“First Date” by Chloe Noland appeared in Issue 36 and can be found here.
We’d love to hear more about this story.
I started writing this in winter 2020, during the height of the pandemic. I was living alone in a studio apartment, going through a lot of changes in my job as well as personal life, and really taking a hard look at my choices over the last few years. In a way, the story for me is about coming out of the closet, and maybe not liking what you find. It’s about the ugliness of pleasure, of being equally scared of or appalled by what you find yourself attracted to. I’ve spent a lot of time pretending to enjoy things I don’t and downplaying my own interests, and I think this extreme metaphor was a way I found of talking about some of that.
What was the most difficult part in finishing this story?
The rewrites. The whole thing came out of me pretty organically, but it was over 9,000 words. I had to spend a lot of time cutting it down without losing the original flow and tension of the story.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
Daddy, by Emma Cline. Wonderful, slightly unnerving short stories.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
Aimee Bender or Lorrie Moore. Or Mary Gaitskill, although I’d be scared of her. These are all writers that made me question my reality from a young age, showed me that there’s nothing too strange or inappropriate that can’t be explored in a way that is still beautiful and literary and thoughtful. I’d love to pick their brains.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
Right now I’m working on a short novel, my first attempt! So that’s been exciting. I tend to have 4-5 projects going on at once that never get finished, so it’s nice to focus on one thing everyday, stay with the same characters. It’s teaching me a lot.
Our thanks to Chloe for taking the time to answer a few questions and share this story. Read “First Date” here: https://www.sequestrum.org/fiction-the-date.
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Chloe Noland is a fiction writer and information professional. She received her BA in Literature & Creative Writing from California College of the Arts, and her MLIS from San Jose State University. Her work has been previously published in Acid Free Magazine and Medium. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.