Yvonne Battle-Felton

photo credit: Marat Battle

Yvonne Battle-Felton was born in Pennsylvania and raised in New Jersey before moving to Maryland. She currently lives in Yorkshire, England with her family. Battle-Felton holds an MA in writing from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University. She is an associate teaching professor and the academic director of creative writing at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. Her debut novel, Remembered, won a Northern Writers’ Award, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize.

Battle-Felton's new novel is Curdle Creek.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I think the title captures the essence of the book really well. The title of the book is the name of the town and so much of the book is about the way the town operates, the cost of living there, the secrets it keeps. It’s not an entirely bad place or at least, there’s a rationale for how it came to be the way that it is so for a while, I flirted with the title: A Good Place for Bad Things. But the idea of the town came to me maybe seven years ago. I grew up in a rural town called Sweetwater. It was a town where nothing much seemed to happen. In many ways, Curdle Creek is the opposite of that. So, seven years ago I wrote a short story about characters about to experience their first Moving On ceremony. The town was Curdle Creek then and when I revisited it in my imagination the town and the title just fit.

What's in a name?

In the short story I wrote, Osira’s name was Riley. She was 16 then. Now, she’s 45 and the name Riley just didn’t seem to fit her, not with all of the life she’s seen and all of the Moving On’s she’s participated in. She’s had a lifetime of loss. I was rolling old names around in my mouth, feeling how they tripped off of the tongue. The name Osirus came first. I like the way it sounds and feels. That it’s also the name of the ancient Egyptian God of the Underworld is not quite intentional. Osira is named after her father. There’s likely a story in that.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

Teenage me would love Curdle Creek. But, she would want more mystery and less horror. Teenage me was quite squeamish. She was afraid of movies like The Hand and The Blob. Not that they looked realistic but maybe even more so because they didn’t. So while she wouldn’t read it in its entirety, she would absolutely love parts of the book. Still, she’d be a little surprised and maybe a little worried too that we wrote it.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I find it harder to write beginnings because I don’t start with them. I get to know the characters through scenes. So, I play with them in different settings with different characters, at different times of their lives to see who they are, what they want, and what they’re willing to do to get it. My way into the story, into caring about the characters, is not the same point that I introduce them to readers at. Often, the scenes I think will be the opening don’t even end up in the book. But endings, I love an ending. Even in life there’s something satisfying about an ending, something inevitable that’s sort of comforting. It’s not that I’ll know what the ending will be when I start the book. I don’t. That’s what keeps me curious and helps me return to the page. I write to see what will happen.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Whenever I write a first-person narrator my inner villain takes over. Even if it’s for a bit. There are likely parts of me in quite a few of the characters, especially in the first drafts. The more I get to know them, the more they become their own entities and the less of me they need (or the less of me I need to write). Osira doesn’t start out with it but she ends up with some of my inner rebel. Other characters might have a bit of my sense of humor, slivers of my outlook, my competitive nature. I crack my knuckles constantly. It’s a way of relieving stress. I gave Osira that habit as a way of managing hers. But, in her community, she can’t even do that freely. But, Osira is also a rule follower. Even when she loses everyone she loves, she likes the reassurance of rules. In that respect, she and I are worlds apart.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I often write to music It might be something melancholy and moody like classical orchestra or something upbeat and full of tension like jazz. Music helps me to capture the rhythms of language and reminds me to let go, have fun, explore. These days I’m inspired by nature. The brightness of moon, the inquisitiveness of robins, the resourcefulness of squirrels, all of it. There are stories in my own backyard. Remembering that makes me remember that stories are everywhere and everyone has a unique way of bringing them to life.

Visit Yvonne Battle-Felton's website.

The Page 69 Test: Curdle Creek.

My Book, The Movie: Curdle Creek.

--Marshal Zeringue