BackStory: Four Questions with Noa Covo
Author of Tussaud
What inspired you to write ‘Tussaud’?
As a child, I read a book about famous inventions and works of art that included Marie Tussaud’s life story, which I found both gruesome and intriguing. I always wanted to try and flesh out her life story, and one day the connection between her and her statues clicked.
What is your favourite part of the writing process? Your least favourite?
My favourite part of the writing process is the writing. I love getting an idea and trying to capture it on paper before it fades away. It really thrills me. My least favourite part of writing is when I’m editing, because I’m always worried about doing more harm than good and messing the story up.
If you could live for one year in any historical period, when and where would it be, and why?
I’m not sure I’d go anywhere. I’d be kind of scared of catching tuberculosis or smallpox or something. Maybe I’d go back to the seventies or eighties to admire natural habitats that no longer exist. If I ever get stranded before the 1950s, I’ll become a nun. That way I wouldn’t have to marry anyone I didn’t want to, I’d be relatively safe, and I’d get to garden.
What do you like most about writing flash?
My favourite thing about flash fiction is the challenge of trying to capture a story in a tiny piece. I love the feeling I get when I figure out how to fit an entire world into a paragraph.
Noa Covo is a teenage writer. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Jellyfish Review, Waxwing, and X-R-A-Y. Her microchapbook, Bouquet of Fears, was published by Nightingale and Sparrow. She can be found on Twitter @covo_noa.
A Portrait Study by John T. Tussaud of Madame Tussaud at the age of 42, published in The Romance of Madame Tussaud’s (2nd edition), London: Odhams Press. p. 120, via Wikimedia Commons.
