Mourning Goats

#63 Joshua Mohr

2014-02-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW SIXTY THREE

Joshua Mohr

When someone as badass as Gina Frangello says, "By the way, why haven't you ever interviewed Josh Mohr? What are you waiting for -- he's perfect for your series." you don't ask questions, you just do it, and I'm pumped that I did! Check out Joshua's interview below and then go pick up his newest novel, Fight Song!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

That makes me think of weeping barnyard animals in their most conspicuous funeral attire, veils, flasks, the whole macabre enchilada.

2. Sell your new book, Fight Song, in one sentence.

FIGHT SONG is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, set in a 21st century American suburb, and my Dorothy is a sad sack computer programmer named Bob Coffen, who's not making super bueno life choices...

3. You were the surprise guest at a pretty big event at The Lost Church on January 22nd, can you tell us a little bit about that?

It was really fun! I read a new essay and good times were had by all.

4. Big fan of your tattoos, when was your first and why did you get it?

I tried to get my first tattoo when I was seventeen but the shop refused my fake ID. The owner liked my enthusiasm and offered to give me a discount on my 18th birthday. I've been hooked ever since.

5. Do you have a writing schedule? What's it look like?

I had a writing schedule, but my wife and I had a daughter, Ava, in June. So any semblance of predictable daily life has been dismantled. I write in stolen moments. I write in the laundromat. On subways and buses. I also have an office down at the SF Writers Grotto and sneak down there whenever I can.

6. You had a pretty badass tour for Fight Song, are you a fan of doing readings?

I love readings. Being an author requires you to spend so many hours alone, so getting a chance to travel and share your art with other nerds is a dream.

7. What's it like being married to another novelist? Are you each others first readers?

We are. I think it's great, though you'd have to ask Lelo if she digs it. We can geek out and talk about really nuanced stuff. I mean, we get how crucial certain discoveries are, whereas a non-writer wouldn't understand how exciting it is to dial in the secondary characterizations in chapter 13.

8. I heard about you through another MG interviewee, Gina Frangello, how'd you get involved with her, Craig Clevenger, and Rob Roberge in the desert?

I just go wherever Tod Goldberg tells me to go. He said, "Come to Palm Desert," and I said, "OK."

9. How did you get your agent? Did they reach out to you or did you query them?

I queried ICM. I like having a mainstream rep, especially because I publish with indie houses. It's good to have a strong advocate and plus ICM has those pitbull lawyers if things go off the rails.

10. What are your thoughts on MFA's? I see you have yours and teach at the University of San Francisco.

Graduate programs are fantastic. It's the place to take a lot of chances on the page and meet a bunch of other heads who dig literature. The community aspect is something people don't talk about enough: we need to be around other writers, or it's hard to finish our books. I try and tell my grad students to honor their imaginations. That's what makes them unique, their idiosyncratic imaginations. If they play to it, they'll be fine.

11. Other than writing, what takes up the most of your time (that you enjoy)?

Ava, my daughter. I only taught part time in the fall so I could stay home 3 days a week. It's pretty rad. We just roll around and drool.

12. The Scout's Honor book trailer is one of my favorite book trailers, ever. How did that come about? Did you write it?

I did write it. We wanted to do something ala the promo trailers for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Something that is barely related to the novel. Book trailers usually are just bad advertisements. I wanted to make something that was its own piece of art.

13. Did I hear that at one point, there was a goat talking to various characters in Fight Song? Did you know this interview was coming?

Ha. That goat! Normally, I have one embarrassing thread in a book that I have to cut out before it's pubbed. In "Damascus," there was a genie in a whiskey bottle. Yikes. Seriously.

14. The first book you ever read was Kurt Vonnegut's, Slaughterhouse Five, do you think that reading that book changed your life? Do you think most writer's have a book like that?

I hope so. I hated reading, faked every book report until my senior year in high school, and when that guy put Vonnegut in my hand, my whole life changed.

15. You just received your 1,000th rating on Goodreads, congratulations! Do you think sites like that are important for an author's success?

Nah, they're not essential, but like I said earlier, I value community, so I try to make myself available to other people who cherish the written word.

16. What about social media? Is it a necessary evil?

I don't think it's necessary, and I don't think it's evil. It's just these things we can either do or not do. They're resources, but books succeed without them. Steve Elliott once said that we should market our books with the same integrity with which we wrote them. That's always stuck with me. If you don't like Facebook/Twitter/whatever, then don't do it. Don't let some marketing asshole talk you into something you're uncomfortable with.

17. It seems as though you embrace insomnia as almost a gift, can you expand on that?

Well, I don't really have a choice. I can't sleep. But I try to use that time to write more. Most people are calling it a night and I'm still going. So in a sense, my work day is longer. My work day is dog years, if that makes any sense.

