Interview with Charity Tahmaseb: Q3 2023 Creative Nonfiction Contest Runner Up

Charity Tahmaseb has slung corn on the cob for Green Giant and jumped out of airplanes (but not at the same time). She’s worn both Girl Scout and Army green. These days, she writes stories, both short and long, and works as a technical writer for a software company. She has a fondness for coffee, ghosts, and things fantastical. She blogs occasionally at writingwrongs.blog. 

interview by Marcia Peterson

WOW: Congratulations on your top ten win in our Q3 2023 Creative Nonfiction essay competition! What prompted you to enter the contest?

Charity: Thank you! I love the WOW contests, both flash fiction and creative nonfiction ones. They’re easy and fun to enter. Perhaps best of all is being able to submit previously published pieces. Those markets are rare, and I really appreciate that WOW allows that.

I’ve primarily written fiction, but I’m starting to explore creative nonfiction and memoir. Being able to enter the WOW essay contest helps me gauge whether these experiences of mine resonate with a larger audience. Flash—whether fiction or nonfiction—is a great way to test the waters, not only to see if a piece lands but how I feel about it landing.

WOW: I loved your entry, “Field Manual for Waiting” and felt like I was there with you in both situations. What inspired you to write this piece?

Charity: I’m not sure I can articulate why I wrote this particular piece, which might be why I needed to write it in the first place.

Something about these two events, which took place more than thirty years apart, became linked in my mind, and I’m hoping to explore this connection in longer works. I might even tackle a memoir, although this idea scares me a little—or, honestly, a lot.

WOW: Are you working on any writing projects right now? What’s next for you?

Charity: Well, there is that possible memoir. I’m still pondering that since what works in a short piece like “Field Manual for Waiting” might get tedious in a longer format. But this is definitely one of those slow projects that simmers on the back burner while I’m busy doing other things. It will let me know when it wants to be written.

The other project I’m working on is a supernatural suspense series about a small group of people protecting the world from a supernatural force that only they can perceive. It’s also about:

A woman with nothing to hide—except the truth—meets a man with nothing to lose—except his heart. And he’s just arrived in town to fire her.

So, yes, it might have a slow-burn romance as well. It’s one of those stories that’s also been simmering in my mind for a while.

WOW:  Sounds like a fun premise! Switching gears, you mention a fondness for ghosts and things fantastical. Can you tell us about that?

Charity: I do have a fondness for ghosts, and I think it’s linked to my fondness for history. (Because don’t all ghosts have a history?) I don’t watch much television, but I am guilty of binge-watching the UK version of Ghosts. I haven’t entirely warmed up to the US version, but I love the UK one. It’s silly, irreverent, and then, when you least expect it, surprisingly poignant.

One thing I like about fantasy and paranormal is it’s a way of grappling with issues—large and small, moral and ethical—in an engaging format. Come for the exciting story; stay for the thoughtful subtext.

WOW: Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Charity. Before you go, can you share a favorite writing tip or piece of advice?

Charity: One thing I do when I get stuck is to write about writing. Honestly, I often resist this particular exercise, thinking I don’t really need to do it. I’m always wrong, by the way. Longhand works well for me, but I don’t think it’s necessary. And, sometimes, I switch to my laptop because the dam opens, and suddenly, I have all the words.

I think this could also work for writers who dictate their stories—they could talk about writing into a recording device or with a friend. Acknowledging that there’s a barrier is one of the best ways of dismantling it.

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Interview with Charity Tahmaseb, 2nd Place Winner in the Winter 2019 Flash Fiction Contest

Charity Tahmaseb has slung corn on the cob for Green Giant and jumped out of airplanes (but not at the same time). She’s worn both Girl Scout and Army green.

These days, she writes fiction and works as a technical writer for a software company in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Her short fiction credits include stories in Deep Magic, Escape Pod, Cicada, and Pulp Literature. She’s been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize Award, and her first novel, The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading, was a YALSA 2012 Popular Paperback pick in the Get Your Geek On category. She has a fondness for coffee, ghosts, and things fantastical.

She blogs (at least) once a week at writingwrongs.blog.

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

Read Charity's touching love story, Steadfast, here and then return for an interview with the author!

WOW: “Steadfast” is a beautiful journey between two well-developed characters. How did you know when it was ready for submission?

