Interview with Tracy Ross, author of scifi/fantasy horror Binary Logic
Binary Logic is the perfect merge of content and form—exploring concepts of literary genre with revelatory narrative. It is a collection of tales touching on relational dysfunction, the conflicts inherent in addiction and fear, and the legacy of female future time lords. The stories all create a bridge between the reckoning imagination and the spirit of free will and self-made destiny. Binary Logic quietly asks the question, “Where is the mind of our species headed and what is the next quantum leap of human consciousness?”
Excerpt from Binary Logic
It was then that I realized I was in it for the both of us. My father and I against the anguish. At one point, during the early hours of morning, the crying faces had all gotten loose and were crawling up the walls and dropping from the ceiling like smokey apparitions from Dante’s Inferno, liquid shadows of creeping hunger, an infestation of screaming mouths and terror-stricken eyes, the reality of the walls closing in on me like a wriggling, dark prison. In my panic and shock, I finally blacked out, leaving the room for the numbing promise of sleep. I welcomed unconscious bliss.
Note to self: pain is a manifestation. It lives like a beast, a breathing, hungry creature, unable to free itself from destiny, unable to make the choice to release itself because it is comfortable in its tragedy. It is easier to go on in pain, then to go through to the other side where there is peace. The fear stops you. It prevents you from going all the way.
Interview with Tracy Ross
-What inspired you to become a writer?
My father was a jazz musician and I was surrounded by piano playing as a child and youngster. Very early on I combined my hearing musical notes with the development of my reading and writing, even talking. I started writing songs on my own and taught myself piano to accompany my poems. I guess I have always been inspired by music and the similarities of the music of the spheres with language and the rhythm of speaking and conversation. I somehow wanted to put it down on paper for posterity and share it with others.
-If you could visit your book’s world for a day, what one thing would you do?
The book world of Binary Logic is multi-genre, containing a compilation of many different short stories written in different genres, paying homage to horror, minimalism, magic realism, sci-fi, and absurdist fiction. If I could really transport myself into each of my stories, I’d invite each protagonist to a cocktail party in a high rise apartment to mingle and see what transpires. Instead of fiction being divided by the walls of genre lets see what happens when a Victorian Romantic poet comes face to face with a futuristic time lord. That would be such fun! The things they would say to each other and the things I would learn!
-It’s two in the morning. What does your protagonist reveal in confidence? (Don’t worry, we won’t tell.)
All of the characters in Binary Logic, by my own writing hand, are subjugated to a certain amount of either negative or positive epiphanies on the level of Greek Tragedy. I am not kidding. This is a fact. At 2 AM in the morning, my protagonists are probably thinking and saying to themselves about their fates, “Not again…”
-Which of your characters would you go out for drinks with?
I would love to have drinks with a Victorian British Romantic poet. It would be so sublime and a little overblown. At first I would have to tell them to dial back on the drama a bit, but eventually I would just appreciate the fact that they really devoted their entire lives to the Transcendentalist movement and deeply thought about what poetry meant and could mean to the evolution of consciousness and the spiritual side of humanity. They were very dedicated drama king and queens.
-You’re in a tavern, and a dwarf challenges you to a duel. What do you do?
If I were in a Tavern and a dwarf challenged me to a duel, it would have to be with a game of chess and with my luck the dwarf would be a mini-me of Max von Sydow. For some reason the film the Seventh Seal ruined me for life. I saw it when I was way too young. The existentialism would definitely creep in.
-Is there a genre you could never write? Which and why?
I wouldn’t be good at writing Romance. I’m always reminded of the Meatloaf song, “Paradise by The Dashboard Lights” where toward the end he starts, by default, praying for the end of time because he said he’d love her forever.
About Tracy Ross
Tracy Ross is the author of three poetry volumes and the fictional narrative Certainty of One—A Tale of Education Automation. Her latest work, Binary Logic is a short story collection which touches on many genres—surrealism, horror, magic realism, and science fiction. In Binary Logic she tries to not be tethered to one type of story but attempts to explore the metaphors and symbols behind the dualities of choice, free will, and decision.
Ross is a graduate of Augsburg University’s MFA program and is a life-long student of the metaphysical behind language as well as consciousness studies. She has lived in Detroit, Chicago, and the Boundary Waters Canoe area in upper north Minnesota. As a youngster she progressed straight from Judy Blume books to Franz Kafka, making a giant leap into existentialism by the age of nine. She is also a student of film and popular culture, working on a new book of essays on life, liberty, and the pursuit of media. She currently lives and works in Minnesota.
Giveaway
Tracy Ross will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
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