18. What's the last book you read that knocked you on your ass?

James Brown's "LA Diaries"

19. Your new book is the first book you're doing some heavy research for, what's making this one different?

Fortunately/unfortunately, the thread of the new novel that was requiring the research didn't make the cut. So I'm back to just making stuff up and swigging coffee.

20. What's next for Joshua Mohr?

I'm just finishing up a new novel called "ALL THIS LIFE." It's an ensemble story about a mass suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge. We follow seven or eight people directly or indirectly related to it. I've had a blast writing it and I hope my enthusiasm rushes off the page!

Thank you!

Goat

#62 Gina Frangello

2014-01-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW SIXTY TWO

Gina Frangello

Gina is a brilliant workaholic who has more creds under her belt than a normal person should be able to achieve. And, she made me ridiculously jealous when she told me about her UCR-Palm Desert Residency with Craig Clevenger, Stephen Graham Jones, and Rob Roberge. Check out the interview below, and then pre-order her new book, A Life in Men!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?”

Probably Heidi. I associate goats with Heidi’s little quasi-boyfriend, Peter. Also, a goat ate half my skirt once, while I was wearing the skirt. So maybe nudity. This feels like a Rorschach test where the answer is sure to reveal that I’m deranged...

2. A Life in Men, due out in February 14', sell it in a sentence.

Uh. If you’re obsessed with sex, travel and mortality, this is definitely a novel for you?

3. Mother of 3, wife, teacher at Columbia and Northwestern, editor and co-founder at Other Voices Books, editor at The Rumpus and The Nervous Breakdown... the list goes on and on, where do you find time for anything? Let alone writing a book?

I don’t sleep much. That’s the real answer. But about a year ago, I realized my schedule was untenable and that I needed to unload…I don’t teach at either Northwestern or Columbia College anymore, and in September I stepped down from Other Voices Books…the idea was to focus on my online editing at The Rumpus and TNB, my writing, and my family. But then this summer I was offered my longtime dream job of joining the MFA faculty at UC-Riverside Palm Desert—my former author, Tod Goldberg’s, program, where I’ve been a regular guest for several years—so pretty much everything I unloaded has now been consumed by that new gig, which I love. It’s funny because my husband had told me it would take me all of five minutes to replace the things I was letting go with new things that would keep the chaos in my life at a constant breakneck level, and indeed, he was right—actually, I took the UCR job even before I left Other Voices Books, so the chaos was already assured. I have to admit that I must like it that way.

4. You recently met with two women from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation about finding a way to contribute to the lives of people living with the same disease as the protagonist of your book, A Life in Men? What came of it?

It’s been really cool so far, and is still unfolding. Mainly, we’re trying to strategize as to how to get A Life in Men into the hands of anyone with CF who wants it, without their having to buy it. We’re trying to figure out ways to approach that without the CFF actually “endorsing" the book, which is tricky with such a large organization that serves all ages and kinds of people. But they’re helping me with outreach and awareness, because ideally I would like to give back to the cystic fibrosis community as much as possible. I donated ten percent of my advance to the organization too, but I’d love to get involved on a more direct and personal level if possible, with individual people.

5. You just had the pleasure of hanging out with 3 other Mourning Goats Interviewees (Craig Clevenger, Stephen Graham Jones, and Rob Roberge) at the UCR-Palm Desert residency, how was it and how did you get involved?

Well, Rob and Stephen are both on the UCR faculty too—they were both hired well before my more recent hire—so I always see them there when I’m out as a guest, and Rob is also a former Other Voices Books writer (for The Cost of Living) and one of my best friends, and Stephen is a writer on Dzanc Books, which is Other Voices Books’ parent company, so we’re all kind of lit-kin. But Clevenger I was meeting for the first time, which was awesome because I hear about him all the time from mutual friends. He actually recognized me at a distance and followed me into the gift shop at the swanky resort where the residency is held, calling my name, so at first I thought he was just a crazy person, and then I realized who he was (in other words, a crazy person I already vicariously knew and loved) so I started hugging him in the shop. Did you see the photo of the three guys in their spa robes that I took at residency? You have to include it in this interview! I’m going to send it to you! They’re all always being branded as edgy, bad boy, “transgressive” writers, but seriously, there couldn’t be sweeter, funnier people anywhere. (By the way, haven’t you ever interviewed Josh Mohr? He was there too! If you haven’t, what are you waiting for—he’s perfect for your series. He left residency just in time to avoid being photographed with strawberries on his eyes.)

Some goats, relaxing in their natural habitat

(Craig Clevenger, Stephen Graham Jones, and Rob Roberge)

6. As an editor at The Rumpus and The Nervous Breakdown, what are your responsibilities there? Do you read everything that comes through?

