A Slice of Cake With... Sophie Kearing

This week I am delighted to be having a slice of cake with author Sophie Kearing.

Sophie Kearing is a caffeine-obsessed fiction writer who loves drinking espresso out of teacups, smelling new paperbacks, and using Oxford commas. Her short stories have been featured by Mojave Heart Review, Ellipsis Zine, Left Hand Publishers, Moonchild Magazine, Jolly Horror Press, New Pop Lit, Elephants Never, Spelk Fiction, Paper Angel Press, and other publications. Sophie is the lucky recipient of a 2019 Pushcart Prize nomination, and her edgy mystery An All-Nighter is forthcoming in Me First Magazine. She loves Twitter’s #WritingCommunity and tweets @SophieKearing.

What kind of stories do you write?

My fiction tends to be dark and written from the shameless first-person perspectives of morally ambiguous characters.

Can you describe your writing why?

I write to connect with others. Out in the world, I keep to myself and avoid social interaction at all costs, LOL! But when I’m at home writing, I’m deeply aware that everything I spill onto the page is an exploration of the human experience, and these explorations connect me with whoever’s reading—whether that person be antisocial or social, living in a big city or a small town, a writer or someone who’d rather get a root canal than write…. We’re all human, and I believe that readers can share in the humor, the pain, the confusion, and the healing that I convey through the characters and stories I write.

I also have a superstition that if I write about something that scares me, that thing won’t come to me IRL, but that’s a conversation for another day.

Share with us your favourite passage from a book you enjoyed reading

Here’s a passage that I adore. It’s from The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters:

“She loved these walks through London. She seemed, as she made them, to become porous, to soak in detail after detail; or else, like a battery to become charged. Yes, that was it, she thought, as she turned a corner: it wasn't a liquid creeping, it was a tingle, something electric, something produced as if by the friction of her shoes against the streets. She was at her truest, it seemed to her, in these tingling moments.”  

Tell us about your latest project

The first “short” story I ever wrote—Attachment, which is actually about 8,000 words—was published by Jolly Horror Press in their Accursed anthology. This is my second time publishing with Jolly Horror; I love working with Jon Lambert and Lori Titus!

Also, one of my darkest stories, The Rolodex, can be found in Corporate Catharsis, an anthology by Paper Angel Press. This is my first time working with Steven Radecki and it’s been a fantastic experience!

What is your favourite cake?

Ooh, this is a tough one. I love red velvet and tres leches and German chocolate…. 

(I know this is a question about cake, but please note that I also enjoy crème brûlée, fruit tarts, and undercooked chocolate chip cookies, LOL!) 

Anyway, my favorite cake would have to be super moist angel food cake with a strawberry filling and cream cheese frosting. Is that the most specific answer you’ve ever gotten? I sure hope so. ;) 

Thanks Sophie, it sounds delicious. You can connect with Sophie on Twitter. 

Join me next week when I will be doing my 2019 Roundup of cakes and authors! 

If you would like to take part in A Slice of Cake With... please fill in the form found here. I'd be delighted to have you.

You can also support my writing endeavours and buy me tea & cake - it's what makes the world go round!

Claire Buss is a multi-genre author and poet, completely addicted to cake. Find all her books on Amazon. Join the discussion in her Facebook group Buss's Book Stop.