Her work has been featured in Stone of Madness Press, The McNeese Review, and several independent anthologies and audiovisual projects. Her novels include Shoot the Moon (2023), and the forthcoming midcentury drama The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf.
My Q&A with the author:
How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Isa Arsén's website.
This title reveals the entire conflict to the reader, if they know where to look. Unbecoming is lifted directly from a line of dialogue in Macbeth, a Shakespeare play with themes & character relationships woven into this novel. It comes from a scene in which Lady Macbeth is convincing a dinner crowd that her husband is fine, actually, despite his mental turmoil over the choices she has pushed him to make; holding up decorum, desperate to come across as normal. Margaret Wolf is our protagonist's name, and fitting to feature up front since the reader spends the entire book placed directly in her internal monologue. As a whole, the title speaks to strange, uncouth change -- when something is "unbecoming" it may be unsightly, disgusting, or unfit for civility. It's a book about rebirth through complete dissolution, and I think the title evokes that sense of urgency well.
What's in a name?
Since a major element of this story is identity, I wanted to pick names that behaved like the characters wearing them. Margaret is a name with many different nickname forms: Margot, Margie, Maggie, Peggy, Marge, etc. This points to Margaret's unsettled sense of self, wearing a different version of her name depending on her environment. As a child of the early 1990s, I spent a lot of time obsessed with the movie The Princess Bride, and as such one of the most heroic, romantic names in my memory is Wesley. It's a very sturdy name, with only a nickname or two if you get creative. Since they are both two-syllable names (depending on how one pronounces Margaret), they stand well next to one another as a pair: Margaret & Wesley, Wesley & Margaret. The rhythm works. It's also serendipitous that M and W are inversions of each other, for a pair of soulmates.
How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?
Very!! But, I think, in a good way. It's an unapologetic work, and I was very afraid of presenting myself authentically in fiction for a very long time. The themes of love and self-actualization would be familiar to my younger self, so I would have absolutely picked this up off the shelf and devoured it. Most of what I writefulfills in at least some small part a creative wish of my younger self, so young-me has certainly already had input.
Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?
This is a great question -- it depends on the story. The ending for this one ended up as a coda of sorts, as the initial draft ended near the 3/4 mark of what made it to print. I changed the starting point several times throughout revisions but always had it starting at the same point in Margaret's life, so I think I will have to say the ending for this one.
Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?
I try not to make my fictional characters 1:1 copies of any living person, because that removes for me the fun of building a unique personality on the page. There are plenty of parts of me that I put into these characters as a starting point for the rest of their idiosyncrasies -- Wesley's discomfort with absolute silence and Margaret's general obsession with control are pried directly from my own ribs -- but no character is 100% based on anyone, no.
What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?
My professional background is in writing and performing contemporary music, so music is a major engine for me. I make a playlist and a Pinterest board before I even start drafting a novel, so my sense of mood and tone stay clear throughout the project's lifetime. I'm also hugely invigorated by theater in general: stagecraft, cinema, film of all stripes -- a good combination of image, sound, and story will never cease to amaze me, and awe is my favorite source of inspiration. It makes for more impressive risks taken to reach a new height.
--Marshal Zeringue