I’m excited to feature a short interview with Thomas Ha today! Ha’s new collection, Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, will be released in September by Undertow Publications.
From the back cover:
“Uncertain Sons is a startling and masterful collection exploring familial love and trauma; societal and technological anxieties; identity and class; and alternate near-future irrealities. Sharp, incisive, imaginative, and visionary, Thomas Ha’s debut heralds the arrival of a vital new voice.”
I’m a longtime fan of Ha’s work, not only because his prose is masterfully crafted, but also because of the underlying sense that our world is not as good as it should be. Ha’s stories explore issues of fairness, privilege, and survival through characters that I absolutely care about. The collection includes fan favorites such as “Window Boy” and “The Sort,” as well as the previously unpublished title story, “Uncertain Sons.” My personal favorite remains, “The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video.”
Rereading these stories together heightened the eerie feeling that I’ve come to associate with Ha’s work, that tension-to-satisfaction thrill of barely surviving a terrifying situation by the skin of my teeth. I recommend reading this collection straight through; the sequence of stories brings a nice layering of emotion through unexpected connections that I might have missed if I’d skipped around from story to story.
The book has already received some strong reviews. For a more in-depth look at the collection, check out this review in Strange Library.
The publisher, Undertow, did a fantastic job with the physical production. It’s a hefty book with eye-catching art that suits the stories perfectly.
Thanks to Thomas for answering my questions, and to Undertow for the gorgeous review copy!
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Cover Art: Ove Tøpfer | Design: Vince Haig
Myna: Tell us about Uncertain Sons! What’s the general tone of the stories? What themes do you explore?
Thomas: Hi, Myna! First of all, thanks so much for reading Uncertain Sons, and for letting me talk a little about it here.
This collection covers five or so years of my short stories, many of them multi-genre works mixing dark fantasy, sci-fi, and weird horror. Like the title implies, a lot of the stories focus on the theme of uncertainty, indecision, and doubt in the face of danger or great change. This is a theme I found myself revisiting a lot over the years.
My hope is that this collection will introduce my work to new readers, but will also be rewarding for longtime readers who might glean something new from the way these stories are compiled together, particularly after the collection’s conclusion.
Myna: How did this collection come about?
Thomas: A little bit of good timing, luck, and momentum. I had worked with Undertow’s editor, Michael Kelly, on a Weird Horror Magazine short story, “Cretins.” I had such a great experience that I asked if he was looking for anything longer, like a novelette or novella, but he wasn’t at that time.
Meanwhile, I was working on a body of stories that felt like it was bubbling into something. And in particular, I hit on a recurring idea that formed my “keystone” stories: a trilogy that I thought of as a good potential summation of some of the themes in my early work. “House Traveler,” which was published in Bourbon Penn. “The Sort,” in Clarkesworld. And then the original novelette in the collection, the titular “Uncertain Sons,” which felt like the conclusion to a lot of themes in the first two.
Just as I was working out the final story, Michael happened to contact me because he was reviewing manuscripts. I didn’t have a novelette or novella at that point, but I did have the early shape of the collection. And things just felt like they snapped into place from there. I’m grateful it happened to work out. It was a very lucky turn of events.
Myna: How would you describe your writing style, in general? Does that hold true for this book?
Thomas: I’m going to partially dodge this question but use it as an opportunity to shout out Zachary Gillan, who wrote the foreword for the book. I really admired Zach’s critical analysis for some time before the collection and was looking for an opportunity to work with him, and this seemed to line up just right.
The great thing about Zach’s critical work, I think, is that he appreciates concrete underpinnings and minutiae, but always pays attention to the overarching functionality and shape of stories. I also liked the way he focuses on the questions raised by work without necessarily trying to assert fixed answers in the minds of readers, which I think is necessary for someone steeped in weird fiction. It’s certainly something I try to do as well, in my own parallel way, in my writing. So I suspected he would have some interesting things to say about Uncertain Sons.
When I eventually saw the draft of his foreword, I was frankly blown away. Setting aside that he was too kind about the quality of my writing, everything he examined analytically felt spot on, in the sense that it was interrogating aspects of the stories that I really hoped readers would engage with.
I know everyone reads short story collections differently, but I would highly recommend reading the foreword first and then proceeding in order with the foreword in mind. Anything I could have said about the hallmarks of my writing, or my philosophy about ambiguity, or the best ways to immerse readers (and even which writers influenced me in that regard), is all there in Zach’s introductory essay.
It’s like he read my mind in terms of the aspects of writing I’m most interested in focusing on. Honestly, I’d be more freaked out if I weren’t so excited by his analysis. It’s that good.
Myna: Of all the worlds you’ve created, which would you least like to visit?
Thomas: In this book, I’d say the world in the final story, “Uncertain Sons.” There’s just a real grossness and sense of danger in the connected ecosystem in that particular setting. A lot of creatures that seem capable of killing in all kinds of nasty ways. I was in a very big Michael Shea phase at the time of writing that one, and he was just brilliant at describing visceral, skin-crawling creatures. I wanted to capture and infuse that sort of grungy, frightening feeling into that world.
Myna: What can you tell us about the cover art?
Thomas: The cover is an oil painting by Norwegian surrealist Ove Tøpfer–I think I’ve seen the title translated or written slightly differently in a few places, but in at least one place it’s called “Remembering Humans.” Full credit to Michael Kelly: He went through an in-depth process of seeking out art and discussing it with me, and he really zeroed in on this one. Tøpfer has such a striking style, combining organic rootwork and natural imagery with industrial and metallic patterns, and eerie pale faces looming over these strange landscapes in a lot of the paintings. His Instagram is very lively and has some cool videos of his process showing him painting these things (a lot bigger than they seem!). I love this one because it captures the atmosphere of the stories, and the titular “Uncertain Sons” in particular with its parent/child alien shapes. Really an amazing artist, and we were lucky to feature his work.
Myna: When a reader finishes the last word in the book, what emotion will they be feeling?
Thomas: It sounds sappy or a little new-agey, but I hope readers are left with a better sense of self and conviction and maybe even something semi-spiritual (might be the wrong word, but I can’t think of a better one at the moment). The thing about stories like these, where there are uncomfortable gaps and ominous uncertainties, is that I think it’s natural to reflect on what you would do in place of a lot of these characters. Some character decisions will really scream as wrong or foolish, some decisions might seem virtuous or idealistic. But I think everyone will react a little differently and gravitate to different things. My goal with the stories is never to leave readers totally despondent, or self-satisfied, but to leave avenues open. If it did or didn’t go the way a reader hoped, why is that? What could be different? What does that say about you? What do you believe in? Why? Those are the things I’m always asking myself and these characters, at least.
Myna: Do you have other books or stories you’d like to mention?
Thomas: If you like the vibe of the collection or want to get a sense of the themes, a couple of other recent stories that came out this year in that vein (but not in the collection itself) are “Old Wells” in Bourbon Penn and “In My Country” in Clarkesworld.
Myna: What’s next for you?
Thomas: You can usually catch me around online (especially at Bluesky) and on my website thomashawrites.com. I’m still very much enjoying the grind of the short story world, so you should see a story pop up from me now and again!
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Thomas Ha is a Nebula, Ignyte, Hugo, Locus, and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated writer of speculative short fiction. You can find his work in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Weird Horror Magazine, among other publications. His work has also appeared in The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy and The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror. Thomas grew up in Honolulu and, after a decade plus of living in the northeast, now resides in Los Angeles with his family.
Myna Chang 