Ask the Author: Eric Fritzius
Answered Questions (4)
Eric Fritzius
A Second Consternation
Eric Fritzius
I have actually done this on three occasions. My short story about the Mothman, "...to a Flame," from in A Consternation of Monsters, was the first one I adapted, back in 2005 or so. It didn't see the stage until 2009, though, and has since been produced twice. I also adapted a story of mine called "Playing Cards by Twilight's Shine" (not in the collection), though this has only received a staged reading. More recently I adapted my story "Flying Lessons Over Lunch, with Saint Joseph Cooper Tina," from the Diner Stories anthology, into a short play, but it too has only had a staged reading, as of yet.
I have tended in my writing to tell stories with a lot of dialogue at times. This may be because I cut my teeth writing for the stage. Once in a while, though, I can look at a prose piece and recognize that it not only tells the story with dialogue but has a common setting and limited characters. Those are elements that work well on the stage.
I am experimenting with adapting some of my short plays into short stories as well, since a few of them share a basic setting of West Virginia, as well as being set in the same "universe" as it were. They will likely appear in a future collection.
While I do a lot of performing, I have rarely appeared in my own work. When "...to a Flame" was produced, I did cameo as a voiceover in it, portraying my radio pal Rik Winston, who is only reference in the short story, but who has a bigger role in the play. I prefer, though, seeing what interpretations other people have for the plays and their characters. That, to me, is one of the magical parts of theatre--when a director, actors, and technical crew come together with a script to make something that is, hopefully, a better version of the story being told than is necessarily even on the page.
I have tended in my writing to tell stories with a lot of dialogue at times. This may be because I cut my teeth writing for the stage. Once in a while, though, I can look at a prose piece and recognize that it not only tells the story with dialogue but has a common setting and limited characters. Those are elements that work well on the stage.
I am experimenting with adapting some of my short plays into short stories as well, since a few of them share a basic setting of West Virginia, as well as being set in the same "universe" as it were. They will likely appear in a future collection.
While I do a lot of performing, I have rarely appeared in my own work. When "...to a Flame" was produced, I did cameo as a voiceover in it, portraying my radio pal Rik Winston, who is only reference in the short story, but who has a bigger role in the play. I prefer, though, seeing what interpretations other people have for the plays and their characters. That, to me, is one of the magical parts of theatre--when a director, actors, and technical crew come together with a script to make something that is, hopefully, a better version of the story being told than is necessarily even on the page.
Eric Fritzius
I'm inspired to write all the time. However, actually sitting down and getting the work done often requires a deadline. That's how I tend to get things done.
Eric Fritzius
I didn't set out to write a book about monsters. I set out to collect a number of short stories. However, when assembling the collection, I knew I didn't want to name the collection after one of the stories featured. (It's kind of the same philosophy as musicians who refuse to name their album after a title of one of the songs on it, but choose something that fits the overall feel of the album.) The common denominator of the stories was the presence of either monsters within them, or, in some cases, humans who behave monstrously. And if you have a collection of monsters, you would then need a collective noun to describe them, no? That is the origin of the book.
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