Oh dear god no. I mean, no one person could possibly read everything that comes through The Rumpus and TNB even if s/he was paid six figures and worked ninety hours a week. Whereas in reality, both sites are run almost entirely by volunteers who have additional jobs. Both sites have a lot of different editors with varying duties, to make the situation manageable—and enjoyable--for everyone. At TNB, I only handle fiction, and my role is mainly curatorial. I book “featured” authors whose recently released books we spotlight with excerpts and interviews. I also publish some original short fiction, but not that much due to time constraints. And I have an amazing, superhuman assistant editor, J. Ryan Stradal, who does a lot of tech and copyediting work that makes it possible for me to manage my time and for us to showcase as many writers as we do. At The Rumpus, I’m in charge of all Sunday content, basically. I write the Lit-Link Round-up column for the blog, and I bring on original content, like an essay or a review, from another contributor weekly. I find the work I publish on The Rumpus mainly via people who already know me from another professional capacity, have written for The Rumpus previously, or are referred my way. What’s fun is that the content on Sundays is completely open—I even publish poetry once in awhile, for example. There, I do all my own uploading, so time management is important because I’m a tech idiot. If the entire internet ever crashes on a Sunday, it will be my fault somehow.

7. What are your thoughts on writing programs? Is an MFA necessary? Do you recommend it?

No, of course it’s never been and never will be necessary. There will always be the exceptional writers who are self-taught, or the many who have mentors and peers who help their work grow outside of the academic system. An MFA is helpful in several ways, the primary ones probably being structured time to devote to writing, a structured audience to read and critique said writing, and deadlines that help a developing writer learn discipline. Some MFAs, like UCR’s, are also extremely useful for networking with a wide array of published writers and industry professionals--but that varies a great deal among programs. Not all focus on those more professional aspects of being a working writer, and the philosophies as to whether they should differ widely program to program. All MFA programs, however, give students an opportunity for intense bonding with other developing writers, and with the working writers who are their professors, and for many people—especially those who don’t come from artistic families or live in major metropolitan areas—those experiences can be invaluable and world-changing. MFAs are also, bluntly, extremely expensive, and clearly they do not always translate directly into earning a living as a writer or a professor, and I consider it my ethical responsibility as a writer and teacher to acknowledge that. I recommend graduate writing programs very highly for people who go into them for the right reason, which is to learn more about their craft and the literary community within a structured environment of like-minded peers. If you go to be enriched, you will be enriched, as a writer and a person. You may or may not get a job or a book deal as a result of a program, so those are not the right reasons to go, period. Also, for people for whom money is a big issue—as it was for me—there are also programs where you can TA and receive a tuition waiver and even be paid to go to school, or low residencies that allow people to retain their day jobs and keep their lives mainly intact while pursuing their degrees.

8. You have a great social presence, do you think it's necessary these days? Especially for a writer trying to sell a few books?

Well, this is a really hard question. I’m a social person in general, and I’m especially happy to spend time among other writers and avid readers, so for me this is a perk of the job not a task or a hoop to jump through. But I know that not all writers feel this way, either because they’re more introverted or because they don’t live in places with easy access to literary events, or don’t have the job, family, or financial flexibility to do things like touring extensively. The internet, with things like Facebook, guest blog tours, and the wide array of literary sites, certainly make it possible for someone to have a social presence without having to be someone who goes out all the time or tours a lot. But of course focusing on social media can also seem like a full-time job to people who don’t enjoy that kind of thing, and even among those of us who love connecting with other literary types, it can prove a distraction from the actual writing. You can’t sell a book you aren’t producing. So this is really a mixed bag. Social presence is, more than anything else, something that should be fun and community building. Maybe it does help move a few books, sure. But the people whose books really move—I mean, a Franzen or Egan or something—that isn’t achieved by spending more time on Twitter or adding a couple of cities to your tour. Even presuming all other things being relatively equal, i.e. that the book is really fucking good, quite a bit of sales success has to do with the marketing engine behind the book: the publisher and the time, organization and money it fuels in for PR, etc. So it’s really all about keeping expectations realistic. You should be social because you like it, I think, not because you think it’s going to make you famous. It’s not going to make you famous. Only Paris Hilton gets famous for going to parties, and only Anthony Weiner gets famous on Twitter, you know? Those are…not goals.

9. Do you read every review you receive? Do you think they sell or stop someone from purchasing?

I’ve mainly kept up with my reviews…my husband has a google alert on me so he can see what comes out about my books, and once he knows something is there I find myself curious and usually end up reading it too. But I’m considering asking him to stop telling me. I think reading everything people write about you can really only lead to trouble eventually and that I should quit now before I get burned.

