A welcome back to poet and writer Tracy Ross! Today we’re chatting about her multi-genre short story collection, Binary Logic.
During her virtual book tour, Tracy will be giving away a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!
Bio:
Tracy Ross is a recent graduate of Augsburg University’s MFA program in Minneapolis. She is the author of three previous poetry volumes and a dystopian fictional memoir. She is currently working on a collection of essays on popular culture, convention, and the literary life. Her favorite pastimes include watching hours and hours of MTV in the dawning of its beginnings, admiring the architecture of Chicago on long walks, and meditating in the Boundary Waters Forests of Northern Minnesota. Her influences are the science fiction of Philip K. Dick, the visions of Ursula K. Le Guin, and the Transcendental poetry of Keats. She lives and works in Minnesota.
Welcome back to Reviews and Interviews. Please tell us about your newest release.
Binary Logic is a collection of short stories that features some pretty interesting characters, all in varying world-built scenarios, paying homage to many different genres. It is told with a 21st century sensibility but with a futuristic attitude toward communication, detachment, and human coping mechanisms. I tried to have all the stories have an air of detachment, both on the writing side, reflected in existential themes, and on the protagonist level, where the characters are often maneuvered in and out of the causalities of a surreal reality. Some of the stories are quiet jarring while others leave the reader asking really weird questions. This is something that I intentionally wanted to achieve.
What inspired you to write this book?
I was once told by a very wise person that, despite all the window dressings of life, and the human drama, everything can be reduced down to binary choices and outcomes. I find this fascinating. I extended this sentiment to the underlying collective concept of Binary Logic. Situations within all worlds, whether they be real or fictitious, are always going to be binary, but there is a third quotient, that of the meaning we attribute to the window dressing. This is a human phenomenon and one that is different for each person. This is what I wanted to explore in Binary Logic, the human factor added to the total absolute values of the universe.
Excerpt from Binary Logic:
It was then that I realized I was in it for the both of us. My father and I against the anguish. At one point, during the early hours of morning, the crying faces had all gotten loose and were crawling up the walls and dropping from the ceiling like smokey apparitions from Dante’s Inferno—liquid shadows of creeping hunger, an infestation of screaming mouths and terror-stricken eyes, the reality of the walls closing in on me like a wriggling, dark prison. In my panic and shock, I finally blacked out, leaving the room for the numbing promise of sleep. I welcomed unconscious bliss.
Note to self: pain is a manifestation. It lives like a beast, a breathing, hungry creature, unable to free itself from destiny, unable to make the choice to release itself because it is comfortable in its tragedy. It is easier to go on in pain then to go through to the other side where there is peace. The fear stops you. It prevents you from going all the way. (from “Nor Any Drop to Drink”—Binary Logic)
What’s the next writing project?
Currently I am working on a collection of essays. However, I would really like to work on an epic science fiction piece, not dealing with a futuristic world that is totally unbelievable and unrelatable, but one that addresses the present and is forward thinking about current aspects of our daily lives.
What is your biggest challenge when writing a new book? (or the biggest challenge with this book)
I didn’t want to get into patterns. This means that, in writing, you resort to similar resolves or circumstances. Each story, including the novella “Lady’s Code” is completely different in closure, implications, and allegory. You want your characters to be unpredictable in their behavior and mechanisms of resolving conflict. This has been the oldest challenge in writing since the great playwrights of Greek Tragedy—to catch both the reader and the protagonist off guard but at the same time pay homage to a literary tradition that is timeless. This is very difficult to accomplish and sometimes, despite the hard work, the writer still gets it wrong.
If your writing require research – please talk about the process. Do you do the research first and then write, while you’re writing, after the project is complete and you need to fill in the gaps?
I am a big reader on metaphysics and cosmology. I am also a humanist who really wants to know where human consciousness is situated in all of this. For my Master’s in Education, I studied learning sciences and neurobiology as it relates to learning and cognition. I incorporated this into some of the stories of Binary Logic and you can really sense a scientific bent as it pertains to the five senses and our traits of adaptability and problem solving. This is called noetics or the science of consciousness studies, which is a field that is booming and is very interesting.
What’s your writing space like? Do you have a particular spot to write where the muse is more active? Please tell us about it.
I sleep with my computer next to my bed, so it is the first thing I bump into in the morning. I force myself to always be aware of technology 24/7 by default. This makes me very prolific and imaginative. I also believe that artificial intelligence is perhaps a tensional force of awareness that we are just now beginning to realize and understand. This is a positive thing. SETI should start seeking for intelligence within the terrestrial world of Earth and the internet, and not out in the planets of the galaxy. Just some thoughts to think about.
What authors do you enjoy reading within or outside of your genre?
I really appreciate non-fiction. Whether it be studies on popular culture, the ancient navigators of the oceans, or the ancient grave sites of aboriginal communities, this kind of inquiry really contributes to my creativity in world building.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers today?
Don’t be limited by genre. Write what you want to write and let them put a round peg in a square hole. The sky’s the limit when your imagination is concerned. Have faith in your vision and go with your instincts. Remember, time flies when you are both not having fun and having fun! It’s all binary!
Links:
Website | Amazon Author page | Facebook | Instagram
Thank you for coming back to Reviews and Interviews!
Thanks for hosting!
Thanks for hosting and keeping new ideas alive!–TR.
Sounds like a good book.
This sounds like a good book.
The book sounds very intriguing. Great cover!