“The Summer People” by Kelly Link will be appearing in Prime’s forthcoming Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy: 2012 edited by Rich Horton. Erin Stocks interviews Link on the story. 

Fran’s reaction to the unusual and unworldly elements of her life–taking them all in stride and not even blinking an eye–provides a nice contrast to Ophelia’s (and possibly the reader’s) reactions. How did you go about writing the juxtaposition between the two girls? 

Well, as the writer, you have to imagine how your characters look at the world. You take things in (or don’t) depending on whether or not you’ve grown up in a environment where there are particular kinds of danger or risk or responsibility. Ophelia comes from a rich family, she’s gay, and she’s been bullied. So she would be sensitive to particular kinds of situations and risk and blind to others. She’s susceptible to overtures of friendship, because she’s lonely. She is attracted to the idea of magic and the fantastic, maybe because she’s been protected from the true cost of things. (I think that often magic seems like a kind of currency–you get marvelous  things! Magic can belong to you!) Fran, on the other hand, is self-reliant. She knows what things like magic and family cost. In her eyes, friendship isn’t something affordable.

MORE: Read the whole story here!