As an editor and book reviewer myself, I very much want to believe that positive press can successfully promote a book and increase sales. I get euphoric when one of my Other Voices Books authors receives a lot of press. The truth is though that reviews sometimes move books and sometimes don’t. There are very few clear formulas in this business. We all know critically acclaimed titles that fail to sell and books that the media scathingly mocks yet sell off the shelves. This is a capricious business. As a publisher, I have always vigorously pursued getting reviews for my writers, and as a writer I’m very grateful when my books are given attention, but I have no expectation that these things lead directly to radically increased sales. Sadly, I think very negative reviews may halt sales more than very positive reviews prompt sales. People are always looking more for a reason not to buy something than a reason to buy it. We all have too much stimuli, too many possibilities, and are looking for ways to weed down. No one can read every book out there, so if a respected reviewer says to bag it, people may be all too happy to take that advice. It may take more positive reviews to sell a book than it takes negative reviews to shut down a sale. Although nothing moves a book like controversy, so there are always exceptions and loopholes, i.e. James Frey and so forth.

10. Why did you start Other Voices Books? What was the hardest part?

My business partner, Stacy Bierlein, and I launched the press in 2004 out of Other Voices magazine, which had existed since 1984 and which I’d been editing since 1997, mainly to address the fact that trade publishers had moved stridently away from publishing short story collections. Story writers—even those who had won awards and published in highly reputable magazines--were having an increasingly hard time being read by agents or considered by publishers and were continually being told to "come back when you have a novel.” Stacy and I knew that as a small boutique indie we couldn’t rectify that industry-wide problem, but we saw that indie presses were more and more the gatekeepers for outstanding books of short fiction and we wanted to be able to offer a couple writers a year an intensive publishing experience in that vein. The press eventually broadened to include not just collections and anthologies but novels and an international series—and in fairness the corporate publishing industry has also started to embrace collections a bit more again, too, and the indie publishing community has completely exploded since 2004.

There are no “easy” parts to starting a press but the hardest parts are finding the money to stay alive when your financial cushion is small and one book that fails to generate revenue can potentially bring the whole enterprise down, and also finding a distributor to get your books into the world. I initially spent so much time trying to deal with these business-level hurdles that it began to feel as though actually editing was a “secondary” part of my job, which was extremely frustrating, and could have made OVB a very short-term endeavor had things continued that way. It was liaising with Dzanc Books in 2007, and beginning to operate under one financial and distribution umbrella with them, that dramatically changed my ability to focus on acquiring, editing, and promoting my writers, and made the business end of the work tenable for a much longer period of time than it would have been if I’d been spending all my time on grants, fundraising and sales. At heart, I’m an editor, not an entrepreneur. Dzanc did amazing things for my ability to prioritize the parts of running a press that I had made me want to launch one in the first place.

11. Of all your books, articles, interviews, is there one that makes you most proud?

I feel extremely lucky to be able to say that A Life inMen is, in my own opinion, my best book so far. Still, proud is a weird word, if that makes sense. I do have a series of essays on The Nervous Breakdown about my father—there are five in total, the most recent being “The Lion and the Mouse” —that I feel a lot of emotional satisfaction in having documented. I write very little memoir-styled nonfiction, and these were intensely personal and meaningful pieces for me.

12. As an interviewer myself, I'm so jealous of your past interviews, Margaret Atwood, Junot Diaz, Steve Almond, and many others. What do you think the hardest part of interviewing people is?

Well, the hardest part is sheer terror at having to call Margaret Atwood on the telephone, and then trying not to sound like you’ve been drinking bourbon at 9am because of how terrified you are…

I guess, seriously, the challenge is to be able to ask questions that yield something new, that push and encourage the subject to open up in some way that varies from their other interviews, that goes deeper or in a new direction. With so much readily available online, why do an interview if it will just sound like something the subject has already done 10 times or 50 times and those pieces are already at the reader’s fingertips for free, out in the world? I try to make it fresh, and the bigger the name of the person being interviewed is, the harder that can be to achieve, because a whole ton of other people have tried to do the same thing, and there is a lot of material and information that you’re trying not to just regurgitate.

13. Slut Lullabies has to be one of the greatest names of a book, ever. What was it like when you heard The Cult, Chuck Palahniuk's group, made it their book selection for November 2011?

Oh, it was so so cool! I was thrilled. For two reasons, mainly: first, the collection had been out for half a year already, so it was an incredible burst of new interest past the usual “season” of a book. But even more so, for me, it was exciting because I think it was a very public declaration that the collection wasn’t something only women readers would appreciate. I think women writers who aren’t yet widely known often face a knee-jerk response regarding…well, male readers assuming that their books are only going to be of interest to women. If you’re Mary Gaitskill or Francine Prose, and you have a wide literary reputation, you can overcome that gender bias of course, but I think most people in the industry understand that for whatever reason, it is harder to get a male reader to pick up a book by a new woman writer than it is to achieve the reverse. The Cult was a popular site among male literary readers, and they were able to introduce my book, I think, to a lot of guys who might not have known about it otherwise or realized it was something they would like. I think every writer appreciates a chance to get outside what might seem the natural “target market” for their work, and that most literary writers, actually, consider the concept of writing for any one demographic to be limiting. I absolutely consider myself a feminist writer and someone interested in gender politics, but I also strongly resist the notion that somehow that would translate to female readers being my only market.

