Tiny Incantations: Interview with Sally Vedros
“I have control issues. Who doesn’t?” says Sally Vedros. “And losing my job was one of the best misfortunes of my life.” Sally lives in San Francisco and writes about technology for startups and corporate clients. Fixer, her first novel, follows Diego, a software developer and solver of life problems.
As a technology marketer, Sally has spent her career writing about videogame, mobile, fintech, B2B, and developer products. She currently runs her own content marketing consultancy and serves a range of startup and corporate clients.
A writer who tells product stories by day and life stories by night, Sally has written a novel that weaves both of these worlds together in an exploration of tech culture and its powerful influence on tech workers, their iconic city, and the very fabric of humanity.
Sally grew up in the Bay Area and has lived in San Francisco for the past twenty years. She continues to find beauty and hope in her rapidly changing city.
She wrote Fixer, she says, “to explore the humans that create non-humans. Dreamers, developers, product teams — who makes the AI bots who do human things, such as write or learn or speak. What drives people to create these powerful technologies that are changing the world? And how can they do so without considering the unintended consequences? It is so very human to create a non-human — I find that to be both fascinating and unsettling.”
First, tell us about losing your job.
In fact, it happened twice. The first layoff was unexpected and I was completely unmoored. The whole framework of my life seemed to have just disintegrated during one company all-hands meeting. My team and I strolled over to Starbucks and just sat there in disbelief, and the loss of control over my life was paralyzing. After a couple of weeks of moping around the house, I bought a pair of hiking boots and a book on Mt. Tam, and I pushed my sorry butt out into the world. It was transformative. I wandered the trails, alone and curious, and with no control needed other than to keep my legs moving. In that space, I found myself reconnecting with life in a way that I had never experienced.
The second layoff took months to arrive, and I had the luxury of being able to plan the aftermath. I decided to go to New Orleans for a couple of months and immerse myself in a different world. Again, alone and curious, I biked around the Marigny and Bywater and Treme, keeping my legs moving. In between, I wrote a short story and reconnected with my inner life in a totally new way. Writing had always been a part of my work life; now, it could be anything.
I sometimes wonder what my next transformative experience will be, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately during this COVID time. Life has been very quiet and controlled lately. It’s been lovely to spend so much time at home. Neighborhood walks have been little adventures. But I long for something that has the power to really shake me up (in a good way, of course). Maybe I just need to fall in love! But that’s a story for another day.
Who are your writing heroes?
My all-time favorite writer is Jeanette Winterson, author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, The Passion, Written on the Body, and several other novels. She is a true master of language and her voice is lush, evocative, and almost primal in the way that she cuts straight to the core. I just melt every time I read any of her beautiful words. Jeanette’s storytelling style is sparse and often unconventional, but still approachable. I admire her bravery with pushing the medium while still caring about giving readers an enjoyable, immersive experience.
A recent favorite writer is Deborah Levy, author of Hot Milk and Swimming Home. Her stories are sparse and exceptionally well crafted. I imagine that she goes through dozens of edits until her prose is perfectly honed and gleaming. Another interesting writer is Sally Rooney, author of Normal People and Conversations with Friends. Her stories are slow and nuanced, and her characters really grew on me as their lives unfolded.
All three writers treat sexual orientation and identity fluidity in such a normal, everyday way that I find it refreshing and inspiring. I aspire to write like these amazing women!
What do you love about writing?
For me, it all starts with language. I find language to be magical, and the process of making it feels almost like invoking the spirit world. Writing sentences is like casting micro-spells, tiny incantations! The language comes from somewhere unfathomable and gets shaped along the way by all the experiences and voices in my life into something meaningful. When words finally arrive, the result can be beautiful or clunky, but it is always fascinating.
Learning foreign languages has been one of my lifelong hobbies. In school, I studied French, German, Italian, and Latin. More recently, I’ve been studying Spanish and Greek for fun (thank you Duolingo!). Other languages help me to see English differently and give me a greater appreciation of the richness and beauty of the English language.
Describe your writing process.
Argh! I will admit that my writing process is sadly a work in progress. I write for a living every day, which requires discipline and focus (otherwise, I don’t get paid). But when it comes to my own work, I’m just the opposite. My natural tendency is to binge-write over a period of several hours, so I can take my time to dive into the blank space and see what comes up. My challenge is finding that block of time during the week, especially when my eyes are tired after a long day on the computer. I’m trying to find the right rhythm to make it all work, but I haven’t gotten there yet.
What do writing and sex have in common?
To me, writing is inherently sensual because it has to be experienced by our senses in order to exist in any meaningful way. When spoken, the musicality of writing comes alive. But on the page, our eyes caress the shape and form of letters as we take them into our awareness, our memory. Our experience of writing can be unpredictable and intense, and when it touches you deeply, it can even be an orgasmic rush that leaves you breathless and wanting more, more, more! Conversely, it can also feel like going through the motions. It all depends on that special connection between writer and reader. Although, I wonder — if an AI bot writes something, is there the same sensuality, the same connection? And if it is not experienced by a human, does it exist as “writing”?
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I coax sexy writers like Sally Vedros to reveal their creative secrets and processes in writer interviews to inspire you:
Read Fixer, available on Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and at your local bookstore.
Visit Sally’s website.
Follow Sally on LinkedIn, GoodReads, and Twitter.
Feeling inspired? Book a private session with me, The Sexy Grammarian. You always leave private sessions with homework and inspiration, and the first session is always free.
