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Mirthless Adverbs | Interview with Heather Pegas


We're not only about dark fiction here at WLM, though we do love to dive deep into areas that other publications might shy away from. It's one thing to create darkness, and another to show complexity and hope within it. We think Heather's story "I Did Not Die" brings that complexity and potential. We enjoyed catching up with her in our interview below.


What compels you to write or create, even when it's hard?

When isn’t it hard? As a day-job grant writer, there are many times I don’t have the juice to sit down and make myself write. Rest is resistance, right? Sometimes I get that itch though, an idea I just have to stop and dictate to myself, and then I know I’m going for a wild ride. 


What is your favorite word? 

Mirthless/mirthlessly.


What is your favorite banned book?

I have to give special credit to any book banned from the right and the left. My writing teacher, Stephanie Waxman, wrote one of those in the 1970s.


What will your biography be titled?

What Just Happened?


Name a book that made you cry (or feel like crying).

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert.


Do you have any superstitions? 

I will always, always, always knock on wood. I even keep a pencil in the car. 


Have you ever gone on a literary pilgrimage—to see an author's birthplace or setting of a favorite novel, etc.? 

Last summer I went to a writer’s residency in Bennington, Vermont. It was two doors up the street from Shirley Jackson’s house. You could walk from there onto the Bennington campus, where I was told one building was the inspiration for The Haunting of Hill House. Frankly, I didn’t get the vibe, but everyone’s different!


Do you have a favorite book on writing or creating that's been a helpful resource?

Stephen Marche, On Writing and Failure: Or, On the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer, as quoted here: "Do not write unless you have to. That’s not down to some question of the inner spirit. That’s because anything you hope to achieve by writing—fame, money, pleasure, improving the world—can always be achieved some better way than writing."


Unpopular opinion, go: 

Adverbs are the best part of speech. I’ve written at length on the topic, naturally.


Read the Fall 2024 issue here!



Heather Pegas produces compelling grant proposals for a living. In her free time, she writes essays, short stories, and flash (all while contemplating the transient nature of our being). Her work can be read in publications such as Tahoma Literary Review, Fatal Flaw Literary Magazine, and Roi Fainéant. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and a black cat named for Samuel Pepys.

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