An interview with Ana Raphael
Author of "The Snake Guy"
Hello, Callers! Thank you for being here.
Cold Caller Magazine is a review of crime and mystery fiction. And one of the real pleasures of being a “review” is being able to publish an assortment of authors at every stage of their writing careers.
It’s our delight that, in the same month we publish someone with as long-and-storied a history as Michael Bracken, we also get to introduce to the world to new talent like Ana Raphael, whose story “The Snake Guy” was her first published work of short fiction.
We talked to Raphael about her writing, her inspirations, and what to do when a friend tells you to make your story “more French.”
COLD CALLER MAGAZINE: The first thing that caught my attention about your story was the sense of humor in the opening. That’s kind of a bold gambit, because humor is such a subjective thing to begin with. Was this always where your story opened, or something that emerged during revision? How did you know this was the right way to introduce these two characters?
ANA RAPHAEL: First of all, thanks so much for including me.
The story was originally called “The Herpetophile,” so the opening was pretty much that way from the get go. It definitely felt right to start with some essential lack of understanding between the two of them. They come from very different places.
The particulars of Jean’s “freelancing” are somewhat unclear, but you provide the reader with enough detail to understand the stakes. How do you decide what to reveal and what to conceal about your characters?
I try not to spoon feed too much. It should be pretty clear that Jean’s done some shady things, but I think it’s best if readers are unsure how bad she’s willing to get.
When did you start writing fiction? What has your path as a writer looked like since then?
I’ve always written—some fiction but mostly poetry, which turned out to be pretty silly, so I stopped doing that. This is my first published story, so I guess the path has been bad, unpublished verse to Cold Caller Magazine.
What have you found the most useful in terms of developing your craft as a writer? Is there anything you’ve found especially unhelpful?
Reading a lot of books is essential. Listening to everyone has been important for me. Also reading drafts out loud has really improved a lot of stories, especially when they’re dialogue heavy.
As for unhelpful, a friend once told me that a story should be “more French.” It had nothing to do with setting or characters or language. I thought maybe she meant cigarettes and despair, but that wasn’t quite it, either. It wasn’t a good story, though, so maybe she was right about everything.
What was your revision process like for this story? Were the big plot beats pretty well in place after the first draft, or were there any big changes?
The arc of the near-love affair was in place from the beginning, and I knew the snake would both bring them together and tear them apart. I think the mechanical details (the gastroenterologist, the improv class) came in revision.
Anders is such an odd character, and yet he seems to be the only person in this story with any kind of real moral code (albeit a code that mostly has to do with the moral treatment of snakes). He also seems like a fun character to write. What inspired him?
In a lot of romcoms, there’s a point early in the movie where the heroine is set up with a guy who we are supposed to see as an obvious nightmare right off the bat. So I think I was playing with that idea a bit. Turns out (like you say) Anders is the only halfway decent person in the story: he cares about human rights and reptiles, and he’s open to the possibility of love.
I don’t think he’d be quite right for me, however.
What writers have influenced you the most?
I read all of Amy Tan’s novels multiple times when I was younger. I still love her, and I’ve never cared about characters more than I cared about, say, June or Winnie.
Not too long ago, I read The Mongolian Conspiracy, by Rafael Bernal, which really changed the way I looked at thrillers and crime fiction, a genre I’d been pretty ignorant about. Bernal manages to put so much motion and humour into such a grim and morally bleak landscape.
What stories or projects are you working on now that you’re most excited about?
I just finished a novel. It’s got a lot of mother-daughter action in it. I don’t think it’s much like Amy Tan, but I’m sure she’s in there somewhere. Hoping for the best.
Ana Raphael is a writer from Toronto.