The Next Big Thing continues. Kara Vernor was tagged by Michael David Lukas.

What is your working title of your book (or story)? She Could Maybe Lift a Car (a chapbook of short shorts)

Where did the idea come from for the book? Each story sprang from a different idea, though several were sparked by memories of the TV shows I watched in the '80s. 

What genre does your book fall under? Literary flash fiction.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Many of the female characters are young and a mix of heroic and tragic. Jennifer Lawrence comes to mind because of her role in "Winter's Bone." For the men, someone pretty-ugly, like Joel Kinnaman from the show "The Killing."

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?   A flash fiction chapbook with stories about potential, restlessness, the influence of '80s television, sex, beer, feminism, blood, alienation and desperation.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I hope it will be published by a small press.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? Two years.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? My stories are similar in style to many of the flash writers published by Rose Metal Press, the female writers in particular. 

Who or what inspired you to write this book? I was inspired by flash journals such as Quick Fiction, Wigleaf, Smokelong Quarterly, and Necessary Fiction, and as well by many flash writers: Stephanie Freele, Kathy Fish, Elizabeth Ellen and John Jodzio come to mind. Discovering writers and markets I appreciate and "get" made me think they might "get" me back.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest? Maybe some of the individual titles? Here are those of the '80s-themed stories: "Don Johnson Is Not Your Man"; "The True Love of Magnum P.I."; and"David Hasselhoff Is From Baltimore".

Kara tags Dave Dulberg, who will post next about his novel, Makeshift.

Check out Thaisa Frank's discussion of her novel in progress, currently entitled Light and Transient Causes. Great title -- find out from where it came, and from where her idea for it came. (Hint: "pneumatic tube of the imagination" is involved.) Thaisa also provides a great definition of literary fiction.

Ilana Simons is an amazing writer who I met through the publication of one of her beautiful short stories years back. She's also a psychotherapist, teacher, and painter. Oh, also a marathoner. She's the author of the wonderful A Life of One’s Own: A Guide to Better Living through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf (Penguin Press, August 2007).

Currently she's working on a novel with the working title (today) of Is Clara Burns a Narcissist? I'm fascinated by the sounds of this work-in-progress and appreciate her generosity in sharing her process. Example: I’m a psychologist who doesn’t like being in therapy but trusts that my disciplined routine of fiction writing taps and organizes my unconscious.

Check out her share. Extra bonus: photos and art.

More of The Next Big Thing soon, with Thaisa Frank next!