them in motion.

Your story “Funny” was riveting, with the tension building to a shocking and thought-provoking ending. Do you have tricks to share with other fiction writers about keeping their readers engaged right up to the end?

My writing is usually (hopefully) character driven. Kiki creates a lot of tension as she moves through the story. Kiki is just out of prison but the reader doesn’t immediately know what she was incarcerated for. There’s a contrast between what a normal mother would do—see her children—and what Kiki does—focus her love on the dogs and fixate on a stranger in AA. Recovering alcoholics often have blunted or misplaced emotions. The very fact that the reader doesn’t understand Kiki’s actions builds tension and keeps them reading.

How much research did you have to do about life in a halfway house and the criminal justice system to write this story?

I don’t do a lot of research for my short stories. I looked up the official name for a halfway house in some states, the Residential Recovery Center. I did a little research on what the sentence might be for vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence. If I do too much research, I have a tendency to try to smash it all in which ultimately turns a short story into a Sixty Minutes episode.

I once published a story about a woman who lived on a sheep ranch. I know almost nothing about sheep farming. After a public reading, several people approached me to ask where my ranch was in relation to the bookstore. You can make up most of the little details if the characters feel like real people.

What do you want your readers to take away from “Funny?”

Interesting question. I’ve noticed that many of the characters in my stories are overwhelmed or confused about how exactly to live their lives. Or alternatively, they think they have it all together and it’s quite apparent that they do not. Perhaps it’s important to me that we recognize the human-ness of these sort of lost individuals and acknowledge those traits in ourselves.

How has your life as a teacher provided inspiration in your own writing?

I teach writing part-time in the evenings. My full-time job is as a bespectacled accountant with a mechanical pencil tucked behind one ear. Teaching lets me wave my freaky flag and be myself. Since I started teaching, I’ve met so many wonderful students who have become friends and helped form an artistic community that bolsters all of us. Also teaching lets me exercise my barely controlled “know-it-all” personality in an acceptable setting.

What do you do to keep your writing muse energized and ready to create?

I read. I read novels, short stories and memoirs. I read the New Yorker short stories and the Pushcart Prize anthology. I read the classics. I sometimes read poetry out loud before I start writing. I read Charles Baxter’s essays on writing. No wait, I read everybody’s essays on writing. I read college textbooks on creative writing, dog-eared fiction anthologies that people stuff into little libraries on the street (which I cannot pass without pulling something out.) I subscribe to George Saunders’ Substack. I search constantly for words that surprise me, stick them on post-it notes, and try to work them into my own writing.

Which writing mantra do you lean more towards – ‘write what you know’ or ‘write what you want to know?’ Why?

I’m probably a “write what you know” kind of person. As I mentioned earlier, too much research usually backfires in my stories. I don’t need to do a lot of research to get into my characters’ heads, just a good imagination.

What advice can you give to new writers based on your own writing journey?

Read a lot. Try to write every day. Treat your writing like a job with a schedule and expectations to meet. Embrace rejection, allow yourself to feel bad about it for 24 hours, and move on.

What do you think of when you hear the words, “The Good Life?”

Interestingly enough, that is the motto of the little town where I live. It’s on everybody’s license plate frame—“Forestville. The Good Life.” So, I think of home and of my little writing studio in the trees. I think of my puppy at my feet and my cat stalking the lizards sunning on the retaining wall. I think of blue sky days or the foggy coastal mornings or the rain hitting the roof of my studio while my space heater purrs. I think of spotty internet and power outages that give me a chance to slow down and take a step back from hurrying through my one and only existence.

“When you say you’re going into work, as a writer, what you mean is you’re about to crawl into your fucking nerves.” From Roethke in the Bughouse by Kevin Barry

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L.L. Babb’s short fiction piece, Funny, is featured in our Spring 2024 Edition ~ Issue #15.

Thank you, Lorraine, for allowing us to share your story with a wider audience and for taking extra time on this Q&A with us! We’re glad we were able to connect and wish you the best with your writing and all of your endeavors.