Vanessa Hua, "Just Like Us"
It's December 3. Vanessa Hua, author of Deceit and Other Possibilities, always follows the posted speed limit.
How would you describe your story?
VANESSA HUA: A coming of age, mother-daughter road trip.
When did you write it, and how did the writing process compare to your other work?
VH: Awhile ago, after my husband and I went camping in the redwoods. A summer weekend for us, but a form of housing for others, I soon realized. The writing process didn't differ my usual process: submitting drafts to my writing group and trading it with my critique partners. Revise, revise, revise.
What kind of research went into the story?
VH: I incorporated the landscape I've seen in my travels, and I also looked into the particulars of truck campers.
What, to you, makes the short story a special form? What can it do that other kinds of writing (novels, poems) can't?
VH: The precision and economy, and how it can turn on a moment or gesture and yet still bear a narrative power.
Where can people go to learn more about you and your writing?
What's on your Christmas list this year?
VH: Time to read the great works I've picked up while on book tour, and possibly our children's first trip to Disneyland.
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