Author R.L. Maizes Talks About Other People’s Pets

Colorado author R.L. Maizes first became known for the short stories in her Pushcart-nominated collection We Love Anderson Cooper. That book was just the beginning for Maizes. Her follow-up, the novel Other People’s Pets, just won the Colorado Book Award for Fiction.

Set in Denver, the book revolves around La La, an aspiring veterinarian with two warring factions in her own head: the animal empath that just wants to heal, help and hear the titular pets, and the trained burglar her criminal father trained her to be.

So is the book magical realism or a light crime novel? Yes.
“I started with the idea of writing a father-daughter story,” Maizes says, adding that she didn’t hadn't originally planned for the main character to be an animal empath. “It wasn’t until I was writing a scene…that I discovered she could feel their physical sensations in her body. I was delighted. I’d have to picture what the animals were feeling, their pain and their pleasure, and how those sensations manifested themselves in La La’s body. I would have to think about how having that skill would complicate her interactions with people. I thought readers would enjoy seeing the world through La La’s eyes, which would essentially be seeing the world through animals’ eyes.”

This narrative discovery through the act of writing — ideas coming unbidden from a mysterious source — has long been talked about in literary history, from the Greek muses to the creative spark to divine intervention. Call it what you will; Maizes prefers not to label it. “I don’t plan the story initially. I write and see what happens. Once I have a draft, I analyze it to see what’s working and what’s not.”

That’s not to say that it’s all just inspiration. “If a story touches on areas of life I’m not familiar with, I research them exhaustively,” Maizes says. “I read numerous memoirs that describe the experience of attending veterinary school. I did a great deal of research into the techniques burglars use and into their motivations. I watched security footage of burglars breaking into homes.”

Maizes interviewed members of law enforcement and veterinarians to ensure the accuracy of her portrayals.

Readers might recognize a metaphor in the cognitive dissonance required for a character to inhabit a mental space that includes both nurturing empathy and literal larceny. The rationalization of bad behavior and questionable choices might be all too familiar in our day and age of Capitol insurrections and vaccine opposition.

“I’d be lying if I said it was my intention to call attention to that aspect of our lives," Maizes says. “When I write fiction, I focus primarily on the characters, their motivations, their backstories, and how all of that comes into play in the context of a dilemma I set up for them. I’m rarely trying to make a larger statement about society through an overarching metaphor. If it happens, I’m delighted, but it isn’t something I set out to create.”

Which brings us back to the happy accidents of the creative process.

“So much of what happens on the page for me as an artist comes from my subconscious and isn’t planned," Maizes says. "Some of the best parts of my work, and many of the most powerful scenes, surprise me while I’m writing them.”

What may not be as surprising, at least to local readers, is how much Colorado plays a part in her work. Not just her training at Lighthouse Writers’ Workshop or her inspiration from readings at the Boulder Book Store, but the state itself.

“Other People’s Pets is in part about human-animal relationships,” Maizes says, “and we live alongside abundant wildlife: foxes, coyotes, bears. A beautiful stag crossed my path the other morning. When I look up, I see eagles, great blue herons and hawks. Colorado is also a place where people love their dogs and cats. I can’t imagine a better place to have written and set it than in Colorado."

R.L. Maizes’s Other People’s Pets is available at local bookstores now.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated that Maizes' first book was nominated for a Colorado Book Award.