14. How did you get an agent? Did you reach out or did they come to you?

I’ve had four literary agents. I mean, I’m 45 years old, and I got my first agent when I was 31. The first two, I reached out to; the third reached out to me; and the fourth, my current agent, was already a Facebook friend of mine for a couple of years before I found myself interested in changing agents and basically just FB messaged her really informally. My first agent, who mainly represented YA novels and cookbooks and things like that, wasn’t a terribly fruitful experience, but the next two—Bill Clegg and Ellen Levine—were both creatively formative and productive relationships for me, each in their own way. I think it’s important for young writers to realize that their first agent may well not be their agent forever, but that doesn’t mean it’s time wasted. Big agents like Bill and Ellen became so successful because they are extremely smart, and they have things to impart to their clients beyond just being a broker in a deal. I mean, I can’t speak to whether agents “get anything” from clients whose work doesn’t sell, and unfortunately I had the opportunity to be That Client for a few agents—but I believe if a writer is paying attention, s/he can always learn things and improve skills by working with a strong agent. To use a somewhat lame metaphor, it’s not that dissimilar from the way previous dating relationships or job experience is essential to who we become, even if we don’t marry our college boyfriend or keep working at The Latchmere Pub forever…

15. What's your writing process like? Every day? When the idea hits? Do you outline?

Dude, seriously, sometimes I don’t write for nine months. I mean, you were just remarking earlier on my insanely busy schedule and all the hats I wear and juggle—if I told you I wrote every single day, you’d think I was an alien with no actual life! Of course I don’t write every day. Wow. My gut reaction is to say “I wish!” but I guess if I really, really wished that, I’d do it. I’d quit all my other jobs—some of which do not even pay—and just do it. My other jobs aren’t an “excuse.” I do them because I love them. Because I get a very similar rush from bringing other writers’ work out to the world as an editor to the rush I get when my own work comes out—because I believe in a literary community and I want to be a part of it and contribute to it in ways beyond just…me. Teaching is a great job and I really enjoy it. Editing, I think, is a core passion in my life that I’m not sure I could entirely and permanently do without any more than doing without my own writing. I write when I can. Sometimes that is pretty often. Sometimes I have a very, very slow year. Inevitably in any long project, I will hit a kind of obsessive mania where I can’t do anything else and I don’t function that well for awhile, so to be honest I have to be judicious about the really long projects—about novels. I’m not sure I could live in that state all the time. Stories and essays spill out faster and leave my system faster. I outline, yes. And then I flagrantly disregard everything in my outline, usually. When I’m following the outline very literally, I know things haven’t clicked yet. When it clicks, it’s more like taking dictation. The voices keep talking even when I'm away from the keyboard or a notebook and the only way to keep up would be to wire a stenographer directly into my brain. Outlines don’t mean much in that stage, and that’s the stage I love.

16. How did you get involved with The Rumpus?

It was circuitous, like most things. A mutual friend, Joe Meno, asked me to read with him and Stephen Elliott years ago, when Steve was still touring for The Adderall Diaries. We had a bunch of friends in common, but I’d never known him when he lived in Chicago. Then later I interviewed him for TNB, and he liked the interview so he asked me to do one—with Rob Roberge, actually—for The Rumpus. Then I think I wrote a few other things for them. One day a couple of years ago, I saw that Steve had said on FB that they needed a new Sunday editor. He said some adorable thing, something like, “someone smart and good like Gina Frangello.” He tagged me. I’m pretty sure he was probably mainly just being nice and paying a compliment—I doubt he thought anything would come of it. But I loved The Rumpus, so I messaged him and asked what it would entail. And in, like, half an hour, it was settled.

17. Are you going to be doing a book tour of any kind with ALife in Men? Where can we expect you?

Um…yes. I am doing quite a book tour. It’s the first time in my career that I have a publicity engine and—you know—actual financial support from my publisher to tour. Algonquin is phenomenal about publicity. They’ve got me booked all over the place, book festivals and conferences and the usual bookstore readings. I’m a control freak with strongly indie roots so of course I’ve also booked a bunch of things on my own to complement their itinerary. I hit the road for the east coast onFebruary 8 and I’m really working my way east to west, with some strange detours down south, on and off until late April. I need to get my old website (www.ginafrangello.com) updated so I can get my tour schedule up there. You’re in New York, right? I’m at Word on Feb 11, and at the KGB Bar on Feb 16.

