Welcome Tam May
Gnarled Bones and Other Stories explores five tales of loss, fear, and guilt where strange and spooky events impact people’s lives in ways that are profound and unchangeable.
In “Mother of Mischief” a newly divorced woman goes back to school to begin a new chapter of her life only to find herself circling back to where she started. In “Bracelets”, childhood nostalgia mingles with brutal fear during a circus outing for a mailroom secretary and her friends. In “A First Saturday Outing”* a lonely woman ventures out of her isolated apartment one quiet Saturday afternoon to an art exhibit that leaves an eerie impression on her psyche*. In “Broken Bows” a middle-aged violinist reveals the mystery behind his declining artistic powers to a lonely woman on a train. And the title story, “Gnarled Bones,” paints a portrait of the complex bond between an orphaned sister and brother through journal entries and first-person narrative. For these characters, the past leaves its shadow on the present and future.
* This story was featured on Whimsy Gardener’s Storytime With Whimsey and can be found here.
Gnarled Bones and Other Stories is available in paperback and ebook now on Amazon
Tam, what do you love
about this book?
I love to explore characters from the inside out and in Gnarled Bones and Other Stories, I
really tried to go as deep as possible into each character to discover what
happened to them in the past that affected them and those around them. I see a
character as a tapestry with many threads that need to be woven together to
create the picture of who he or she is, always an incomplete picture, of course.
I have a very long way to go with my writing, but I feel like this book helped
me take those first baby steps.
~Lisa: Sounds like excellent practice!
Introduce us to
your most troublesome character.
Wow, that’s a tough one because I think all of the characters in the
book are troublesome to some degree J. I guess if I had
to choose, it would be Blaze from “Broken Bows.” He’s a middle-aged man with
the face of a boy, a man-child, a former child protégée violinist who learned
the value of performance art at an early age but whose more morose and
understated style was oppressed by his father’s theater-dad approach to his son’s
career. He was tough for me to write about because he kept so much hidden
within himself. Like most artists, much of his pain and fear and joy went into
his music rather than in his behavior. I had to unearth that, alibi in an
incomplete way. But maybe it paid off, as I’ve had two readers tell me that
“Broken Bows” is their favorite story and they would love to see the story
expanded into something longer.
Share two things
you learned about yourself, your setting, or the
publishing world while writing this book.
One thing I learned about myself is that I tend to have a strange way of
associating words, images, and emotions. Once the stories were finished and I
gave them to my critique group and a professional editor, I got a lot of
feedback along the lines of “I’m not seeing this” or “I’m not sure I get this”
or “this is confusing”. Then I read Sally Cline’s biography on Zelda Fitzgerald
and realized my strange associations are part of my personal style and voice.
At the same time, I am writing for an audience. Some things I changed, some I
deleted, and some I kept, based on what was right for the story and the mood.
The second thing I learned was about my setting. I set most of my stories
in the San Francisco Bay Area because it’s where I really found myself as a
person and as a writer. I learned that I had absorbed much more of the area
than I thought. I lived mostly in San Francisco itself, a little in the East
Bay, but I made a lot of weekend trips in the area. I wasn’t looking at
anything specific, but I absorbed much more than I thought, since you tend to
take a place you live in for granted. I learned that the redwood trees that are
so typical of the area have a lot of spiritual meaning for me.
~Lisa: I love it when I can squeeze out those little details that add zest to the story and pour something into my soul. I don't think I'll ever forget my visit to the forest out there a few years ago.
What are you
reading now?
I tend to read several books at once and I love reading classic
literature. Currently, I’m just finishing up the collected works of Jane Bowles
called My Sister’s Hand In Mine. I’m
actually rereading it because I discovered Bowles several years ago and read
her work and was fascinated by it. I’m also reading one of Virginia Woolf’s
earlier novels, Night and Day. And
I’m reading a biography of Truman Capote.
~Lisa: I never realized how versatile Capote was until we read his Christmas story in a book club. I listened to him read it on public radio, which was fascinating.
What's next for
you?
Next for me are several works. I’m just about finished with the first
rounds of revisions for the first book of my Waxwood series, The Order of Actaeon, and I’m giving
chapters to my wonderful critique group for feedback to help me with the next
round of revisions. I’m just about to start the first draft for the second book
of the series, The Claustrophobic Heart.
I’m also working on another book called House
of Masks, which I started during National Novel Writing Month last year.
~Lisa: best wishes--sounds fascinating and I'll be watching.
About Tam May
Tam May was born in Israel but grew up in America. She has
a BA and MA in English and worked as a teacher before becoming a full-time
writer. She started writing when she was 14 and writing became her voice. She writes
dark psychological fiction about characters from the inside out. She currently lives in Texas but calls San Francisco and
the Bay Area home. When she’s not writing, she’s reading classic literature and
watching classic films.
My review:
As mentioned above, this collection of five short stories is
based around the cyclic theme of the past affecting the present and future.
Told with abruptness, the stories rely on faceted reflections of characters, a
little piece of the soul that reaches out to influence the atmosphere around
them.
May’s language is rich and nuanced. Some of the pet phrases
I particularly liked include “learned to watch for the beginning of the pose”
in Mother of Mischief, as the title character cared for her hoodlum little
brothers; “Mickey found a list of one hundred greatest books when he was
fourteen and was reading through it ever since.” That tells a fine tale of the
character. Places in California like the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco’s
Golden Gate Park came to mind when mentioned, although the lack of details
would render the reference meaningless to someone who hadn’t been there.
Likewise, Muir Park, the frame for Gnarled Bones. The longest and most
developed story is Broken Bow, the violinist trying not to descend into
dementia with his aged father. The narrator got on the train, and breathed the “steam
of progress, blood, and freedom,” which helped set the scene and pace. The title
piece was a bit of oddity, a sort of Poe-esque quality of people you think are
probably out there, but whom you hope never to meet, about siblings so close
they “stared at each other” through their separating bedroom wall after their
parents died. A sister’s kiss is sure to be the cure for the brother’s illness;
a kiss on his cheek would bring him back to her.
The short collection is for those who like a tiny trip
through a back alley. It reminded me of watching the evening street people from
the fourth floor of a downtown San Francisco Hotel, a microcosm of the lost and
lonely seeking purpose and fulfillment.
