{"id":1314,"date":"2021-11-12T10:21:25","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T10:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/?p=1314"},"modified":"2022-03-29T14:57:51","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T13:57:51","slug":"interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Dead Relatives author Lucie McKnight Hardy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Lucie McKnight Hardy is a writer of novels and short stories. She has lived in Wales, Liverpool, Cardiff, Zurich and Bradford and is now based in Herefordshire with her family. McKnight Hardy spent her childhood in West Wales and is a Welsh Speaker. Rural Wales also formed the setting of her first novel Water Shall Refuse Them <\/em>which was published in 2019 by Dead Ink.<\/em> Set during the summer heatwave of 1976 Water Shall Refuse Them <\/em>is about sixteen-year-old Nif and her family who move to a small village on the Welsh borders following the accidental drowning of her sister and, when things begin to unravel, Nif starts to develop her own form of witchcraft. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Dark rituals and rural settings are also to be found in McKnight Hardy\u2019s new book Dead Relatives and other stories <\/em>published in 2021 by Dead Ink which we talk to her about today.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Northern Short Story Festival: Because of the multiple nature of short story collections it\u2019s difficult to ask you where the idea for this collection comes from because there isn\u2019t just one! Lots of these short stories were written and published a while ago \u2013 before your first novel even \u2013 and some are more recent. So, I suppose my first question is twofold: to what extent was working on this collection a little bit like listening back to an old playlist in that it immediately transports you back to an old headspace, and then following on from that how much of your everyday life or fears or anxieties are channelled into these stories, without sounding too clich\u00e9. I suppose what I mean is if you ever read an old story back do you ever think \u2018wow, I was really working through something there\u2019? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Lucie McKnight Hardy: When I\u2019m writing these short stories, I do tend to bring a lot of myself to them in that I think if you\u2019re writing dark fiction of horror you need to plumb the depths of your own fears if you\u2019re hoping to instil strong emotions in the reader. There\u2019s no point writing about things that you don\u2019t find scary or upsetting \u2013 I don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to do justice to the subject. But, having said that, a lot of the stories do cover things which I find deeply upsetting \u2013 like awful things happening to children for example \u2013 and I suppose that\u2019s a case of my exploring my deepest fears. But I wouldn\u2019t want to overthink this and say that it\u2019s some sort of therapeutic catharsis \u2013 I\u2019m conscious that I\u2019m writing for a reader and not for myself. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re as introspective as a lot of other writers would be. In the case of putting together the collection it was really a case of me finishing the novel and really wanting to keep on writing (I\u2019d been writing the novel as part of my MA) and also wanting a change of form. Short stories are a lot more immediate, obviously the payback comes a lot quicker. With a short story I tend to know whether it\u2019s going to work within the first thousand words or so. With a novel \u2013 and I know this from my own personal experience \u2013 you can have the rug pulled from underneath your feet after maybe twenty thousand words. So, yes, short stories are much more immediately gratifying and I went to them after writing the novel \u2013 I just wanted to get them out there! I had a hit list of publishers I wanted to target and it was quite nice to have a challenge like that after the long slog of writing the novel.<\/p>\n

So, then Water Shall Refuse Them <\/em>was published in July 2019 and I quite liked this being published thing, I thought \u2018I want to do it again!\u2019. I had a look through my short stories, and I thought you know, there\u2019s a definite theme in here. And there is a lot of darkness and death and decay so I came up with the title Dead Relatives <\/em>which seemed to fit all the stories together under a theme because I think linked collections of short stories are much more affective. I pitched this idea to Dead Ink and they really liked it. Because I\u2019d called the collection Dead Relatives and other stories <\/em>I had to come up with the title story which I hadn\u2019t written. Most of the other stories had already been written, and some published. I\u2019d already had a bit of a hit and miss with a story that I\u2019d previously called Dead Relatives. <\/em>It wasn\u2019t really going anywhere but I liked the title so much I wanted to call the collection that so I gave myself the task of thinking about what evokes the idea of dead relatives. I went down the path of the graveyard, but cemeteries are a bit clich\u00e9. There are letters but I\u2019m not really one for epistolary stories. And then I thought about photographs, and that\u2019s what informed the title story, the novella Dead Relatives. <\/em>So it gave that story its title but it also served to pull the whole collection together.<\/p>\n