18. Who's currently knocking you on your ass with their writing?

Right now, I’ve had the incredible privilege of reading three absolutely kick ass powerful memoirs in manuscript form from Zoe Zolbrod, Rob Roberge and Joshua Mohr. It’s the first foray into this kind of nonfiction for all of them—they’re all primarily fiction writers—and their memoirs have completely stunned me, for both widely divergent and yet some overlapping reasons. They’re all extraordinarily intense. I feel like I need to go lie on an island somewhere and recover from the emotional power of those three books, cumulatively.

19. Every Kind of Wanting, what can you tell us about it?

If I don’t have a draft finished by the time A Life inMen drops, I’m jumping off the roof, for starters, because I doubt I’ll have time to write again until late summer. But presuming I’m still here…well, it’s a novel that on the surface centers around a gay couple’s efforts to have a child through a gestational surrogacy, but really it opens into something much wider than that. It spans thirty years, and is partially set in Venezuela, with parts in Chicago and Beaver Island. Parts are funnier than anything I’ve ever written, and other parts are so raw they’re making me very nervous and I’m not sure I can possibly show them to anyone, which I tend to take as a good sign…provided I get the balls to overcome that impulse, that is.

20. What's next for Gina Frangello?

Literally? I think a Jameson, and then checking the 40-something emails that have piled up while I’ve been answering this interview!

Thanks!

Goat

#61 Tony McMillen

2014-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW SIXTY-ONE

Tony McMillen

What can I say about Tony? He's one of the nicest, most driven, creative people I've ever had the pleasure. His new book was a KickStarter success and he's killing it over at DigBoston where he writes articles and reviews. Check out the interview and then go pick up your copy of his book, Nefarious Twit on Amazon!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"
I just picture like a college rock ‘90s album cover with the band logo “Mourning Goats” written in a smudgy, off orange sort of color that’s plastered across a black and white saturated photograph of something mundane that now looks divine thanks to the logo. I get a real R.E.M./Smiths vibe off it. Then I change my mind and it becomes a brutal, barbwire diaper black metal album cover and “Mourning Goats” is written in Hammer Horror movie style blood that looks like day old spaghetti sauce.

2. Your new novel, Nefarious Twit, was funded through Kickstarter; how did it go, why did you do it, and would you do it again?
We raised 3,668 dollars, it went well. I chose Kickstarter because I wanted total control over my project and at the time, with the few smaller press alternative options that I had, they didn’t really offer me much that I couldn’t already do or learn to do myself. Like formatting, publicity etc. So instead of slicing off another piece of what was already going to be a slim pie I decided to keep as much of the revenue as I could and just start my own publishing company called Branch Hands. That being said, I’m not opposed to working with another press for Twit or another project in the future but at the time when I was getting my ducks in a row nothing was really blowing my skirt up. And yeah, I would consider doing Kickstarter or another crowdfunded project again, sure.

3. What advice would you give someone who's considering doing a Kickstarter?
Don’t assume anyone you know will contribute. Most of your friends are just as broke as you are, don’t get upset when they don’t or can’t contribute. Also look up all the horror stories online about people who have failed at Kickstarter or worse, who have succeeded but forgot to do their math and ended up owing tons more money than they raised. All because they didn’t calculate stuff like the cost of shipping and/or how much the extra rewards will cost them to produce. Last thing and this is important: Find a way to reach beyond the audience you already have. Do an interview on a website or on the radio, get blogs to mention it, the alt weekly newspaper in your town. Find a way to turn people on to your project who don’t know you at all.

4. Sell your book in one sentence, and go!
A bent, psychedelic odyssey of vengeance and family that reads like Shel Silverstein by way of William S. Burroughs.

5. I also saw that you have illustrations in it?
Yep. There are 14 full-page illustrations credited to the character Nefarious Twit himself but I’m going to dismantle this whole Chris Gaines bullshit before it even gets started and just admit that I did all the drawing. Because I’m a whore for credit. But yeah, the idea is I don’t usually like illustrations that depict the characters themselves in prose books. Weirdly enough, I do love comic books, but with prose I’d rather just imagine the character’s face myself. So for Twit what I did was make all the illustrations actually pictures that are taken from the children’s books of Nefarious Twit. The pictures used in my novel usually have some sort of parallel with actions of the actual characters of the novel. This way I don’t push a certain look on any of the characters or any of the novel’s scenes but I do get to enhance the novel’s look and more importantly enhance the world I’m building within the novel. Plus I get to reinforce the symbolism from Twit’s children stories and how that ties into the journey his son Rick is taking. Besides, sometimes you’re like, fuck words, I just wanna see some doodles.

