Our featured author for Summer 2024 is Doug Campbell, whose piece "Rebirth" kicks off our very first issue. Weird Lit Mag Senior Editor Dina Dwyer and Doug shared an interactively composed written interview just before publication that we hope you enjoy.
DD: Hi Doug. The WLM editorial team was quite excited to receive your short story “Rebirth.” It was the first story we received where we all immediately exclaimed “Accept!” It is also your first published work of fiction. For its compact size, it’s really something else. Can you talk a little about the piece?
DC: Thanks so much for the kind words. I had a lot of fun writing that story. “Rebirth” came from a desire to distill an idea I had into something more potent. It actually started as a homework assignment I had from a dark fiction writing class, and I played with it until I felt ready to share.
DD: Joyce Carol Oates says writing is a lot like cooking—we combine what we have with what we buy (or steal) and try to make something good and unexpected. You are a physician for the majority of your working day. In what ways does your profession assist in making a tasty dish?
DC: I think my line of work allows me to have a unique view of the world, and it gives me a lot of emotion and experience to draw from. I used to work in the emergency department, so I have been exposed to a lot of the variety life has to offer, unfortunately a lot of it sad and unpleasant. I try to draw on that well of experiences to not write medical drama, but instead allow it to fuel my creativity in other ways. I also like to use the unique vocabulary of medicine to provide a certain punchiness and realism to my work, without going overboard on the science.
DD: You have spent some time as a physician in Nantucket, MA, yes?
DC: That’s right. I worked out there for almost one year.
DD: It’s on my mind lately because I’m finishing up Moby-Dick. Melville describes the island as having “more sand than you would use in twenty years as a substitute for blotting paper,” and so bereft of greenery that “three blades [of grass] in a day’s walk a prairie,” but he speaks highly of its inhabitants as hearty, plain-spoken and honest people. How would you describe it, some 170ish years later?
DC: Nantucket is a unique place. I unfortunately saw very little of all that sand since I pretty much just spent my time there working, but I did get to know the people pretty well during my time. It cycles between two vastly different periods: tourist season, and the off-season. The summer months are crazy busy with people visiting from all over, and it really feels like a beach town. But then you spend the rest of the year there, and I think its real self comes out to shine. That’s maybe not the right word; there’s a LOT of fog out there. But during the off-season, Nantucket is much more of a New England town, full of authentic people, a lot of which have lived on this little island for generations. The history is immense and you feel it everywhere you go and with every cobblestone you trip on. I hope to spend more time there and explore more of the history.
DD: I very much enjoy visiting touristy places in their off-season. It’s not only cheaper but you actually get a sense of the place. Speaking of travel, what is your favorite form of flightless travel?
DC: I’m all about the off-season travel for the same reason. I’m a big fan of long car rides. I really like being able to see the scenery change and have control over the trip.
DD: Me too. A few years ago, I took a five-week road trip around America. You really just don’t get that kind of opportunity on a vehicle driven by a stranger! Recently, I read about how for a certain non-trivial fee, one could travel as a passenger on a cargo ship. This excited me until I discovered that due to the pandemic, no longer do any lines or companies offer this. What is something you would have liked to do or experience that is impossible now? This doesn’t have to be pandemic-related. Perhaps it would be…hunting a dinosaur?
DC: I think I got my fill of boat-travel going to/from Nantucket. I would love to have experienced Woodstock. Like, the original one. That line-up was just unbelievable and I think unmatched since.
DD: I work with many physicians in my day job. After discovering I do more than my job title, several of them have disclosed a streak of wild abandon into some arts discipline. This has made me very curious about every doctor I meet. Aside from writing, how do you escape from numbers, charts, research, blood?
DC: There’s a lot of really fun people out there in the world of medicine, but unfortunately the medical field doesn’t often support them or their previous interests. I was always a very creative individual growing up. I played a lot of instruments, enjoyed writing from a young age, and loved learning about everything. Medical school required me to bury my head and focus, and unfortunately I had to put aside a lot of my previous interests. I’m thankfully coming back around to the things I enjoy in life, a lot of which is driven by my kids. I love seeing their excitement as they try new things. It just makes me want to get back out there and have fun again, trying different things. Besides my time with my kids, I read way more than I used to, I’m back to playing the guitar a little, and I watch a lot of movies. I find those outlets help me stay an individual separate from the medical world.
DD: Yes, it’s extremely important to remember who you are, were, and can be. In my case, I’ve rediscovered gardening lately. Are you an avid gardener?
DC: Far from it! I’ve tried and just don’t have what it takes.
DD: It is in your story, though. You handle the topic of grief in “Rebirth” in a unique way. Can you tell me a little about how you came to this conceit, this curious juxtaposition of extreme loss and horticulture?
DC: One theme that has held my focus is the idea of love and grief, especially of a close family member, and how those feelings can coexist. I tried to imagine the way a father might try and make amends with the death of his son, and his ability to love his son in any form. How someone could be so desperate for their loved one to come back to them that they would take them in any shape. I really like the idea of “loving a monster” but I didn’t want the boy to be some terrible creature (à la Pet Semetary). Instead, I wanted him to be a gentle and grotesque thing with only hints of his former self. Something only a parent could see. The fungal element just seemed natural as fungi would be consuming the boy in the ground, and perhaps could hold some of his essence within.
DD: It was really beautiful, and the end was this divine mix of heartbreak and, hm, I think wonder? Almost? It’s hard to say but it really got to me. In my experience, a strong enough grief at the wrong (right?) time can produce a kind of psychosis, a detachment from reality. In this way, it is like all the truly intense emotions: rage, terror, ecstasy. You have probably seen a lot of this (especially in the ER). Do you feel like there are allowances in our modern society for periods of being temporarily unhinged?
DC: Wonder works; I was also going for a touch of hope, like maybe this could work after all. I feel like our modern society unfortunately looks down upon intense displays of emotions these days. I think people are really concerned with their appearances and keeping with a certain societal expectation that it forces them to dull themselves down, especially in tough times like grief. As much as I see that, I feel like it is way better than what used to be considered “acceptable.” There’s so much more overall acceptance to speaking about one’s emotions and mental health these days that I’m hopeful we’re heading in the right direction.
Doug Campbell is a writer of dark fiction. He lives in Massachusetts with his family and various small animals.
Find our full Summer 2024 issue here!
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