Comfort food with Jen Cornick

Jen Cornick is a writer, journalist, and blogger. Her work has appeared in The Selkie, The Last Girls Club, Obscura: New Uncanny Tales, They Whispered, BFS Horizons, Marrow Magazine, and is forthcoming in Strip Mall Magazine.

 

Jen is the author of “Happy Snacks” from Issue 13.

Q: Where did your writing process start for “Happy Snacks”?

Actually, I started at the end. In order to write any story, I have to see the ending in my mind. It has to be clear enough that I can describe it in great detail.

When I imagined the young woman at the end of the story and I could see exactly how she would look, how the mushrooms would fruit as she was being watched, I tried to figure out how the story started. And the beginning was thanks to the descriptions of Ophiocordyceps in Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life and Matt Simon’s Plight of the Living Dead, my nephew’s love of Doritos, and the stories the nurses in my family tell.

Q: How do you balance describing the physical transformations in your piece so as not to overwhelm the reader?

That wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision on my part, or at least, not an active one. I described exactly what I saw in my mind. Where I found parts of the story that required more thought was balancing what she saw on her shifts with the rest of the story. I had so many more of those anecdotes and I had to cut them down to just a few.

Q: What current real-world trends, fears, or technologies did you use to build this future?

There were so many of them that popped up in this space. Toxic nostalgia was a big one for me. I had seen a few AI-generated social media posts (TikTok, I think) for the 80s. They felt like advertisements. And it was so weird to see people longing for “riding your bike until the street lights came on” but didn’t talk about trickle-down economics. Another was just the general neglect of our social systems. Because of policies rolled out in the 80s, we have seen an erosion in our safety nets, especially for mental health.

From a technology perspective, the whole idea that there might not ever be people working in a store. Self-checkout, while convenient, makes me uneasy. It feels as if it was the first step to stripping out interactions with other people in our days and eroding our sense of community.

Q: When did you begin melding body horror and science fiction in your writing?

From the point that I started writing speculative fiction, body horror has always been a part of it. I honestly think it comes from spending so much time around nurses and then working in hospitals early in my career.

Q: What are you own favorite snacks to eat that make you happiest?

Potato chips. Absolutely. And as I am Canadian, the far-too-bright-orange all dressed ones. They remind me of watching movie marathons on Saturday nights, of telling campfire stories in the provincial parks, and of snow days home from school in the deepest parts of the winter.

And plain rippled chips dipped in hummus is a particular favorite of mine when watching a movie on a Saturday evening.

Q: What are some of your self-care routines or comfort rituals?

The daily ritual of preparing meals. I love to cook; my dad taught me as I grew up and we still cook together whenever I am home. For me, the routine and action of it is soothing – chopping vegetables, stirring sauces, grinding spices, toasting nuts. It is a fundamental act of self-care to make a meal for myself from scratch.

Recently, my partner and I have adopted a new self-care ritual: We do face masks and watch Korean cooking shows together on Friday evenings as a way to unwind from a stressful week.

Q: Tell us about your experiences blogging and working with Sunday Writer’s Club?

Sunday Writers Club, when it was active, was a fantastic space to learn how to write. Every Sunday, we would meet in a café and write with a list of prepared prompts. At the end of the hour, we all shared what we wrote, so it was also a way to get comfortable with others seeing your work. We also ran events where new writers could connect with established, published writers and workshops, especially during covid. It was a way to create community in a usually lonely hobby or profession.

Blogging was something I did when start-up culture in Vienna was at its height. I used to write blogs about the various ventures working out of Impact Hub. At the time, I had very little experience with anything other than academic writing, and it was a great learning experience. I had to learn what interested audiences, how to keep people reading, and how to get them to take action on what they read. I then got to use those skills to write content for other organizations and was even able to pivot to journalism.

Q: In today’s world, where entertainment is a button-press away, how have you managed to let yourself be bored, and let the creativity flow?

Whenever I walk, which is my primary mode of transportation, I let my mind wander rather than listen to a podcast or audiobook. It is the same when I cook, the repetitive nature of the task frees my mind and I can think about anything. Not having someone else’s words in my ears means I can think of my own. This is in part an active choice, in that I choose to never bring headphones on my walks or press the play button when I am doing mindless tasks. But I think it is also habit, I have been making the choice to be bored, to sit on a bench and think, for so long now that it doesn’t even feel like a conscious choice.

Q: What fan fictions are your favorite to write?

I write a lot of video game fanfictions. Dragon Age: Inquisition and Final Fantasy XIV are where I learned to write fight scenes and battles with monsters. I had to learn to describe different settings and circumstances. Those early fanfictions were where I first learned I had a talent for making up monsters. I still dabble, now and then, when I am searching for inspiration for a short story.

Q: Was there any music (1-3 songs) that you think would make a good mini-setlist for your story? Either ones that may have been on your mind, or ones that give readers a good idea of the themes?

Spirit Box – “Jaded”

K-Pop Demon Hunters – “Soda Pop”

Dos Brains – “The Space Between Us”