Life at Open Heart Publishing

Hello Readers!

Our featured author for this post is Alyssa Cooper.  Enjoy!

Alyssa being as girly girl as a girly girl can be!

How does “My Dead Isn’t Dead” reflect your own life?

It doesn’t. That’s why it’s fiction, of course! Okay, so maybe life did help to inspire bits and pieces of it. I actually began writing this story the evening my grandfather died. So definitely the sorrow and loss is real—the source just differs from that of the narrator. Otherwise, the story is also a reflection of how women are taught to judge themselves as not good enough. To judge themselves against other women. You see it all the time if you know how to look for it (which women do), that glance that is given when we question our own self-worth against each other. The effects can be tragically frightening for relationships as well as mental health. To me, “My Dead Isn’t Dead” shows exactly how wrong everything can go when we don’t trust our own self-value. Beyond that, I love human interactions and I believe in magic. That is what is at the core of this piece.
 
What are some other things you are passionate about (besides writing)?

I’m not sure I understand the question. No—I actually have a lot of things that make life wonderful, that make me grateful to be alive and have the opportunity to experience them. At the very top of the charts is dance. I am a burlesque performer, fairly new to the scene, but I absolutely adore it. For me, it’s basically an opportunity to create characters that I am allowed to perform, while artfully enforcing the tease in striptease. Correlating to this, I am a fashion junkie, suffering an addiction to four-inch heels and all things girly, vintage, or rhinestoned. Beyond this, I am a lover of art. Before I began writing, I intended to study art history in my graduate work. But in truth, I make a horrific critic. I like things because I like them, and I don’t always have the reasons behind this. However, I know without a doubt I would not be the writer I am today without looking at art as much as I do. With both art and dance, they are what fuels my writing. I cannot tell you how many times I have stopped in the midst of my dance practicing—or in the middle of an art gallery—because I am inspired to write, right then and there. Writing may be my main passion, but everything I do contributes to it.

Have you ever turned a dream into a story?

What is it Cinderella said? Something along the lines of, “A dream is a wish your heart makes when you’re fast asleep.” For me dreaming doesn’t just exist at night or in sleep. I battle daydreaming almost constantly. So I suppose I could say, yes, I have turned dreams into stories. But only because I have a bad (or wonderful) habit of avoiding reality.

Is “My Dead Isn’t Dead” your first story to be published?

It is not. In fact, just the other day, I was telling my good friend, and editor of Carve magazine, that I cannot wait for both our writing careers to take off so that in every interview I give I can say, “Well, so-and-so, Matthew Limpede was the first to publish me.” So here it is: Well, Rhia, Matthew Limpede was the first to publish me.

I will also say that although this is not the first story I have published, due to its beginnings, I am incredibly proud of it. My grandfather wasn’t much of a fiction reader, but I can almost promise you that wherever he is (I’m guessing pruning peach trees and playing with dogs while my grandmother bakes pies), when he heard that this story was to be published, he said something like, “That’s real good, Scooter.”

What is your writing process?

I’m not sure I have a process—more of a vague, stumbling approach that sometimes works out and other times does not. I would say for the most part, it goes something like this: I get inspired. I begin a story. I finish the story in the same sitting.

“My Dead Isn’t Dead” was one key exception to this rule because clearly there was a lot going on the evening I began it. It’s an exception I’m really glad I made and certainly lends credibility to the idea that creativity comes from somewhere outside of ourselves. Typically, if I start a story and cannot finish it in the same sitting, then I never finish it. I believe it is Raymond Carver that stated a short story should be written in the same way it should be read—in just one sitting. I have found this is what most closely aligns with my own approach. But I write when I feel it and never any other time. My creativity tends to rebel against discipline.

Where is fancy bread, in the heart or in the head?

I suppose that might depend on your definition of fancy. Because let me tell you that as a burlesque dancer and writer, fancy certainly means many different things to begin with. That being said, I would say my sequined, glittered version of fancy is all heart. However, being a Gemini, my heart sorta lives in my head. I have trouble separating my passions and dreamy tendencies from my thought processes. Maybe that’s what makes me a writer. Maybe that’s just what makes me a girl. All I do know is that if your heart feels strongly enough about something, your head never has a chance. This is a lesson I learn over and over again on almost a daily basis.

Who is your favorite author (besides yourself) and why?

Way to save the easy one for last! Amy Hempel. Amy Hempel. Amy Hempel. My former professor, as well as an amazing fiction writer, Kristin vanNamen once referred to my writing as “Amy Hempel on acid.” To this day, it is my favorite compliment. I love Ms. Hempel because she makes me sad. I love her because she makes me happy. I love her because she knows how to take simple words and arrange them so they are more beautiful than you ever remembered the words being before. She is poetry in prose form, and if I am ever one-fifth the writer she is, then I will present golden-covered chocolates and diamond-bottomed cocktails to the creativity goddesses every hour on the hour—double during happy hour.

Alyssa Cooper began her writing career while studying art history at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her fascination with writing as a medium of art—meant to depict—soon took focus, and she graduated with a B.A. in Creative Writing. Ms. Cooper maintains that it is her love for visual and performance art that provides the creative lens for her written works, and she finds inspiration while dancing or strolling art galleries. “The Way Back Home” was the recipient of the 2006 Gulf Coast of Creative Writing Teachers Association Undergraduate Fiction Prize. Ms. Cooper’s story, “In His Own Image,” was featured in Carve Magazine, where she currently serves as a reader and editor. She has recently completed a collection of first person narratives that explore the boundaries of the female norm and the inner trappings of self-perception, entitled A Whore Like Me. Ms. Cooper currently resides in Dallas and is researching graduate school options to further attend to the art of writing.

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