Beth Goobie: Power and Survival
Goobie: It was rejected by Press Gang as being too risky. Pedlar was the second place I sent it. They had placed and ad in the Writer's Union newsletter saying they had wanted manuscripts from women that were being rejected everywhere else. So it sounded like it fit the bill. The Only-Good Heart is only the second book that Pedlar Press has ever released, but it is a very controversial and risky subject matter, so I figured I wouldn't go knocking on the doors of the large presses. Pedlar Press sounded like an open door, and they were immediately interested.
Kirman: It's an understatement that the stories are very graphic. Were you yourself every shocked at what you were putting down on the page?
Goobie: For someone who's been through shock programming, that's an interesting question.
Kirman: I'm sorry; I did not mean it that way.
Goobie: I know you didn't mean it that way. I think it's a given when you're writing a story, that you follow the story, that you don't tell the story where to go. This is fiction, so I am following a story-line and I am not going to tell the story where to go or what to be. I'm not going to dictate the content for the story. I follow the line of reasoning with my young adult novels as well, or poetry, whatever I am doing. So it took me into scary places, of course. But I think when you are doing that you are moving into areas of your brain tissue that you haven't been before, and when you move into these areas in fiction and in thought you're also moving into new areas of your brain tissue and to say no to them would be to say no to recovering parts of your own body and your own mind and psyche. I would never refuse that.
Kirman: When most people think of cults, they think of people who shave their heads and sell flowers on the street corners. They might look at what you have written and think that it is too far-out; these sorts of things just don't happen. What is your reaction to statements like these?
Goobie: Cults deliberately misinform about who they are and what their intentions are. They would love for you to think that they are the freaks on the street corners. They don't want you to realize that they are professional class;
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