Authors Interviewing Characters: Ciera Horton McElroy

February 28, 2023 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

About Atomic Family:

It’s November 1, 1961, in a small town in South Carolina, and nuclear war is coming. Ten-year-old Wilson Porter believes this with every fiber of his being. He prowls his neighborhood for Communists and studies fallout pamphlets and the habits of his father, a scientist at the nuclear plant in town.

Meanwhile, his mother Nellie covertly joins an anti-nuclear movement led by angry housewives–and his father, Dean, must decide what to do with the damning secrets he’s uncovered at the nuclear plant. When tragedy strikes, the Porter family must learn to confront their fears—of the world and of each other.

Author Ciera Horton McElroy interviews Nellie Porter.

Ciera: I have to start off by saying…it was pretty bold of you to protest your husband and his work in such a public way.

Nellie: I’ve never been called bold. Interesting. Thank you.

Ciera: Can you tell us a bit about why you joined Women Strike for Peace?

Nellie: Why did I? Ha! Well, there’s no one real reason. It was everything. I was sick and tired of the bomb plant, of feeling small, of being ignorant about what was really happening here, of watching Wilson become more and more obsessed day after day after day…in my town, in my own goddamn house. Dean doesn’t understand what that was like, even now. Say, Dean put you up to asking that, didn’t he?

Ciera: No, he didn’t.

Nellie: How very like him. He thinks the protest was all about him and me and our own personal issues. But it was about something so much bigger than us, than this town. Did he tell you he was sneaking Wilson’s baby teeth to test them for radiation? What kind of a father does that and hides it from his wife? I knew something dark had to be going on. And guess what? I was right.

Ciera: Maybe he thought you would, you know, panic about the teeth? When maybe that—

Nellie: Whose side are you on?

Ciera: No one’s. I’m an objective interviewer.

Nellie: I hate being interviewed. Is that a recording device? Turn that off.

Ciera: Okay, okay it’s off.

Nellie: I was interviewed once, you know, when Dean was first hired and the Atomic Energy Commission wanted to see if he was harboring Communist sympathies. As if. They asked infuriating questions about him, about me, about my family. You’d of thought we’d committed high treason.

Ciera: Let’s…move on. What do you think about having a book about you coming out?

Nellie: I don’t know. I’m nothing special—but at least Dean and I get to tell our own side of the story. I like that.

Ciera: I like that, too.

BUY ATOMIC FAMILY HERE

Ciera Horton McElroy (b. 1995) was raised in Orlando, Florida. She holds a BA from Wheaton College and an MFA from the University of Central Florida. Her work has appeared in AGNI, Bridge Eight, Iron Horse Literary Review, the Crab Orchard Review, and Saw Palm, among others. She currently lives in St. Louis with her husband and son.