What do you do when a story won’t leave you?
Dr. Vincent Reusch, associate professor of English, says he writes about things that “nag” at his mind when he’s not focused on a task at hand. Recurring themes often become story subjects. That’s the case with his new short story collection, “The Mercurial Science of the Human Heart.” Reusch says the title story nagged at him until he was forced to let it out.
“I held that story in my head for probably two years,” Reusch says. “I would wake up in the middle of the night, thinking about it, piecing it together, very much like a puzzle. Probably hundreds of hours of thought altogether, in that late-night state of mind. And then one night I had just had enough. I put on my robe and went downstairs to start it. Just to get something on the page.”
Once Reusch made the decision to start, he was afraid to stop – as if the interruption would stifle the story.
“There was a lot of pent-up energy flowing, and I worried that the story would stiffen up on me if I left it,” Reusch says. “When I read it now, I can still feel the energy of that night.”
The title story and the rest of the collection all work with the idea of loss – but Reusch wants people to realize that there is also humor and hope in these stories. The stories’ characters have
“Sometimes the humor may cause readers to feel a little uncomfortable, a bit like laughing during a funeral,” Reusch says. “But sometimes we should laugh during funerals. Sometimes that may be the most essential thing to do.”
This week, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, Reusch will talk about his writing and this new book during a reading at Zandbroz Variety in downtown Fargo. As someone who teaches creative writing, Reusch is honest about how time and the ability to say something is complete is perhaps the hardest part of being an author. Keeping his readers in mind and his desire to entertain them is a focal point for Reusch.
“Sometimes I think I push myself to write up to a certain level of sophistication; sometimes I think I coerce readers down to my more earthy, slightly bawdy mindset,” Reusch says. “I think that may do them some good too. We’re all flesh, after all.”
Reusch’s new book can be found at Zandbroz Variety and through online booksellers.