Homing Instincts March 19, 2012

Media Monday discussion: The ethics of commercial fan fiction ala Fifty Shades of Grey, by E L James. Resource media by Galley Cat editor Jason Boog for NPR Books.

Thomas Wolfe may have written the opus on returning home, but the conviction that you can’t go home again was well understood in the lexicon of life before Wolfe’s title was published. On Wednesday, March 21 in #litchat we’ll discuss novels with themes about returning home, then on Friday, March 23, author Myfanwy Collins joins us as guest host to discuss her debut novel, Echolocation (Engine Books).

As the title suggests, Echolocation draws an unforgettable cast of misfits to a home in the wilds of upstate New York that means something different to each one of them. There’s Marie, matriarch and mistress of the town convenience store, who’s raised a foster daughter, Geneva, to take over the store. Marie’s wild half-sister, Renee, flew the roost years ago, leaving her daughter, Cherie, for Marie to raise. When Marie succumbs to cancer, the three surviving women converge in the home they once shared with Marie, bringing their secrets, shame and self-destructive habits along with them. Add a baby girl and an ex-boyfriend bent on revenge and the story takes on a surreal seriousness that satisfies with its shocking conclusion.

Myfanwy Collins was born in Montreal, grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, and now lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts with her husband and son. Her work has been published in The Kenyon Review, AGNI, Cream City Review, Quick Fiction, and Potomac Review. A collection of her short fiction is forthcoming from PANK Little Books in August 2012.

Follow Myfanwy Collins on Twitter: @MyfanwyCollins.