Aerie InternationaL - Missoula County Public Schools

AI: What are some techniques you use to develop plots and characters in your short
stories?
JR: I revise constantly as I write, because I’m always asking myself
questions. How would he describe this? How would she react to that?
Whenever possible, I take out something generic and replace it with
something unique. I was almost laughed out of the writing room when
someone looked over my shoulder and read the first line of Worker Bee,
but eventually everyone understood that I was writing the way my narrator
might talk. I imagined this sexually repressed country boy who
was still humble enough to devote his entire life to an undeserving girl.
It was fun. I got to use those weird colloquialisms.
Again with my teacher. He quotes James Joyce: “A writer should
know how much change a character has in his pockets.” I think this is a
little ridiculous – after all, I keep my change in a jar on my desk. And I
firmly believe the penny should be taken out of circulation. The nickel
could be the lowest denomination if we changed the pricing system a
little bit. The penny, after all, is annoying and useless. Just think of all
the natural resources – and time – we would save. I used to work in retail;
I know how long it takes to count out pennies, then pick up the one
you inevitably drop.
But anyway, I’ll shut up; I guess I’m revealing character.
AI: What made you write this story? You mentioned it began with an insect-removal
jingle. Could you elaborate on this? Are you particularly concerned with decline in
honeybee populations around the world?
JR: Just like the narrator in “Worker Bee,” I called Time and Weather
one morning and heard the Bee Removal advertisement. I called over and
over, trying to get the same ad to play, but I never got it again. So I wrote
down the jingle and telephone number as best as I could remember,
then called. I got the guy’s answering machine. Later that day, he called
back and left a voice mail. I remember he called me by my first name,
which he must have heard on my greeting, but it was still kind of creepy.
I assumed a full conversation would just result in an argument about
conservation, so I dropped the notion and started writing about him
without any further investigation.
Yes, the honeybee decline scares me, if only from its sheer rapidity.
Because we sit around and argue about everything, most environmentrelated
issues seem to have left us in the dust, outpaced us. Interestingly
enough, the suspected cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (the bee
problem) has shifted a few times since I wrote Worker Bee – from air
pollution to global warming, then to runoff of super-pesticides, then to a
particularly potent virus.
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