There are violent storms and pipe-dwelling snakes; lost parents and lost minds.

[We moved] because of my husband.

And its such a strange and alien place if you come from the north.

Lauren-Groff-(c)-Kristin-Kozelsky

Credit: Kristin Kozelsky

Its not the Disney World Florida, you know?

Were surrounded by swamps.

What do you think you could see differently in Florida as a transplant?

9781594634512_Florida_JKF[2]

Riverhead Books

I will never not be surprised by reptiles.

Im astonished by them.

But also, the plant life is really different.

Like the palmettos are a little sharp.

And everythings very hot.

You have a thread throughout these stories of women feeling unsatisfied, or women feeling weird about motherhood.

Where did that part come from?Yeah, its all just part of being an ambivalent human being.

(Laughs)And its not just about Florida.

A lot of my fiction comes out of an inability to marry two halves of my understanding.

Ilovebeing a mother of my boys.

Im not sure I love being a mother in the way that our culture demands of mothers.

Like the way youre expected to sacrifice all of your own happiness for them?Right.

Imnothappy to do that!

We should not ask that of women.

Were human, too!

Do a lot of these stories have roots in people you know?Oh, definitely.

So every one of these stories has a person or an imaginary person Im writing for.

I think the oldest one is from 2009.

Ive been writing stories all along.

I love it its a completely separate skill set and mindset.

But what happens is they talk to each other in your subconscious, underneath the surface.

And I think they make each other stronger, all of the work thats going on underneath.

I love short stories.

I love them so much.

Youre not throwing away 15 years of novel-writing.

Youre throwing away like six months of story writing.

Do you have a favorite between writing short stories and writing novels?Theyre natural in different ways.

Ones like swimming and ones like running.

Its just different muscles.

But that doesnt mean that there arent many, many revisions in short stories.

Its just differently urgent and equally exciting and fun.

(Laughs)

I love this cover so much.

Its so much darker!

The way Florida and California are kind of alike, but so different.Thats so interesting!

I hadnt thought of that at all.

My husband looked at it and he saw a panther moving through night vision goggles.

It makes sense in the context of one of the stories.

I love the mystery of that.

Hes not fully present hes kind of a ghost himself.

I love the unresolved aspects of that.

Its such a beautiful cover, too.

Its so strange for a summer cover, too.

You expect like, beaches and Fabio, but this is very different.

The fact that hes not here with us is like a constant daily wound not to be overwhelmingly dramatic!