Author Q&A with Shayna Brown

Shayna Brown is based in Austin, Texas, where she lives with her husband and seventeen-year-old son. Her writing explores themes of family, vulnerability, and emotional complexity, drawing inspiration from small, individual moments that blur the line between the surreal and the deeply personal. Writing has always been the way she experiences and makes sense of the world.

Her short fiction, Until it Ends, appears in Issue #23.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m a Texan, born in raised deep in the heart in Austin. I’ve been writing fiction since I was a kid, but only in the past few years have I started treating it with more care and intention. Most of what I write circles the same terrain – family, memory, mismanaged emotions, a deep human ache. It’s such a pleasure for me to play with words.

What was the inspiration behind “Until it Ends?”

This piece started with a piece of dialogue, some casual words thrown out that stuck to me long past the conversation. I tend to spend a lot of my real life worrying, and this piece of fiction was a chance to play with a “what-if” situation, which is grounded in a lot of non-fiction love.

What unique or surprising detail can you tell us about the revision process, and/or the final version of it?

Most of the revision was subtraction for me. I had characters flipping on light switches and over-explaining house layouts and unnecessarily walking around just so they’d have movement with their dialogue. I don’t even remember writing those things, but the piece was much better once I took them out and let the piece breathe. I prefer the softer, more trusting final piece.

What did you learn (about yourself, craft, or life in general) through writing and revising it, and what do you hope readers take from it?

That I overexplain. This piece got so much better when I trusted the reader to feel through it, and took out a lot of the over-explaining. I also learned that I want my made-up stories to show real-life emotion, but that right when the emotion starts to burn super bright, my instinct is to turn away. I like using fiction to get close to it.

And I hope readers experience the feeling of having just peeked into a sweet moment of humans striving to be better versions of themselves.

At what point in your life did you begin writing and working on fiction?

I wrote my first pieces of fiction when I was about ten. I was homeschooled and obsessed with becoming a novelist. That continued until college, when life got too busy for written exploration. In my early adulthood I focused more on creative non-fiction, but not in a serious way. When Covid hit, I started writing short stories again. I made a schedule and took classes and started working on pieces I wanted to release out into the world for the first time. And that led me here.

When or why did you decide to start publishing your work?

I started trying to get published about two years ago. It’s a very difficult and discouraging process. I’m so grateful to The Good Life Review for believing in my piece.

What fuels your desire to write (or engage in other creative outlets)?

I think it’s how I make sense of the world. It feels necessary to have some creative outlet to process being an adult in the world. I am often confused by internal contradictions (like wanting to run away but desperately wanting to stay, like being angry but also being so full of love) and writing helps me understand myself, too.

What have been the biggest influences in your writing?

I was homeschooled, along with two siblings, by my father. He taught me my foundation of everything. He didn’t have a curriculum or traditional structure for us, and our main schoolwork was to read The New Yorker Magazine cover to cover each week and discuss it. Sometimes he’d give us writing assignments like “Re-write the ending of this week’s short story.” I think that influenced how I write, and also how I read.

How do you make expression a part of your daily life, or how do you find a balance between your writing and other responsibilities?

This is a struggle for me. The more regularly I’m able to have creative space, the better everything in my life feels. I put writing time on my calendar daily, but it’s not unusual for that to get pushed aside for a pressing life issue. I do find that I stay mentally connected to my work, whether the pages are in front of me or not. These are little worlds I carry around and think about always.

What do you think when you hear, “the good life”?

I love this question. For me “the good life” is presence and appreciation of small, specific moments. It’s bringing in the groceries with my kiddo and then making a sandwich and lemonade for lunch. It’s sitting outside with a pen and paper, word-doodling some ideas. It’s noticing a new freckle on my husband’s arm. Smiling at my dog’s early morning tail wags. Hearing the birds outside my bedroom window, greeting

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Thank you, Shayna, for being a part of our growing community and for sharing your work. We appreciate you and the time you spent on this Q&A with us. Cheers to those small moments of peace and joy. We wish you many, many of those and also the best with your writing endeavors!