West Trade Review: Brief Q&A with Author Stacey Robertson

A Brief Q&A with Author Stacey Robertson

An excerpt of Robertson's novel, Holy Crap, appears in the Winter 2022 collection of Online Exclusives.

WTR: This excerpt begins, “Odelia resisted the urge to scratch the fleas…” This is chapter 17 of a larger work, so the reader should assume that this character has been through quite a bit up to this point. Without giving away too much, what can you tell us about Odelia’s journey in the book, and where we’re located in that trajectory?

SR: The Baxter home has been in decline for years, but the house has now become so horrible, so overwhelmed with crap, that local authorities needed to get involved. The city’s intervention provides an opportunity for Odelia to change her life. She could go from being the weird kid in a disgusting home to a regular teenage girl. She could finally become acceptably, properly clean. But she would lose her father – the only family she has – in the process. This is an excerpt of the moment when Odelia must decide if she will get herself out of the house, or stay and protect her dad.

WTR: In what ways would you say these chapters are representative of the larger novel as a whole?

SR: The novel is told from three perspectives, Odelia, Ralph Baxter (her father) and Irene Baxter (her estranged mother). These two Odelia chapters are the beginning of a turning point for Odelia, both as a developing adult and as a member of the Baxter family. She’d been living for so long with the belief that there was nothing wrong with her dad. Hoarding was not a problem – it was a solution. She’d believed him when he told her that there was something wrong with everyone else. She’d believed him when he said that other people were the problem with the way they trashed perfectly good stuff. We learn through these chapters that Odelia is no longer buying into her dad’s beliefs. She doesn’t even go home after school because she can’t face him. Instead, she is turning to the other characters, inviting more opinions and experiences into her life. She is beginning to finally gain perspective. This is what the novel is about.

WTR: Chapter 18 ends here in a pleasantly jarring way; fitting for an excerpt, in that it leaves the reader anticipating more, with the impression that there is more to the chapter than we get. What can readers look forward to in the rest of the novel?

SR: Odelia has a lot going on – a possible romance, some friend drama, definitely some parental issues. But her father also has his side of the story, and the other chapters give the readers access to the mind of hoarder and how he justifies his behavior. Readers also get to meet Irene, who has her own struggles that have nothing (and everything) to do with why the Baxter house is so terrible. The whole novel is a story of family and friends coming to terms with a mental conditional that many in our society are embarrassed to admit exists.

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Stacey Robertson has published short fiction pieces in Spectrum Literary Journal and ProseAxe. She a member of Jersey City Writers and holds a BA in Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Stacey currently lives in Rio de Janeiro where she continues to manage a healthcare consulting firm. Holy Crap is her first novel.