Horror writers. They get the reputation for being creepy, sinister, and even dangerous. But like any other writer, their genre is a tool to help them tell their stories. Short story writer William Becker learned this the hard way while honing his craft. Below is my review of his surreal horror story, “New York Onions” as well as an interview with the author about his craft. Be sure to check out his links, including a link to his website where you can read “New York Onions” for free.
“New York Onions” Short Story Review
How do authors determine how long a certain piece would be? What situation lends itself to flash fiction versus a series? The truth is: no one knows. The writing usually tells the author how long it needs to be. Then, it’s up to the author to build in all of the necessary elements that it takes to make that story impactful in the space they have. Writer William Becker manages to tells a surreal, suspenseful story in the course of a mere three pages in his piece, “New York Onions.”
“New York Onions” plot synopsis
Over the course of several days, Jessica repeatedly buys onions, takes them back to her apartment, paints on her wall, and sleeps. After each shopping trip, the state of her apartment, mentality, and physical health deteriorates.
While she paints, she hears voices telling her cryptic messages. She often answers, and it’s the only interaction that we see her have. The outside world is never seen directly. We are only told about her whereabouts before she enters the apartment from the narrator who tells the story in stage directions. It feeds the reader information in small doses which veils the plot in uncertainty.
What is clear, though, is that every image and action mean something else. And Jessica is spiraling towards certain doom.
A fly on the wall perspective
The most noticeable element of “New York Onions” is its narration. It creates a rhythmic, routine pacing that shows rather than tells but guards even what it chooses to show. The plot is littered with symbolic items: onions, a black marker, bags full of jars whose contents remains unknown.
We don’t know who Jessica is or what she does. What little of her back story we do learn is at the very end. We are merely the fly on the wall who watches what she does without understanding why she is painting black figures on her walls, buying bags of onions each day, and answering a voice that isn’t there.
However, it’s human nature to sympathize with a deteriorating human, and that much we know to be true. All that’s described of her apartment is that it’s literally rotting with filth. The onions she buys are never eaten. Instead, they stockpile like the emotional baggage she carries around with her. What do we know about onions? When you chop them up, they make you cry.
Internal horror
This is not a clear cut horror story. You won’t find a killer or a monster out to get her. Jessica’s biggest enemy is internal. So, the horror elements that make up this story are psychological. That can be even scarier than a killer or monster.
Despite its cryptic nature, the surrealist aspects of the story help to add to the touch of horror that is present: the compulsions, the voice, the creepy artwork. This is not how a person should live, and it’s a good way to die. It speaks to the fragility of our mental state and how tragedy, substance abuse, and isolation can break us. You don’t need to be terrorized by an outside force. You can terrorize yourself until there’s nothing left.
My recommendation
“New York Onions” is a great read for anyone looking for something short but unsettling. It would fit in nicely in a horror/suspense anthology. There are a lot of corners to explore and unanswered questions to ponder, though it still feels complete. This is a story that only needs three pages to tell its tale. The rest we the readers fill in with our own personal experiences, relationships, and fears.
Author interview with William Becker
About the Writer
Author Name: William Becker
Author Links
Short Story Title: “New York Onions”
Genre: Surreal Horror
Link to Buy
Story summary
Jessica buys onions every single day with money from under her mattress. Then she paints before finally passing out. “New York Onions” is a short adventure into surrealism and loneliness. Originally, “New York Onions” was published on Wattpad and became “featured” by the website itself, amassing tens of thousands of readers and dozens of glowing reviews, before finally finding a home in its publication with Atlantis: A Creative Magazine.
Review excerpts
“Mind gripping, powerful, and very well worth the read.” – Rose Dalziel, Wattpad Ambassador.
“Dark, twisted, and psychologically thrilling. Foremost, New York Onions is important.” – Taylor Hale, Author of A Perfect Circle, The Summer I Drowned, and Street Girl
“Like a dreamer aiming to reach the skies, William Becker became an astronaut that landed on every goddamn planet in the universe.” – Fury Evans, author of Cinderelliot
“I hear it’s boring and written by a gay Dutch boy.” – Hotpressass, Wattpad User
“New York Onions is a glorious story that throws you for a loop.” – Michael Rehorst, author of Selfless and The Wrongs He Made Right
Voted 2017 Spring Award’s “Best Short Story”
LollipopHQ ‘s Sour Apple Award for “Most Unique”
Talking Shop
What do you want readers to take away from your work?
I think I want readers to grab whatever they want from my work. If they hate it, that’s fine. If they love it, that’s awesome too. Art is meant to provoke a real response from people, not whatever the artist intends. Everyone is built with different preconceived notions about everything, so not everyone is going to react the same way to different things. I’d like everyone to just react honestly but also tell me everything they feel. Even if my work is the worst they’ve ever read.
Name a fact or detail about your story that readers will never know is there.
Mark Hammelton is an otherworldly being that appears in each one of my books.
What’s the best review/compliment that you’ve received about your work?
Someone told me they liked it so much that they had shown it to their English teacher, who read it out loud to a class of students. That was weird. I felt almost undeserving of that much praise. I’m an underground author, for Christ’s sakes.
What famous books can you compare to your own?
Everyone likes to call me the next Stephen King, but I am beginning to think that the people who say this have only one horror author they’ve ever heard of, Stephen King. My style and content are both very different from him.
How long did it take to write your book from the day you got the idea to write it to the day you published it?
Three days between writing it and posting it on Wattpad. It got published through Atlantis: Creative Magazine about two years after I wrote it
How long have you considered yourself a writer? Did you have any formal training, or is it something you learned as you went?