6. You sat down and chatted with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost about their new movie, The World's End; how did that come about?
First off, just so you know, Simon Pegg is easily 3 times more handsome in person than he is on screen. But anyways, that thing was a total blast. I write a pop culture humor column called “Touch the Wonder” for DigBoston, we’re an alt weekly obviously operating out of Albuquerque, New Mexico; anyways DigBoston asked me if I wanted to interview those three gentlemen. And I was like, “Psssh, no thanks, I’m good.” And DigBoston was like, “Listen here, Charlie Bucket, we’re throwing you a golden ticket minus the chocolate bar so stop trying to be cool and go geek the fuck out and meet these guys. And I did. And it was everything a fan of theirs could have hoped it to be.

They were very warm, very smart and tremendously funny. They came across as genuine friends who happen to be collaborators and it was a pleasure to meet them and sit down for forty minutes and talk to them about their new film and a host of other topics. They made me laugh, I made them laugh. I turned them into chatty schoolboys by bringing up British Wrestling and I ended up playing back the recording of the conversation many times so my girlfriend could enjoy the sound of Simon Pegg’s accented, low and mellifluous voice.

Also I met them at a nice hotel here in Boston that used to be a prison. Because someone had a sense of humor the former detention center is now called The Liberty Hotel.

7. You stripped at a reading (at least once), please tell us about it.
I find a lot of readings quite boring, despite them being done by authors whose work I love so I try and make it a point to give a little something extra to my audience when I do a reading. Operative word being “little.”

So my striptease was at an interactive "Choose Your Own Adventure" story event I hosted and wrote called “You Are A Suicide Sex Bomb." The idea was I'd ask the crowd to raise hands and vote on the next decision our characters would make at certain points in the story and each time they chose I'd discard a piece of my own clothing. Yes, there were children in the bookstore. Yes, I'm not sorry.

Also, after my reading/performance I noticed an older lady in the crowd who seemed to be staring at me. She walked up to me and then it hit me, "Mrs. Jacobs?" She was my old high school sweetheart's mother. She was nice and everything but I could see the relief on her face that her daughter and I were no longer together. Which makes sense.

8. Do you think that your location, as an author, is important when you write? I saw that Nefarious Twit was located where you're originally from in Tucson.
It can be. I believe everything can effect us as writers and locale is something that can soak into your work in ways you might not even be aware of. Nefarious Twit is a road trip story so it goes all over but it begins and its heart is in Tucson. Tucson is unlike anywhere else really. I moved there from Pennsylvania when I was 11 (after finding work, of course) and for the first 10 years the desert did not feel like home. But then that thing happened where the place you’ve been ragging on and talking shit about for a decade becomes your best friend and you realize that it’s your home. Not that it doesn’t suck. But you know how it sucks, you grew up with it sucking, it’s what you know. Currently I’m living in Boston I like to think I’m like Bowie recharging his batteries by moving to Berlin. Mostly because I’m pretentious.

9. Are you an, "every day writer?"
I write for a living in one way or another so I have to be. But do I write fiction everyday? No. I will write an article or work on some sort of non-fiction piece nearly every day and I will always be thinking of fiction but I won’t sit and down and right until I know I got something to say.

10. You're not only a storyteller and artist, but a comedian too? Do you think they all go hand in hand or are they separate?
I think about this a lot and I think they’re all related but very different creatures. I write and perform music too, I used to be the lead singer and guitarist for the legendary rock band Bicycle Fight (legendary), and I learn a lot from each thing I do but they’re all so different. It’s like cooking food, cooking a delicious pastrami Ruben will teach you how to use your stove top but it won’t necessarily help you make zesty pasta salad, you know?

11. You've mentioned a lot that you love creating new worlds, what about Nefarious Twit's world is new or different?
I love getting lost in the details of a fictional world and I really like inventing fake stuff.  Because of that I invented an entire fake ethnic group for this novel. So a lot of the main characters, Twit, Rick Lime, Lou Lime they’re all Dajmainians which is of course not a real thing. But throughout the book  we learn little facts about Darjmainian history and culture and folklore. We even learn there’s a slur word that you should never, ever call a Darjmainian. It’s “woog” by the way, in case you meet a Darjmainian and want to be an insensitive prick.

Beyond that you have the title character Twit himself who is a fictional children’s book author with a complicated fake history, and fake books he’s written and there are fake pictures from his fake books in the pages of this book. There are even excerpts from fake critics about his fake books. There are fake heavy metal bands, fake cult, science fiction shows from the ‘70s, fake cigarette brands and more. And all of it isn’t just there for novelty’s sake, it all serves to enrich the reading and embellish the world the characters live in and each part helps tell their story too.

