“You’re So Golden” by Shayla Frandsen appeared in Issue 46 and can be found here.
We’d love to hear more about this story.
I knew I wanted to write an odd little story about clones. Originally, the clones in the story were just going to be a random dude, but then I was like, let’s make it bigger, more pop culture-y, more bizarre. Why not clone one of the most famous pop stars in the world? Of course that’s what people would pay the big bucks for: the guy who dressed up as Dorothy on Halloween and won Album of the Year at the Grammy’s. I took out all the quotation marks from the dialogue because I wanted the story to feel almost like a fable, like this world is unreal, like you’re hearing it second or third hand. Regarding the dialogue, I also wanted it to be the slightest bit unclear upon first read which lines were spoken and which weren’t. I wanted to encourage readers to re-read the story, to hesitate on the dialogue, to take their time with it. I chuckled to myself every time I wrote something like “Alpha Harry” or “Tenth Harry” or referred to them collectively as “the Harry Styleses.” Ten Harry Styles clones, can you imagine? Fun fact: originally, I wrote this story about clones of the actor Chris Pine (my personal celebrity crush), but I changed him to Harry Styles because I figured more people would know who Harry Styles is than Chris Pine. I hope I’m wrong!
What was the most difficult aspect of writing this story?
Figuring out how much to reveal about this world was a balancing act. Originally, I had a whole section about CloneStar, the origins of cloning celebrities within this universe, and much more about the narrator’s family. Then I thought, I want this story to feel concise and a little mysterious. I want to reveal just barely enough that we understand what’s going on here. But then I worried I wasn’t giving readers enough to work with! I went back and forth on it. Luckily, cloning isn’t a super difficult concept to grasp (shout out to Dolly the sheep), and with society’s obsession with celebrity, I figured a few breadcrumbs would be more than enough to get readers on board. But it was definitely tricky to get it just right.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
Stag Dance by Torrey Peters upends and delights. It’s challenging, thought provoking, and so, so funny.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
Romance author (and fellow Reylo) Ali Hazelwood seems like she would be suuuuch a fun time.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
After several years of writing short fiction, I’m now trying to work the novel angle. I have a YA/dark academia/sapphic/historical murder mystery out on submission right now with my amazing and hard-working agent. A completed rom-com is waiting for its turn to go out on sub, and a new, almost-completed draft of a rom-com is bringing up the rear. Shout-out to anyone in the querying and submission trenches! I am right there with you.
Our thanks to Shayla for taking the time to answer a few questions and share this story. Read “You’re So Golden” here.
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Shayla Frandsen earned an MFA in fiction in Utah and an MA in English in New York City. Her writing can be found in New England Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Flash Frog, Pithead Chapel, and in other places, too. In 2024 she won first place in the Smokelong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction. In 2023 she won The Plentitudes Prize in Fiction and the Blue Earth Review Dog Daze Flash Fiction contest. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and the Pushcart Prize. Read more at shaylafrandsen.com.