Former Flame Fridays - Lori D'Angelo

3/21/25

You were featured in volume 666. What has happened since?

Volume 666 came out in summer 2024. Since then, I've published a book, The Monsters Are Here, which is a collection of feminist literary science fiction horror stories with ELJ Editions. I've also published some other poems and short stories and taught a one day writing class at a local non-profit writing center. In November 2024, I became an associate flash fiction editor at JMWW. I feel like a lot has happened since then.

What/who inspired Damage Control? How does it fit into your style/body of work?

Damage Control was in part inspired by reading The Exorcist in the summer of 2023. I actually listened to the audiobook to and from work. I had seen the film but never read the book. And so I wanted to write this story about a girl who was living with a demon inside her. What might that look like, and what choices might she make? I write feminist literary scifi horror. I'm interested in writing about the choices that people make and why, and I love using the lens of speculative fiction to look at those choices. I also like thinking about the practicalities or what ifs. If you were a creature or were inhabited by some kind of creature, what might that look like in daily life?

Damage Control

Content Warning: self-harm, demons. 

My demon was named Calliope, and she was friendly at first. But things started to go wrong when she wanted me to behead my sister Linda’s doll. Linda was six, and I just thought that was taking it a bit too far.

The other things she wanted me to do I did without much hesitation. Slash Mr. Lasher’s tires? Check. He was a prick, and he had given me a C in gym because I didn’t wear tight shirts that made it easier for him to breastwatch. I can see why this angered him. I did have nice breasts.

Egg Mrs. Treacher’s house? Not a problem. Mrs. Treacher was one of those entitled old ladies who thought that she could park anywhere she wanted, especially on senior citizen day at the Shop and Stop where she often could and did take up two spaces without regard to other people who were trying to get in and out.

I should have known that the day when Calliope would ask me to do something distasteful was coming. My tasks had started out easy, pranky and then, like a computer-based standardized test, had gotten next level.

read the rest: Vol. 666

Why Troublemaker Firestarter? What compels you to submit your work? Why be a writer at the end of the world?

One reason I submitted to Troublemaker Firestarter is that when I saw you were doing volume 666 I felt like a story about a girl and her demon might fit perfectly. There's a lot of awful things that happen in the world. And I feel like writing is one way to mitigate the damage, damage control if you will. Writing is a way that I make sense of the world. Sometimes, I wonder what do people do if they don't write? I assume that they have some other way of making sense of the world. I feel like writing is just such an important part of how I understand and cope with reality that I just can't not do it.

Who are your current favorite writers?

I think that Diane Suess is doing some really interesting things in poetry, and I love Elizabeth Strout's fiction. I'm also really enjoying the work of Ray Bradbury at the moment. I enjoy reading a mix of classic and contemporary writers.

Are you a troublemaker, a firestarter, a heartbreaker, a lucky duck, a devil, a terror, or sad and horny?

I feel like I'm a troublemaker. I think writers have the ability to unsettle and make people question their view of the world, and that's what we should be doing. It's a way we can make a difference.

Where can people find you?

My website is loridangelo.com. I'm also on Twitter @sclly21 and Instagram and Threads at lori.dangelo1.

What would you want the lovely readers of Substack to do?

Buy my book, and read, of course. I think that art is so important to who and what we are and who we have the potential to be.