Charity: I knew the story was done. That doesn’t necessarily mean it was ready for submission.

In 2013, I did a year of “write 1/submit 1” where I wrote a story each week and also sent one out, although not necessarily the same story. In fact, never the same story. My stories need to sit for a while before they go anywhere.

It was a fabulous exercise in both writing (and getting better at it) and submitting (and getting better at that). Researching markets and submitting stories is a skill that any writer can learn. It gets easier with time and practice.

As for "Steadfast," the initial inspiration came from a call for submissions for retellings of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. I started writing, then realized halfway through that it wasn’t a fantasy retelling and didn’t fit the submission guidelines.

So there it sat, half-finished for about six months. Then one day, I had the urge to revisit it. I let it be the contemporary retelling of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" that it wanted to be, and everything fell into place.

WOW: That's a great story! I love the idea of writing and writing and submitting a story each week. You are correct in that researching and finding appropriate places to submit a story are valuable skills every writer should learn. Along those same lines, you’ve had several stories published in magazines and literary journals. Is there a common theme you keep coming back to in your stories—or do you find yourself writing about a variety of topics?

Charity: My subject matter varies, sometimes a lot, but I think a common theme does run through my fiction. I like stories about connection. I was going to say connection between people, but some of my characters aren’t human.

I have stories about a girl and her clock, a girl and her wolf, a girl and her alien--the list goes on. The more unlikely the pairing, the more fun it is to write.

WOW: Working as a technical writer for a software company is vastly different than writing fiction! How do you split your time between the two?

Charity: I work full-time as a technical writer. I reserve my lunch hour for writing, and I can get a surprising amount accomplished in that time.

My other “trick” is not sleeping in on the weekends. I get up as if I’m heading to work, but instead, I spend those early morning hours working on my fiction. It helps that the rest of my family loves to sleep in. Most weekend mornings, it’s just the cat and me.

WOW: I'm impressed by your discipline! You know how to blow the "I don't have time to write excuses out of the water!" You’ve published a YA novel, The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading, which won an award in 2012. Where did you get the inspiration for that story?

Charity: It was one of those “inspired by real life” stories. No kidding! In high school, I spent a single season as a varsity cheerleader. Truthfully, I wasn’t all that great at it, although I still managed to letter (how is a mystery, but I did).

It all started one cold day in November during French class when my friend Amy turned to me and asked, “Have you ever tried out for cheerleading?”

Fast forward a few decades (!) later. I mentioned to my friend Darcy how I thought the premise of a relatively geeky girl making the cheerleading squad could be a really fun YA novel.

She replied with: “If you don’t write it, I will.”

In the end, we wound up writing it together.

WOW: I love that. My own teenage daughter is a STEM girl and runner but does not consider herself coordinated enough for cheer. I'll have to pass your book along to her! Your project “Coffee and Ghosts” sounds fascinating! Could you tell us a little more about it, and where readers can learn more?

Charity: "Coffee and Ghosts" is the project of my heart. It’s a quirky, niche sort of project that can exist because of indie publishing.

It all started as the short story "Ghost in the Coffee Machine" (first published in Coffee: 14 Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic). I’d previously done a great deal of research into ghosts for a novel that never went anywhere. I remembered a tidbit about catching ghosts in mason jars, and another aside about ghosts liking coffee (I don’t know if they do, but it sounded reasonable).

From there, my ghost catcher Katy, her grandmother, and rival Malcolm were born.

A few years later, I had the inspiration to write more stories in the "Coffee and Ghosts" world. Initially, I was going to write stand-alone stories, but a larger arc soon appeared, and I had three “seasons” on my hands. I like to think of "Ghost in the Coffee Machine" as the pilot episode for the series.

While I’ve written an entire series about ghosts, I don’t read horror. It scares me. Or rather, it scares me too much. So the stories in the Coffee and Ghosts world are just a little bit scary, a little bit romantic, and hopefully a lot of fun.

This summer, the entire series is being produced in audio with award-winning narrator Amy McFadden.

You can read more about the project (and try the first season for free) here: https://writingwrongs.blog/coffee-ghosts/.

WOW: Coffee AND ghosts? You are a writer after my own heart! I look forward to checking out the first season if this fun project. Thank you so much for being here today and giving us such valuable insight on your work and writing process!

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