Bradley Sides

Bradley Sides’ writing appears at Chapter 16, Chicago Review of Books, Electric Literature, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, The Rumpus, Southern Review of Books, and elsewhere. He holds an MA in English from the University of North Alabama and is an MFA candidate at Queens University of Charlotte. He lives in Florence, Alabama, with his wife. Those Fantastic Lives, his debut collection of short stories, is forthcoming from City of Light Publishing (2021).

Instagram: @BradSides

Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?

I have a very eclectic taste when it comes to music. For example, some of my most played artists are Sturgill Simpson, Frank Ocean, Mac Miller, and Big Thief. I find that music influences my thinking more than my actual writing. The words and sounds and moods put me in a place. Over time, I might be focused on loneliness, loss, love, or anything else, and stories kind of grow from these seeds. 

As important as music is in my life, I can’t listen to anything while I write. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say that “I can’t listen to anything.” I do have my fan going. It’s turned toward the wall and roaring. I think I have a fear of what’s lurking in the quietness. (Monsters, maybe.) “In the Hollow,” one of my stories in Those Fantastic Lives, actually looks at what’s hiding in silence. Yeah, I need my fan.

Have you ever experienced Imposter Syndrome?

Definitely. I go through stretches where it seems like Imposter Syndrome is about the only thing I’m experiencing. It seems to strike hardest when I’m in a drought with placing a story. Deep down, I know that rejections are normal. Every writer gets them. But they still sting, and that sting can, on occasion, last longer than I’d like. It’s healing, for sure, to get that acceptance email. 

Not all books are for all readers… when you start a book and just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?

I love this question. I think I have an unpopular response in that I finish books, whether I like them or not. I might read a little—or a lot—faster if I’m really not getting much from them, but I find that I’m just generally curious about how stories end. 

Also, there are several books that I’ve read that I didn’t really care for during the first half, and then they totally shift in the back half and end of being quite good. I’m patient in life, and I think that carries over in my reading, too. I’m not sure if this is a blessing or a curse… 

Vacation druthers… City or Rural destination? Why?

I grew up in a truly small small town. There were no traffic lights. There were cows and chickens all around me. Ponds. Creeks. All those things. I thought that I hated living there, but, if I’m being honest, I kind of miss parts of that life—the quietness of it all, the peacefulness. I actually am currently (unsuccessfully) convincing my wife for us to start a goat farm. 

For vacations, I like getting lost in rural places. I enjoy water. It calms me. Finding a lonely cliff and just listening to the waves crash against it is my idea of time well spent. 

I also find that my mind is freer in these kinds of settings, and I almost always come back with some weird, wild story ideas.   

What’s the difference (at least for you!) between being a writer and an author? How do you shift gears between the two?

I think that in a lot of ways we are all writers. We write grocery lists, notes so we can document events, reminders so we don’t miss appointments. In taking that a bit further, writers, for me, are those who writer for the pure pleasure of writing. Maybe they don’t have any expectations in their writing other than to feel personal fulfillment. (Which is certainly enough.) 

I tend to think of authors as being those writers who intend to publish what they craft. They write with the intent to revise, to tighten, to strengthen. They write for pleasure, too, but I think authors also write because of a need. They need to write; they have to write. 

Shifting gears between the two is tough because I consider myself to be a writer and an author. When I’m working on a grocery list, for example, I just list and list and list. I write to get it all out, but eventually, as much as I don’t want to, I find myself deleting and rearranging. I even go online to check my spelling of “broccoli” and “zucchini.” The author side of me won’t let me have any peace…