Barbara A. Barnett is a Philadelphia-area writer, musician, coffee addict, wine lover, & all-around geek. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Fantasy Magazine and Black Static. Outside of writing, she has spent most of her career working for performing arts organizations, most recently as an orchestra librarian.
In SELF STORAGE, the line between a storage unit and a therapist’s couch is thinner than you’d think; IN SOMNIO editor Alex Woodroe spoke with Barbara about her story and career (edited for space & clarity):
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AW: Does your story touch on anything personal to you? Alternatively, does it touch on any current events, world fears, philosophy, morality, moods, trends?
BB: The opening scene is lifted straight from real life. I drove past that [sign] and immediately thought, “That is so going into a story.” I intended to write a comedy at first, but the phrase “self storage” got me interested in the idea of storage units as a metaphor for people locking away parts of themselves, the issues they don't want to deal with. Once I latched onto that, things went in a much different direction. Mia’s neuroses are far more extreme than my own (and I don’t have a creepy doll collection), but her compulsiveness is most definitely drawn from a personal place. I’d say some of her tendencies are mine cranked to eleven.
AW: What music do you play? Does it connect to your writing in any way?
BB: My undergraduate degree is in vocal performance, but I also play piano and occasionally dust off my clarinet (though the poor thing is very dusty at the moment). Genre-wise, I perform classical and musical theater more than anything else, but with a healthy dose of folk, pop, and other miscellany thrown in there. And a lot of choral music too, since I sing with two different choirs. My musical tastes are pretty darn eclectic, so I enjoy getting to genre-hop.
Music and writing definitely share real estate in my brain. I've written several stories about musicians, so sometimes that connection is pretty obvious. The rhythm and sound of the words is an area I tend to fixate on when writing—I spend a lot of time reading my works-in-progress aloud—and I think that stems from having a musical ear. And I almost always listen to music while writing, particularly film scores.
AW: What's an orchestra library like?
BB: It is a land of many paper cuts. Orchestra librarians are the ones who make sure the right piece of music goes to the right musician at the right time, so we're constantly shuffling parts in and out of folders for concerts and rehearsals. We put markings in the music, make changes and corrections, print and bind parts, prepare audition materials, rent or buy new music as needed, coordinate with conductors to make sure we're using the correct edition of a piece, and keep instrumentation and performance history records.
Seriously, so much paper.
AW: Do you have any specific formative memories that roped you into Gothic fiction?
BB: The first thing that comes to mind is an animated version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow that aired around Halloween when I was a kid. That image of the Headless Horseman hurling a flaming pumpkin head at Ichabod Crane stuck with me. Pretty dark for a Disney cartoon—they didn’t force a happy ending onto it—and something in my kid brain went, “Yes, that please.”
AW: Did you embrace Goth culture? Carry a parasol? Do you still? If not, what was your teen ‘scene’?
BB: I had some Goth leanings, particularly with the epic amount of black in my wardrobe, but never full-on Goth. "Goth adjacent" would probably be the best description. My teen scene was hanging with the band and theater kids, where geeky weirdness of all types abounded.
AW: Why Horror? Are you and Horror exclusive, and if not, what else do you flirt with?
BB: I've got a pretty serious thing going with both horror and fantasy, though occasionally I'll flirt with science fiction. And as someone who often writes humor within those genres, I'm absolutely fascinated by the way horror and comedy work together and will ramble excitedly about said topic to anyone who will listen.
What I love most about horror is the catharsis element, how it provides this safe way to process ideas and emotions that are dark, scary, or disturbing. The real world can be pretty terrifying, but horror makes it a bit more bearable by saying, "Hey, at least it's not rage zombies. You could totally be fighting rage zombies right now."
AW: Where can people see more of your past/upcoming work?
BB: My website, babarnett.com, is the best place to see what I'm up to and find links to where I'm lurking on social media.
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IN HER OWN WORDS:
Check out an exclusive clip of Barbara’s SELF STORAGE, read by the author herself. Coming to IN SOMNIO: A Collection of Modern Gothic Horror!
