THE THREE with Rachel Harrison

An interview, a photo story, and Pop-Up Questions

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Rachel Harrison is the author of SUCH SHARP TEETH, CACKLE and THE RETURN, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, as an Audible Original, and in her debut story collection BAD DOLLS. She lives in Western New York with her husband and their cat/overlord.

In her interview, Rachel says that she has been writing in part to escape Covid, not to write within its reality, and that’s how I felt reading her escapist horror novel, Such Sharp Teeth- I curled up and read and left the concerns of modern-day life behind. Such a great feeling, and this is such a fun book. I love that Rachel is writing horror not only as a woman but with women-filled novels, in this case women-werewolf! -Maggie

POP-UP QUESTIONS

The writer picks five out of ten pop-up questions and answers them.

What do you think about when you are awake at 3 am? 

Anything and everything, from my deepest fears to what really happened to the Roanoke Colony, the Dyatlov Pass.

What book do you wish you could read again for the first time and why?

In recent memory, Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia because the ending really surprised and moved me.

What writer romanticized being a writer for you as a young person? 

Dorothy Parker. I imagined it was all cigarettes and quips.  

What is a quote that has endured in your mind? 

It’s a line from the Amy Hempel story “The Man in Bogota”. It goes “He wondered how we know that what happens to us isn’t good.” I think about it every single day.

How has technology been a part of your writing? 

My notes app is everything. Anytime I have a random idea, it goes in the notes app. Some of my favorite lines of writing, story ideas, all have been saved by the notes app. If I don’t write something down immediately, I forget it!

PHOTO ROLL STORY

The writer picks a photo from her phone and tells us about it.

I’m kind of cheating because there are two photos. They were taken in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Spring 2020 on a socially distanced walk. My husband and I happened upon this mausoleum with a creepy, small porcelain doll—its face shattered. Not sure how the doll got there, if maybe someone put it there, or if it walked itself there. But it was very eerie! I love a creepy doll. 

THE INTERVIEW

The writer answers questions about her life and work.

You've written a short horror story collection, Bad Dolls, a suspense novel, The Return, and now a horror novel about a female werewolf. What draws you to horror writing, and who are your influences?

With horror, you really get to feel your feelings! You get to delve into really complex, intense emotions and high-stakes situations. I write to investigate myself, my experiences, my own feelings, so getting to do that in the horror space is very cathartic. It’s like a primal scream on the page. And horror is fun! I like to play with the paranormal. I like the escapism of it.

There are so many incredibly talented writers working in horror right now that inspire me, but my two horror biggest horror influences growing up were Shirley Jackson and Rod Serling. I’m a big Twilight Zone fan.

Can you tell us a little bit about the path of your writing career?

I’ve always written, since I was a kid. I studied screenwriting in college and my plan was to go into development and work in film/TV, but I didn’t want to be in LA and there weren’t many jobs in the NYC area. I ended up working in TV production, then publishing, then for a big bank. I wrote in my spare time, worked on my craft. Eventually, I wrote The Return and found my agent through PitDark, a pitch contest on Twitter.   

Such Sharp Teeth (I love, love this title by the way!) is a female werewolf story set in a very human atmosphere of love, trauma, and the ties that bind. When you began writing, did you know the themes that you wanted to work with, or did they come as you wrote? In the editing process, did you find ways to deepen these themes?

I found the themes as I wrote, and I do think I was able to refine in edits. I usually start out with a concept and then find the voice, the right protagonist to tell the story. With SUCH SHARP TEETH I wanted to explore the connections between womanhood and lycanthropy in a contemporary adult setting. I didn’t anticipate the number and depth of those connections until I was writing, until I met Rory.

I loved the relationship that Rory has with her twin sister, Scarlett. Their dialogue is witty and intimate, yet emotionally they are very careful and protective of each other. Did you have this in mind as you set about creating their relationship or did their dynamic just appear as you wrote? How do you approach writing dialogue for various characters that contain a unique voice? 

I did want them to be very close and have their closeness be tangible. As identical twins, it’s an intense bond, an intense love. They also know each other better than anyone, which needed to be reflected in how they spoke to each other. I love dialogue, I come from a screenwriting background so it’s sort of in my DNA as a writer. I think having a strong sense of character helps when it comes to dialogue. I know what Rory would or wouldn’t say, what Scarlett or Ian would or wouldn’t say, how they would or wouldn’t say it.

I don't want to give anything away that's not on the jacket cover, but Such Sharp Teeth veers away from traditional horror writing in several ways- which I found made the story crackle with new life- the most obvious being that you took a traditionally male-dominated idea- a werewolf- and explored it from a female point of view. Did you go into writing this with the intention to shake things up, or was that a natural byproduct of your mind and experience of life?

The novel started with me wondering “how come there isn’t an abundance of lady werewolf content?” It was definitely just a byproduct of my own curiosity!

Such Sharp Teeth is plotted so well, the growth of the characters and the storyline stay in motion. How do you approach plotting a novel?

Thank you! Oh gosh, it’s all my editor. I love character and dialogue, but plotting does not come naturally. I try to go in with a general idea of what’s going to happen and in what order, but I struggle with outlining and following an outline. I sort of just feel my way through and then my editor comes in and gives me advice. Editors are heroes.

Has the experience of the pandemic and Covid found its way into your ideas or your work at all?

Nope! I write to escape, and I was happy to escape into fiction over the past few years. Rough times! CACKLE and SUCH SHARP TEETH have more levity than THE RETURN, and it’s because I was so desperate for levity during the pandemic. So in that way, it did impact my work, but for me I’d rather not write about Covid or the pandemic itself. I prefer fictional trouble.

Are you working on anything now?

I’m about to go into edits on book 4. Wish me luck, I’ll need it!