Elizabeth Victoria Aldrich--where do I even begin? She's smart, talented, and has a big ol' heart. She's like a character right out of a Godard film. I met Elizabeth on Twitter before I read anything she had ever written. The first story I read was 92ND STREET SPEEDHEART published at Expat Press.
Sometimes you read a short story by someone and it's so good you have to read it twice and then a third time. Her work is punk rock raw like early Ramones or Nirvana's first show with Dave Grohl--there's a chaotic, yet gentle energy in her stories which give me a jolt followed by a melancholy come down. Her more sentimental work reminds me of the early short stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald-- you just feel the love splattered over every sentence.
Expat Press will be releasing Elizabeth's first book, Ruthless Little Things, later this year and that's one of the books I'm looking forward to the most. In addition to being a talented writer, she is also very supportive of other writers, and her eagerness is so contagious that I've bought many newly released books based on her recommendations on Twitter.
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Wrapping my arm around someone else's, my head near or in their armpit. When I do that and the world disappears.
2. What is your greatest fear?
My manuscript.
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Laziness.
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Not being able to refrain from being a malicious asshole. Not being able to tell someone else how they feel.
5. Which living person do you most admire?
Elle Nash is really cool. Michelle Tea. Genie the feral child.
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
I have an $80 pillowcase, $125 eyeshadow palette.. I splurge and get one expensive thing over a bunch of cheap shit every time. Which is weird now that I am poor, because I'll go to the grocery store wearing a thousand dollars worth of leather to use my EBT card.
7. What is your current state of mind?
This question always makes me feel like the Mr. Krabs meme. I am naked under a blanket and listening to a train outside.
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
I don't know, I think it's good people still have any virtues.
9. On what occasion do you lie?
I don't lie unless I'm getting paid to, and I've retired.
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
I dislike it when people ask me to fix my skin. I don't care if you get uncomfortable knowing I have lived through hell.
11. Which living person do you most despise?
Tracy Lyn Goldman, or at least the 2018 version of her.
12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
Intensity. Chillness. Liking Bikini Kill.
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Weirdness. Rage. Eloquence.
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Neon
Like omg!
Fire analogies
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Love. Like that Pulp song.
16.When and where were you happiest?
The last time I cuddled someone, so about ten minutes ago.
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
Necromancy.
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Bitch, I'm perfect.
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Cocaine Doom with James Krendal-Clark. Also just being alive in general.
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A persimmon.
21.Where would you most like to live?
San Francisco or Toronto.
22. What is your most treasured possession?
Signed books. Stolen underwear.
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Life rendering the person you love the most into someone you can't recognize anymore.
24.What is your favorite occupation?
Being a loyal agent. Super villain. Girlfriend. Lone wolf.
It was fun being paid to masturbate.
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
I have no idea. People say I'm ridiculous, but I think people who don't follow their heart are the ridiculous ones.
26. What do you most value in your friends?
Just fucking be yourself.
27. Who are your favorite writers?
Michelle Tea, Laurie Weeks, Andrea Dworkin, Andrea Lambert, Manuel Marrero, James Nulick, Fawzy Zablah, Amber Dawn, Lynn Breedlove, Damien Ark, and this one twitter account I think is actually a bot @FAKEGIRL501.
28. Who is your hero of fiction?
Rose from Rose of No Man's Land.
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Sometimes I feel like Edie Sedgwick in Ciao! Manhattan. Brain damaged and reminiscing and needing help all the time.
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
My dad.
31. What are your favorite names?
Julian. Eris.
32. What is it that you most dislike?
The banal.
33. What is your greatest regret?
I left someone to save my life and escape hell. So, the one regret I do have is also the reason I am still alive.
34. How would you like to die?
Deliriously or cold air clear skies lucid.
Talking to a dead person I miss.
35. What is your motto?
Never settle for anything less than passionate.
No comments:
Post a Comment