Learn all about the historical research and inspiration that Dale Bailey used to write “Sophie Simpson’s Whizz-Bang Day at World War I,” his latest story for Asimov’s, now in our May/June issue, on sale now!
Asimov’s Editor: What is the story behind this piece?
Dale Bailey: “Sophie Simpson’s Whizz-Bang Day at World War I” developed as I was researching another story with World War I connections. During that process, I stumbled across a World War I museum for middle-grade students that included a tour of a model trench. I couldn’t help noticing that the model trench in question looked wholly sanitized compared to the reality of the trenches and trench warfare in World War I. The juxtaposition of the two struck me, and I started wondering what a school outing to the real war might look like.
AE: How did this story germinate? Did it come to you slowly?
DB: The story came fairly swiftly after that initial idea, though it developed in ways I hadn’t expected: not as a purely (or even remotely!) science fiction story, but as the surreal account of a single young girl’s experience in the trenches—an experience that grows out of and in response to the painful realities of her everyday life. I drew also on the work of the trench poets and the marching songs of WWI, from which the chapter headings and Sophie’s marching song are directly drawn.
AE: How did the title for this piece come to you?
DB: Allied soldiers called a certain kind of high-velocity German shells whizz-bangs because of the sound they made. The term stuck with me; paired with Sophie’s alliterative name it seemed to capture an element of the story’s dark absurdism. Probably the title came first. I find they often do.
AE: What is your process? Do you ever suffer from writers’ block?
DB: Writers’ block is my natural state of being. The process, such as it is, is intended to defeat it. As I said, the title often—indeed usually—comes first, and then it’s a matter of figuring out what it means, which I do by jotting down scraps of dialogue and fragments of scenes and whatever evocative phrases come to me. Usually I’ll find the story through that process. Something—a line or a bit of a scene or a character—will capture my imagination, and I’ll find that I’ve started writing the story.
I stumble along like this until I have the shape of it. But it’s a slow and halting process, primarily involving frustration. I usually start by hand in a notebook. It has to be a casebound notebook, preferably a specific notebook manufactured by Éccolo—which they recently stopped making. This is a problem. When I realized it was happening, I bought a case of them. I’ll probably stop writing when I run through them… I ultimately move to the laptop, but if I get stuck, it’s back to the notebook. I’m superstitious about pens, too. And other things…
AE: If you could choose one SFnal universe to live in, what universe would it be, and why?
DB: I think we already live in a SFnal universe, and I’m not entirely comfortable in it. I was hoping for flying cars. I got the surveillance state instead.
AE: What are you reading right now?
DB: I’ve just finished What We Can Know by Ian McEwan and A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan. I’m about halfway through The Candy House, also by Egan. I also have Red Mars on my bedside table and Night Side of the River, a collection of Jeanette Winterson’s ghost stories, and King Tyrant, Mark Witton’s study of the T. Rex. I pick up them up as the spirit moves me.
AE: What is your history with Asimov’s?
DB: I started reading Asimov’s all the way back in the days when it was called Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine—in its infancy, when I wasn’t far removed from infancy myself. I started submitting stories when I was, what, a teenager? It took me a while to break through: my first Asimov’s sale was in 2012.
AE: What other projects are you currently working on?
DB: I have a novel coming out from PS Publishing—Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, about an alternate Manhattan Project wherein Oppenheimer meets . . . well you do the math. . . . Also another story in inventory in Asimov’s and one coming out later this year in Reactor. As for what I’m working on—I subscribe to the steam-kettle theory of art. Talking too much about it lets off the pressure . . .
AE: How can our readers follow you and your writing?
DB: My website is dalebailey.com. I have a Facebook page, but I don’t look at it but once or twice a year. Messenger is good, though. I don’t really do social media, I’m afraid.
From Earth to the Stars 