I have been calling myself a writer since I was 12, which upon the time of answering this question, was seven years ago. My training consists of a bunch of honors English classes in high school, a creative writing class (which I got reported to the school police officer in for my content), writing for a newspaper, and editing the second novel by Alexis Sundquist.
If you’re wondering how I got reported, it was because we had a really strict teacher who came up with rather boring prompts, like “write a story about a man who works in a store.” He was obsessed with idol worship and style emulation. Anywho, he usually made us write pieces under a thousand words that had to be very family-friendly.
Naturally, my first story for the class was about a man who drugs a couple of young girls using spiked lemonade. He decided from then on he didn’t like me very much. I did another story about a guy working at a McDonalds who goes into the meat-cooler late one evening and finds human bodies in there.
I eventually wrote a poem about cancel culture for a class with the line “they kill us because we speak.” He took it as me threatening to kill people at the school. My parents were very happy.
If you don’t make a living exclusively writing, what is your day job? How, in any way, does it relate to your life as a writer?
I write for a newspaper, and I am currently applying to become a distance education coordinator at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.
What were your expectations for writing and publishing your first book? Have they changed since then?
My expectations when I was 15 were that everyone would somehow randomly discover me and I’d get extremely popular. That wasn’t true and I underestimated the amount of time I would spend reaching out and trying to grow. Promotion, when you are self-published, is the long haul. It’s an insane amount of work.
Do you have a writing ritual, odd habits, or superstitions?
Every time I write, I sit down in a bathtub full of tar surrounded by black candles. My pet goat, Cleo, screams at me. For every scream, I write ten words. This is why there are such long gaps in between my releases.
How well do you handle criticism, either while writing, editing, or reviews? Do you ever use that criticism to change your story?
I live for criticism. Every piece I get usually means something to me. I find people telling me that my writing is too dark or too weird or too confusing is… exhausting more than anything. My work is supposed to be horror, you damn prudes!
What is the most fun part about writing? The most difficult?
The most fun part? Writing a conclusion for a long novel. The hardest part? The middle of the book where the beginning is far away and so is the end. My dry spells happen often there.
What is your most stereotypical writer trait? Your least stereotypical?
I often drink so much coffee when editing that my toilet smells like coffee. I know that is disgusting. But it needed to be said. I need therapy.
“What If” Scenarios
If your book ever becomes a movie and you get final say over the cast, which actors would you hire to play your characters?
I’m a film major so of course, I’m going to be needlessly pretentious and say that I would hire a bunch of no-name actors who are competent. There’s no sense in hiring famous people. I need people who are desperate about the art, not just looking to add another thing to the resume or pull in another six-figure paycheck.
If you could have one person that you admire, living or dead, read your book, who would it be?
David Lynch and Marilyn Manson. Both would have… interesting opinions.
A wealthy reader buys 100 copies of your book and tells you to hand them out to anyone you wish. Who do you give them to?
75 would go to libraries. The other 25 would go to random people I meet in my travels who have an interest.
You’re offered a contract to rewrite your book in another genre. Which genre do you choose and why?
A comedy. It’s easy to see how horror and comedy align. It would give me just as much freedom to be crazy.
You’re given $10,000 to spend on marketing for your book. How do you spend it?
Editors and marketing.
Your book becomes a best seller. What do you do next?
Cry deeply.
Would you rather own your own book store or your own publishing house, and what would you sell or publish?
Publishing house. I meet so many talented writers every day who aren’t going to get published because they are non-traditional. I’d love to publish people who write with a decent amount of style; I’d also love to house controversial work.
What is one thing you would give up writing to have (or to have back)?
To have 17 arms. I would never need anything again. I would be the mega-octopus man, and I would make a lot of money from social media.
You have the means to hire a full-time assistant to help you with your writing. What tasks do you give them to do?
Tell them to go interact with people on Instagram. I love the actual process too much.
You have final say over who reads the audio book version of your story. Who do you choose?
The obvious and only meaningful answer is Morgan Freeman.
What famous artist or photographer would you want to create or capture your book cover image?
Not sure about specifics, but I really want an oil painter to create a cover for my next work. If there’s any oil painter reading this, please send me an email.
Your story gets picked up by a streaming service to make into a series. What service would you want it to be, and would you want them to follow your story closely, or would you rather see what directions they take it in?
I wouldn’t want it to be exactly the same. I’d like it to echo my work but be able to stand on its own. Don’t bastardize my writing of course, but make it your own and make it make logical.
Just For Fun
One bucket list item you’ve completed and one that’s still on your list.
My most recent bucket list item was to go on a romantic picnic. I have the most lovely boyfriend in the world who decided to take me down to a nearby river with some lunch. It was very sweet. The biggest item that is still on my list is to go home to Russia and meet my real parents. I was adopted at a very young age, and as such, I’ve never met my mother and father. I’m learning Russian now for my eventual trip.
A movie or a piece of music that changed your life.
Soundtracks for the Blind by Swans gives me all kinds of chills. Too many songs on that album get me spaced out and thinking about life as a whole. It’s also been great for writing.
Favorite time of/part of your day.
Right after sundown. It’s when everyone is still awake, but the heat of the day is gone and I’m happy to be alive. There’s something very freeing about it.
Your favorite podcast.
Your Favorite Band Sucks. They go after random musical artists and spend time just trashing them. I’m not so sure they actually hate the artists, considering the impressive wealth of information they have about each, but they always bring up super valid points and give out amazing recommendations for new music.
A talent you have and a talent you wish you had.
I can’t speak to my talents, but I can say I wish I had good handwriting. It’s very embarrassing to call myself a writer but have penmanship that looks like a drunk four-year-old. I had to go to physical therapy because my hands were really weak as a child. I wish I felt like putting the time in to actually become a good writer… in the literal sense.
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You have shared a great review and asked some great questions. Thank you for sharing.