NSSF: Dead Relatives <\/em>is really the star of the show, and it does draw all of these themes together. What I got from the collection were anxieties around motherhood, and babies, and silence and things that are unsaid. What kind of themes do you find you are drawn to and what draws you to a theme in the first place? <\/strong><\/p>\n

LMKH: I think motherhood and the female body tend to crop up a lot in my stories and I think that that\u2019s purely because, as a mother of three, that is something that concerns me on a daily basis. It\u2019s all consuming really so it\u2019s natural that it will make its way into my writing. The other themes that come out of the stories are this idea of not belonging, and peculiar communities and rituals. I think that possibly comes from growing up in a rural community myself, the daughter of Londoners who moved to Wales when I was two, so there is this idea of belonging but not quite belonging.<\/p>\n

NSSF: I like this idea of ritual and I can see that as a theme in your other work. I know there is a lot of witchcraft and ritual in your novel and I like that as a kind of darker twin to domestic life because that\u2019s also so filled with ritual and routine and I like that it\u2019s subverted or mirrored. Certainly, in Dead Relatives<\/em>\u00a0the main character Iris develops her own dark rituals which offset the daily routines of the house. These are all dark stories and in many of them there is this domestic violence, which is sometimes quite viscerally, squirmily, playfully macabre. I can only describe the way I read The Pickling Jar<\/em> as gleeful which sounds odd, but I just thought it was wonderfully gross. But sometimes the gore is connected to these really human emotions and serves to heighten the emotional impact of a story. <\/strong><\/p>\n

LMKH: Yes, there is a bit of body horror which comes into these stories. It\u2019s not there that often but you mention in The Pickling Jar <\/em>and Resting Bitch Face <\/em>and Wretched <\/em>there is a kind of grotesquery involved to do with the human body. You picked up on the point that it\u2019s also tied to human emotions; I like to think that the characters experiencing these things are drawn well enough for the reader to feel some sort of empathy rather than it just being a display or gore.<\/p>\n

NSSF: And what I think is wonderful about these stories, and Resting Bitch Face <\/em>comes to mind as well as Badger Face <\/em>and Chooks Don\u2019t Have Teeth <\/em>is that the body horror is almost less affecting than the everyday, mundane violence that is not shocking. In Resting Bitch Face <\/em>the \u2018horrific\u2019 elements almost feel like a relief after the frustration and the anger and rage that you tap into at the beginning of the story.<\/strong><\/p>\n

LMKH: I much prefer to have, and I think it\u2019s been much more effective in the reading I\u2019ve done, stories which accumulate this sense of impending doom or unease or something about to unfold. I\u2019m not really one who goes for jump scares \u2013 I think they can work in film but less so in fiction. I like leading the reader along a path that they know is going to end awfully but they don\u2019t quite know what that awful ending will be.<\/p>\n

NSSF: There is almost a logic to this violence in a way, almost a kind of traumatic logic \u2013 it makes sense and it\u2019s not just gory and horrible for a shock factor for no reason \u2013 it ties into all these really deep psychological problems that are going on with your characters. <\/strong><\/p>\n

LMKH: There are motivations there, I hope, and so there is an inevitability to the nasty endings caused by the build up to them.<\/p>\n

