Interview with Amy Lynn Hardy, Runner Up in the WOW! Spring 2024 Flash Fiction Contest

 

Amy Lynn Hardy is a high school foreign language teacher and a staff writer for Buffalo Spree magazine. Her work has also appeared in Huffington Post, Insider, and others. From 2011-2022, Amy resided and worked in the windy port city of Bremerhaven, Germany and traveled all around Europe, enjoying many amazing places and cuisines. Amy’s hobbies include fitness, hiking, gardening, traveling, cooking, reading, and of course writing. She is currently on draft seven (million) of her début novel, working on a film screenplay with loads of dramedy, and crafting shorter pieces to learn to better kill her darlings. To read more of Amy’s work visit amylynnhardyauthorsite.com and give her a follow on Instagram @amylynnhardy_author. 

----------Interview by Renee Roberson

WOW: Hello, Amy, and welcome! You've been a finalist in the WOW! contests several different times before placing with "Things Lose Their Shape During Pregnancy." What was it about this story that you think resonated so much with our judges? 

Amy: First off, not being a Top 10 those other times made me really ambitious. I've wanted to place in a WOW contest for at least four years. I brought this particular piece to my writing workshop group - they offered great feedback and helped me tweak some of the wording and helped me give it an edge. It went from mild to zesty! I also think the twist at the end earned some love. I had a good feeling going in with this one. It was strong, told a quick story, and had universal truths strewn in there. I think also perhaps some of the judges saw themselves in Chloe Butler. 

WOW: Kudos to you for your determination, and for doing the work of doing a peer review. Those can be so helpful! You mentioned a love of reading in your bio. What are some of your favorite genres to read? 

Amy: I find this question as hard to answer as "what music do you like?" Because I read so many genres. I like stories rooted in reality (okay so maybe I'm not exactly a fantasy or sci-fi gal, but I do read them occasionally). The story has to make me feel something - outrage, sorrow, grief, joy, hope. I like when the characters we hate get a chance at redemption. I like when good characters learn something about themselves that surprises them and stretches them. A good memoir can be life-changing for me in the same way (I'm thinking Cheryl Strayed's "Wild" or Amra Sabic-Al-Reyess' "The Cat I Never Named"). All of Brené Brown's work and research has made me a more compassionate human. These all include stories that bring the strongest of us down to our knees. She calls her work "data with a soul," and I love that. Gotta add here that I ALSO love a good rom-com in which I know I'll get a happy ending. They are great for the commute to and from work! 

WOW: Variety is the spice of life, and I'm very similar when it comes to my tastes in music and literature. I love the part of your bio where you say you are crafting shorter pieces to learn better to "kill your darlings." Could you expand on this to share what you've learned through this process? 

Amy: Writing is such a serpentine process. I call my first drafts my "vomit versions" because I get everything out there, all over the place. At times lacking in structure or even a true idea of what the piece may be. Then the killing begins, but at first it's more like... shaving or scalping (so sorry for these violent metaphors!). I shave off. Then add new skin or layers. Or find more unique or specific ways to convey what I intend to say. Sometimes I cut out a whole hunk of a darling because it no longer works and is weighing the piece down. It takes me MANY drafts to feel satisfied with a completed version of a piece, and even then... well, I will catch awkward phrasing or an incorrect gerund. 

Writing short pieces truly forces any writer to shave down their work to the most important parts, and then craft and build with intention from there. Nowadays, I can kill the darlings without much pain; sometimes it's a slaughter, sometimes I take their bones or DNA to make something better. Sometimes I save the darlings' arms and legs for other future pieces. Once I had to get rid of an entire character in a screenplay, which meant combining two characters into one. #DrFrankenstein 

I think what it comes down to is this: if there is a moment where the author him/herself is thinking: "this is dragging," "this is clunky," or is taken out of a piece by a word, paragraph, line of dialogue, it has to go (or be reworked) without much sentimentality. No darling truly dies; they can be recycled or placed elsewhere, and that's important to know. It can turn out to be a completely different piece than the OG draft, and that's a beautiful thing! I also have very honest friends who will tell me if a darling needs to die, even if I particularly love that darling. 

WOW: Great points. We've all had our Frankenstein drafts! Your website mentions several fun writing projects you're currently working on. Could you share some more details about those with us? 

Amy: My pleasure! I'm always working on something: long, short, fiction, non-fiction. My novel "All The Things We Carry," which I would label as a women's-upmarket-fictional-drama-and-rom-com is the current love of my life. Think of it as a love story between my protagonists Allie and Mitch, with hues of addiction, women's roles in academia, betrayal, and forgiveness. It is in what feels like the millionth incarnation. I hope to query agents in 2025! Yay! 

My partner Justin Karcher and I have written a fictional screenplay based on some family drama I experienced when returning from Germany to the USA. Sophie must choose between following her heart or doing what her family wants her to do. That was fun to write and hash out - even if the drama was... not fun. 

My dear friend Michael Kopalek and I have written a comedic novella based on Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice," but transformed it into a modern day time period and retitled it "The Merchant of Texas." It is told from the alternating perspectives of Jessica and Antonio while their besties Portia and Bassanio, respectively, fall in love. Both characters are total drama queens, and (we've been told) have laugh-out-loud narrative styles. 

Last, but not least, a play entitled "The Vasectomy Diaries" about women's reproductive rights. When our protagonist undergoes a shocking ectopic pregnancy, her partner decides to get a vasectomy, and suddenly HE is the hero. It goes ad absurdum, as he is lauded privately, publicly, invited to talk shows, featured in the NY Times, etc... for his "brave" choice. I'll keep the rest a surprise! 

And a new multi-perspective novel about a writing retreat in Vermont is also "on its way." 

WOW: Those all sound like fascinating projects, thank you for sharing! As someone who lived in Germany for 11 years before returning to the United States, what advice would you give people hoping to travel or live abroad so they can enhance their experience? 

Amy: Travel and learn as much as you can about other places. So many Americans would have a broader worldview if they would do this! 

Stay in one place - a city, a country - for a longer amount of time. A week. A Month. Half a year. I know as Americans we are trained to have this FOMO and do 12 European cities in two weeks, but this doesn't give anyone a fair chance to have true experiences. And it's absolutely exhausting. There are ways to go to certain places for a longer time without spending a fortune, too: Work Away, WWOOFing, teaching some little brats English for a month. You can stay a month or longer and really get into the culture. You'll come back with stories: good, bad, crazy, scary, hilarious - and this is so much more worth it than "city-hopping." Eat good food, learn some basic phrases, walk as much as you can, and talk to people. 

Honestly, it doesn't matter where you go because you will learn and grow in many ways. BUT if you want some location tips from someone who lived in Europe many times for a total of 12.5 years: Groningen, Netherlands; Annecy, France; Biarritz, France; San Sebastian, Spain; Tübingen or Freiburg, Germany; and the entire country of MONTENEGRO!!!

Enjoy!