Author Notes for Words by Eric P. Isaacson
Bundle of Joy
I was reading an anthology of "dark fiction" put out by White Wolf Press (I think) and came across a story in which the editor referred to the main plot point as the thing that parents fear most. I immediately put the book down and went to my computer and started "Bundle of Joy" as what happens in the story is what my worst fear as a father was and still is.
My wife actually got mad at me after reading this story because she was reading the narrator as this caring, loving father and then I pulled the O' Henry on her. As she later told some friends, she was reading the narrator as me as I had spoken of our younger daughter in a similar fashion. I still sometimes wonder if she thinks there's something wrong with me....
By the way, I never did read that story in the White Wolf book.
Colder
"Colder" was my attempt at a very serious literary story, with a twist. I mean, how many stories have you read about an aging college professor who's having an affair with one of his student's and can't seem to connect with his family? So, at the risk of minimizing my creative endeavor, I tossed in the idea of the narrator going numb (I know—too obvious symbolism...). I think of the narrator as the epitome of my penchant for affected main characters who suffer from arrested development, i.e., they glide through their life, going through the motions while they boil and squirm underneath, but seem unable or simply don't/can't do enough to change anything.
I've received comments about my portrayal of women in my stories—mostly that they are underdeveloped as characters, or unsympathetic to the dilemma faced by the male narrator, or even that they seem to be the focus for what's wrong with the narrator—but I think my male main characters come across a whole lot worse: at minimum, they're emotionally stunted man-boys, at worst, they're despicable.
Side note: I took a portion of the story at the end where the narrator starts waxing astronomically and turned it into a prose poem I'm particularly proud of called "Love Salt".
Dogs
Ahh, "Dogs". This is the one that started it all. This is what I consider my first real literary story. It also was the beginning of my "style" (whatever that is, really)—ambiguous actions, arrested and unhinged narrators, and a crisp writing style reminiscent of the Minimalists (such as Raymond Carver), or so I've been told. This was also my first published piece and has appeared in Dream International Quarterly.
The greatest complaint I've received about this story is the ambiguity of "Did Mark do it?" Well, that's up to you. Oh, yeah, and it's too gross (though of course I take that as a compliment).
(Interesting side note: The first time I workshopped this story, there was complete silence for about 30 seconds, and then this one guy broke the ice by looking at me and saying, "You are one sick bastard." Everyone laughed (though some somewhat nervously) and the critiquing commenced.)
Fencing
This story came about after I was helping a friend put up a fence around his yard and a friend of my wife's had a miscarriage. The two events converged in my head as "Fencing", another literary style story earmarked by my deliberate ambiguity (perhaps too much so?) and a narrator who seems (chooses to be?) powerless to act on what matters—though his dilemma is mirrored in the act of building this fence.
Still Remains
"Still Remains" was the story where I wanted to play around with fractured narrative, to confuse the reader as the main character was confused and to keep everything off balance. Interestingly, these are also the main critiques against the story! Oh, well.
I used to worry about the ending, that perhaps the story fell apart by the time we get that one last moment of focus, but I think it stands as is. And now that I'm thinking again about the story, I can see some parallels between it and Coover's "The Babysitter," but I can tell you I was not consciously thinking of Coover's superior story (go read it!) when writing "Still Remains."
Down-Time
This story had its genesis a few years ago as a melding of two of my passions at the time: superheroes and reading newsgroups. I figured that with the dawning of the very public Internet, superheroes would take advantage of this new tool and at the very least communicate with each other. They also might, as Warhawk does in the story, check up on their public approval rating. It also raises the question "Are superheroes important to us?" In addition, I wanted to explore the idea of a sense of community for the superheroes themselves, something that really hasn't been explored elsewhere.
"Down-Time" was also an experiment (for me at least) in form as a narrative technique. By recreating the newsreader screens, the reader "sees" what Warhawk does, essentially becoming the character, or at least becoming more engaged with the story through him (I hope). I look at this as a sort of second person point of view technique as well.
I do worry about the timeliness of the format (i.e., newsreader) as everyone seems to be shifting to Instant Messaging as a form of Internet communication (though the newsgroups are still a strong information resource), but overall I think the story stands as is.