“Empty Eyes”, a short story by Dev Jannerson, appeared in Issue 29 and can be read here.
We’d love to hear more about Empty Eyes.
Aside from the Thing itself–which, yes, is a real roadside attraction–I began this story with two inspirations: the classic short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe and the 2001 film Donnie Darko. Like Poe, I wanted to portray a terrible man who gets away with his misdeeds but can’t run from his own conscience. While Abe is a spikier character than Donnie Darko, I sought to recreate that movie’s spooky sense of uncertainty. My story raises more questions than it answers; for one, is the monster supernatural or psychological? Is it less of a horror story either way?
What was the most difficult part in writing this story?
The most difficult part of “Empty Eyes” was making the narrator, the dishonest Abe, both loathsome and absolutely normal. I want readers to hate him but also be reminded of people they know, of powerful men no one bothers to challenge.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
This is the hardest possible question, so I’ll go with the best book I’ve read in the last month: Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson. It’s a riveting YA about a teenage girl escaping a violent superstar, and it’s inspired by the victims of R. Kelly.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
Lane Moore, the essayist of How to Be Alone, would likely be my first choice. Moore is incisive when it comes to exploring PTSD, but she is also extremely funny, and I think I would find her as entertaining and profound as I did her book. My other top contender is Jaclyn Moriarty, an Australian author whose work I have followed since I was a kid. I love the colorful details in her work and the way she weaves different perspectives together in each novel, whether it’s for children, teens, or adults.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
Currently, I’m seeking a literary agent for a contemporary YA novel-in-verse about facing depression and family secrets while at college. I’m also drafting a suspense novel about a chronically ill teenager who investigates her brother’s suspicious death.
Our thanks to Dev for taking the time to answer a few questions and share “Empty Eyes”. Read Dev’s story here: https://www.sequestrum.org/fiction-empty-eyes.
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Dev Jannerson is the author of the queer YA novel The Women of Dauphine (NineStar Press, 2019), which was praised by Kirkus Reviews and was a finalist in the 2019 Best Book Awards’ in the Fiction: LGBTQ category. Jannerson also has two collections of poetry, Rabbit Rabbit (Finishing Line Press, 2016) and Thanks for Nothing (Finishing Line Press, 2018); the latter was a finalist for the Golden Crown Award. They have written viral articles for Bitch magazine; won short prose contests with The Writer, So to Speak, and The Flexible Persona; and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. They live in New Orleans with their wife.