Ask The Author: Erin Stalcup

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Erin Stalcup’s “Why Things Fall” was a lovely addition to our March Issue.

1. What would you shoot off a lover’s head?

An owl made of mica. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?

(Yet, while my father is a great archer who has killed an elk with one arrow, I have terrible aim. And my lover-husband is 6’7” and I’m a great deal shorter, which throws the angles off. So I’m thinking we shouldn’t plan on setting this up. Please, no one send me a mica owl in the mail. At least not one you want me to destroy. Though I would love to have one.)

 2. What is the equation of macking?

F = G(m1m2/r2). To mack, reduce r (the distance between two masses). Force of attraction goes up.

3. Which circus performer best resembles your life?

I wish I was the tightrope walker in a tutu. In fact, I use stilts to set up and take down the Big Top, then during the show I’m the one in the corner, controlling the lights, watching, highlighting what I want others to watch. Elephants, then the trapeze artists. And then the clowns! Even though they scare me.

4. What is the most dangerous thing you’ve done during a job interview?

Told a joke. I didn’t get the job.

5. How would you repeal the law of gravity?

I’ve thought a lot about this! Two characters in a different story of mine repealed the physical law of gravity by breaking a moral law and having sex even though they’re both married to other people (they later break other taboos to try to shatter the laws of entropy and thermodynamics and light’s wave-particle duality, but it doesn’t work).But I’m truly happy with my husband, so I wouldn’t do it that way. It would be fun to fly, but turns out, I like gravity. I like being drawn to things. And without gravity, the planet gets real messed up. But, I’d love to have a switch that makes gravity temporarily stop, in just one room. So, no repeal. Just a stay.

6. Where did “Why Things Fall” come from? How have you fallen?

I’ve fallen in love, and out, and then I fell in love and stayed. I’ve fallen on my face. I fall toward people and things all the time, like Isaac realizes at the end—gravity doesn’t just pull us down, it pulls us to every object in the universe. I used to study physics and I’m fascinated with religion and metaphysics and the laws we live by, and I’m fascinated with attraction, so the story came from all that, but life feels like a constant state of falling for me, I never feel like I’m on solid ground, yet falling can also be thought of as being pulled toward something, so I guess it came from that, too.