“Widows in the World” by Gavin Grant will be appearing in Prime’s forthcoming Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy: 2012 edited by Rich Horton. Gina Guadagnino interviews him on the story.

You describe the Granny and her house as being friends, but the people in the house feel like a constant source of stress and pressure for her. The Granny connects more with the sentient house itself, rather than those in it. Can you describe that relationship more for us?

It’s sometimes easier to deal with other things instead of people and having the house be sentient adds a new layer to the Granny’s people avoidance behaviors. She has bent the house—and herself—out of shape and made it a part of her new narrative, something she couldn’t coerce a person into doing. So it’s not a healthy relationship.

More: Read the rest of the interview here!