NSSF: And do you find that different people react to your stories in different ways, or some people react to different stories more than others?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LMKH: Yeah it\u2019s been a real variety actually \u2013 some people say \u2018Oh I absolutely love The Birds of Nagasaki\u2019 <\/em>or \u2018The Pickling Jar <\/em>did it for me\u2019 and that\u2019s been really interesting actually. You bring out a collection of short stories and in your head you kind of know which ones are the stronger stories, but my perception hasn\u2019t necessarily chimed with other peoples. I think that\u2019s fantastic as a writer. It\u2019s a real privilege to have people telling you their reactions to different stories and those being different to what you\u2019d anticipated.<\/p>\n

NSSF: Yeah, I suppose that\u2019s part of birthing a book and letting it go out into the world!<\/strong><\/p>\n

LMKH: Yes, it\u2019s nerve wracking. You publish something and you are putting yourself out there for judgement.\u00a0 So, to have positive feedback is obviously very pleasing and quite a relief!<\/p>\n

NSSF: Well, I was obsessed with it \u2013 and thank you so much for talking to me about it, it\u2019s been an absolute pleasure.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Buy Dead Relatives <\/em>here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Buy Water Shall Refuse Them <\/em>here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Find out more on Lucie\u2019s website<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Interview by Molly Magrath<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lucie McKnight Hardy is a writer of novels and short stories. She has lived in Wales, Liverpool, Cardiff, Zurich and Bradford and is now based in Herefordshire with her family. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nInterview with Dead Relatives author Lucie McKnight Hardy - Northern Short Story Festival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview with Dead Relatives author Lucie McKnight Hardy - Northern Short Story Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lucie McKnight Hardy is a writer of novels and short stories. She has lived in Wales, Liverpool, Cardiff, Zurich and Bradford and is now based in Herefordshire with her family. […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Northern Short Story Festival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-12T10:21:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-29T13:57:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211112_103712-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"958\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"NSSF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"NSSF\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/\",\"name\":\"Interview with Dead Relatives author Lucie McKnight Hardy - Northern Short Story Festival\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-12T10:21:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-29T13:57:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/#\/schema\/person\/272a818ad061145f08d007d3bbae4524\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Interview with Dead Relatives author Lucie McKnight Hardy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/\",\"name\":\"Northern Short Story Festival\",\"description\":\"North\u2019s only festival dedicated the short story\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/#\/schema\/person\/272a818ad061145f08d007d3bbae4524\",\"name\":\"NSSF\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a3b641842fe0ceedae2d61314fd7d28?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a3b641842fe0ceedae2d61314fd7d28?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"NSSF\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/author\/nssf\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Interview with Dead Relatives author Lucie McKnight Hardy - Northern Short Story Festival","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Interview with Dead Relatives author Lucie McKnight Hardy - Northern Short Story Festival","og_description":"Lucie McKnight Hardy is a writer of novels and short stories. She has lived in Wales, Liverpool, Cardiff, Zurich and Bradford and is now based in Herefordshire with her family. […]","og_url":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/","og_site_name":"Northern Short Story Festival","article_published_time":"2021-11-12T10:21:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-29T13:57:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":958,"height":368,"url":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211112_103712-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"NSSF","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"NSSF","Estimated reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/","url":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/","name":"Interview with Dead Relatives author Lucie McKnight Hardy - Northern Short Story Festival","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-11-12T10:21:25+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-29T13:57:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/#\/schema\/person\/272a818ad061145f08d007d3bbae4524"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/interview-with-author-lucie-mcknight-hardy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Interview with Dead Relatives author Lucie McKnight Hardy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/#website","url":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/","name":"Northern Short Story Festival","description":"North\u2019s only festival dedicated the short story","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/#\/schema\/person\/272a818ad061145f08d007d3bbae4524","name":"NSSF","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a3b641842fe0ceedae2d61314fd7d28?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2a3b641842fe0ceedae2d61314fd7d28?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"NSSF"},"url":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/author\/nssf\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211112_103712-1.jpg?fit=958%2C368&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa4sBE-lc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1391,"href":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions\/1391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigbookend.co.uk\/nssf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}