What's Eating RL Meza?

Last month, I opened a micro-series asking some of the awesomest writers pushing the limits of genre what creative space means for them, and what they do to hold it. This month’s guest is RL Meza, whose debut novel Our Love Will Devour Us is tense and tight mastery of a psychological thriller. Meza is also the author of some of my favourite recent short stories, including “The First Human Ghost on Mars”, and “Outlier” which has an extra special place in my heart 🕷️

1. Warm ups first! Writerly this or that. Would you rather: 

a. [X ] write to music, or [ ] write in silence

b. [ ] share early drafts for feedback, or [X ] work in the cloister of your mind

c. [X ] snack while writing, or [ ] no crumbs on your fancy keyboard

d. [X ] perfect that paragraph now, or [ ] highlight it for later, and carry on

d. [ ] eat a fly's leg, or [X ] write a 150-word summary of a 100k novel

2. Tell us about your writing rituals and/or anything you absolutely must do/have to get writing. Or lack thereof, you rare, strong, individual. 

Hot tea is a must! I like to write first thing in the morning while everyone else is asleep. I should also have breakfast so I’m not a hungry monster when I’m finished.

3. What does creative space mean to you, and how do you get to it? 

Creative space is anywhere that my brain relaxes enough to spit out ideas. It’s great when this happens while I’m writing, but more often than not, it’s while I’m talking over a work-in-progress with my husband or while I’m in the shower or out and about.

4. What is your biggest personal (not structural) hurdle/challenge in your writing life, and how do you try to resolve it? 

My biggest personal challenge is trusting my creative process to see me through to a finished story, and recognizing that the story has value because of the writing experience, regardless of whether or not it gets published. I try to resolve this by being patient—a first draft takes as long as it takes—and by not giving up when I write myself into a dead end and can’t see where to go. I backtrack to the last place where the story was working and scrap the rest.

5. What type of spider are you?  

Ooh. Trapdoor spider.

6. Tell us about one of your comfort foods, and what it does for you.

Ramen is my best friend. Bad day? Ramen. Good day? Ramen! Cold and rainy day? RAMEN!!! Ramen has always been there for me.

7. "Click, click, click, go the spider's mouth parts as she approaches. And then she stops. <Humans prefer to chew?>  Chewing is significantly less cool than liquifying and slurping innards out, but yes (grumpy) prefer to chew.

8. And you're free to leave the web, but only after you pimp your work. Our TBR list demands it.

Thank you! My debut novel Our Love Will Devour Us, about married lesbians who must fight a ravenous evil to save their missing children, is available from Dark Matter INK here: https://darkmattermagazine.shop/products/our-love-will-devour-us-598177. Also, I have recent short stories published in Clarkesworld Magazine.

Bio: R.L. Meza is the author of Our Love Will Devour Us (Dark Matter INK, 2023), with stories in Clarkesworld and Nightmare Magazine. Meza writes speculative fiction from a not-haunted Victorian house on the coast of Northern California, where he lives with his husband and the strange animals they call family. Learn more at rlmeza.com.

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Now, here’s something different. This June, I caught the sunrise on Mount Keelung in Taiwan. And a good few more here and there. I finished the third(or what I should call, “it’s done if I stop pecking at it”) draft of a new contemporary, lightly speculative novel, and the second draft of a new horror novella.

I read a little less this month, to get those books out, but I did put away “Whistler”, “The Things We Never Say”, and “Unease” (had to). I also read AD Sui’s forthcoming clifi novel, “Our Infinite and Inevitable Ends” which I LOVE, and I’m still working through Wole Talabi’s next, “The Fists of Memory”. I had a lot of fun with "Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon”, and this next novel absolutely delivers on sharp wit, tight plotting and cinematic action.

In the next weeks, I’m going to try to read more, edit, and not start another draft. Until August. Watch me try.

Oh, and, preorder links for SMALL BITES will be up in the first week of July.