BCC Shines a Light On: Jeff Adams
Name of the piece published by BCC:
When/where was it originally published:
Otoliths, 2021
Tell us more about your piece! What is the background of the piece? What led you to write it? What’s your process?
My wife and I had traveled to attend a family wedding in Newport, Rhode Island. On an open day, we visited friends who lived in Massachusetts, and who were moving to a new property along the coast. The property was located at the mouth of a river feeding into the Atlantic Ocean. Its land descended right to the river’s edge, and the house, located quite a distance uphill, was under renovation. We walked down to the river’s edge and back, encountering discarded chunks of broken headstones, rebar, unwanted statuary, a rusted out VW van, other stuff—essentially, the place was a dump of unwanted, useless things. It made quite an impression on me, and I used much of what was there for scenic purposes, but also as a basis for a story. The effort was my way to give the property a human history, along with a female narrator, both of which came naturally to me, and in unexplained ways, which made writing it a ton of fun. I just let it fly.
How did you feel when it was first published and how have your thoughts or feelings on the piece changed from then to now?
I was thankful that an editor read it cold and felt it was worthwhile to share with his readers. The experience added to my trust in pure imagination as a source of storytelling. As I go along, the indelible imagery I accumulate, and the impressions I draw from them, are necessary to my writing. I keep a quote from Lorrie Moore close by:
“So much about having a manuscript accepted is just out of your hands: the blood sugar level of a reader, the slant of light across a page, some personal event in an editor’s life that connects them profoundly with something you’ve written on page three. Who knows? There’s nothing you can do but write the best book you can.”
Lorrie Moore, the Paris Review, Art of Fiction 167
Is there a specific message you would like readers to take away from reading this piece?
If a reader “gets” something from what I write, that is a bonus as far as I am concerned. As for “The Stonecutter’s Wife” I would say that in putting down the words I have learned to better accept life’s imperfections, and maybe find inspiration from them. I would love to know what your readers think of it.
What else would you like to tell readers about your writing? (Doesn’t have to refer only to your BCC piece)
I see stories as entertainment, which affects how I might approach writing a story. In that sense I am not a slave to structure or style (other than making the writing as good as I can), and I enjoy a certain amount of experimentation. However a story comes out, I want a reader to be somehow fulfilled that their time was well spent.
Where can readers find more of your work? (Website/social media, etc)
I believe I am getting enough published material to consider a website, but at the same time I am happy to just keep writing and let things fall where they may. If my work gets more noticed and a website seems like a good idea, I’ll consider it. If anyone enjoyed reading “The Stonecutter’s Wife” and wants another story of mine inspired by something from my real life, I would refer them to “The Sensible Gardener” in an online journal called Anti-Heroin Chic. The opening incident, a chance encounter with a possum in the night, happened to me.
