I recently read Addison’s collection, Parallel Worlds, which is the fourth volume in his Fractured Realities series. The stories are an exciting mix of genre and subject matter. I especially loved the way he used flash stories to set the tone and flow of the book. Huge thanks to Addison for taking time to answer my questions!
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Myna: Tell us about your collection!
Addison: My Fractured Realities collection collects three smaller collections into one big volume, showcasing much of the fiction I’ve published over the past two years. Overall it contains 40 flash stories and 5 short stories, with 100-word drabbles separating each.
Myna: What themes do you explore?
Addison: I enjoy writing stories of relationships, trauma, recovery, and finding oneself. Often I use imagery typically thought of as ugly, violent, or gross to exemplify beauty. The sea is also a constant companion, with several stories about crabs, fish, and other sea creatures.
Myna: If your writing had a theme song, what would it be?
Addison: I tend to listen to entire albums at once, so I’ll go with album instead of song. I think I would pick either Woman Worldwide by Justice or Worlds by Porter Robinson. It’s all a vibe.
Myna: What’s your favorite thing about writing?
Addison: Discovery! I never know what I’m going to put on the page when I sit down, and somehow I create something new out of just the connections my brain makes as I go along. In fact, most of the time when writing flash, I have no story in mind at all, and no prep time goes into it. I spend a minute or two typing an interesting hook sentence, and then I just see where it takes me. It’s a thrill!
Myna: How do you stay motivated?
Addison: So, I’m ADHD and motivation and executive function are a big problem for me. I do have a small discord group, though, where we constantly challenge each other to accomplish things. I’d probably write 10% of what I do if I didn’t have that group.
Myna: Do you have other books or stories you’d like to mention?
Addison: One of my favorite recent stories is “To the Plains of Etherea” at Flash Point SF. If you want an idea of what I’m doing, this is a good start!
https://flashpointsf.com/2023/06/30/to-the-plains-of-etherea/
Myna: Would you rather live in a magical forest, an advanced urban high-rise, an enchanted underwater city, or a complex alien world? Or do you have another perfect living space in mind?
Addison: Oh, underwater city for sure. I could finally meet all those sea creatures I write about!
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ADDISON SMITH (he/him) is an amorphous being constructed of suspended cold brew and kombucha. His mind is a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast formed around a brainstem of Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis fungus. He’s doing his best, though. His fiction has appeared in dozens of publications including Fantasy Magazine, Fireside Magazine, and Daily Science Fiction. Addison is a member of the Codex Writers Group and you can find him on Bluesky @addisoncs.bsky.social.
Link to books: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRZK5NQS
Social: https://bsky.app/profile/addisoncs.bsky.social
Cover Attribution: I do my own cover design using stock artwork. The art I used on this cover is all from grandfailure (Tithi Luadthong) at depositphotos.
Myna Chang 