12. You're a journalist as well as an author, do you find it hard to switch between the two types of writing?
Sometimes. But I think it might potentially be harder for my audience to switch over between the two, I guess we’ll see. But what I mean is most of my journalism is humorous and my fiction can be too, at times, but it can also be a lot of other things.  I’ve had a few times where people I knew read something serious I wrote and were like, “Tony, where are the fucking gags?” And I was like, “I’m dropping liquid ghost tears on your fucking brain here! I’m trying to make my soul cry on to these filthy pages for you but I’m sorry if I didn’t think to include a joke about werewolf penises (lupeen, the joke would be lupeen, come on) and ‘80s movies.” Then whomever I’m talking to will gently pat my hand and tell me to stop shouting and get over myself. And I’ll agree because my throat hurts.

13. Do you think social media is a necessary evil for an author these days?
Yes. And what’s really shitty about me is that I have done nothing but gain readers and reach others authors through social media and I still kinda hate it. Maybe not hate but I am, at the best, begrudgingly ambivalent towards it.

14. Looking through your articles, it looks like you're very on top of pop-culture in general, do you think a lot of this transfers over into your fiction writing or do you try to keep the two separate?
I try to keep it separate in the respect that I try not to do a bunch of references to or jokes about pop culture in my fiction. I’m not trying to be Kevin Smith or Tarantino here with having characters who just regurgitate or make mention of some old band, old TV show or old movie every five seconds. Not that I don’t like that but it’s not really my bag in fiction. However I do love inventing fake pop culture in my stories and I suspect that has a lot to do with my affection for Mother Pop Culture. I’ve always loved the stories behind stories and stuff. I like reading up on the authors of books or the directors of movies and stuff like that. I think this why Nefarious Twit is full of fake pop culture like a fake children’s book author, a fake metal band, a fake cult sci-fi show, etc. That stuff is just fun to me. I just think it’s usually more creative to make an analogue or a composite of a famous aspect of pop culture than to just use the actual thing.

15. Do you have a marketing plan for your book? Can you tell us anything about plans on how to get it into the public's hands?
Payola, passive online threats, dangling Vanilla Ice by his bootstraps over the sides of buildings. Basically just Suge Knighting this literary shit like every single everyday. But besides reviews and the usual stuff, one thing I’m doing that a lot of smaller authors and indie authors aren’t trying is I’m getting my book in some record stores and comic book shops and other places that aren’t the conventional place to buy books.  This helps me target readers who might not usually pick up novels but who like cool shit regardless of the medium its presented in. I think Nefarious Twit appeals to both a well-read crowd as well as to people who might not be into books so much but who love other stuff like comics, music and movies. Nefarious Twit can be a gateway drug type of book for a people who don’t fancy themselves big readers.  So starting with some stores here in Boston, including comic shops like Comicazi, and some stores in my old hometown Tucson, Arizona including Fantasy Comics and a few record stores I’m working out consignment with right now, Twit will be available in places where all of its audience can stumble on it.

16. What's the best piece of advice you've received on writing, or life?
We can give ourselves such terrible sentences. —That’s actually from Nefarious Twit  but shit, it works, right?

17. You review a lot of books/movies/etc., anything currently knocking your socks off?
Books: A Greater Monster by David David Katzman (Most experimental and enjoyable experimental book I’ve read in years) Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert, Gripped by Jason Donnelly, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe, I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman.

Comics: Saga, Batman: Year Zero, Prophet, Sex Criminals, Pretty Deadly, Savage Dragon (always), and The Wake. Oh, andBurn the Orphanage.

Movies: World’s End and Room 237 (Gonzo documentary about The Shining)

Music: Queens of the Stone Age’s last record …Like Clockwork, album of the year.

18. Can you tell us anything about the new/old novel, Higher Climbs the Fire?
Oooooh. Somebody did their research. Basically, if I can pull off what I want to achieve with Higher Climbs the Fire it’ll be the best thing I’ve ever done. If I fuck it up, it’ll at least be a noble, ambitious failure. It’s a rock and roll, science fiction, end of the world epic and the main character is a cross between Osama Bin Laden and Bob Dylan. It takes place sometime in the future and he’s fighting the Federal World Church and their genetically engineered manmade messiah and he’s doing so using folk music. Folk music is now outlawed and since everything digital is on the grid and the World Church controls the grid, these folk terrorists use vinyl records as the means of their messages of rebellion. But that’s just the start of the book, there’s even more going into it. I’ve had a few false starts with the thing but if I can make it happen I think it’ll be a total sockdolager.

19. What kind of readings do you plan to do for your new book?
I want to do a “Dress Up like Your favorite Children’s Book Character Party” for the actual release party but I’m still looking for the right venture for that. But so far I have a radio interview appearance on The Good American, which is on DigRadio December 20^th. I have a reading/lecture/ signing at Trident Booksellers in Boston on January 16^th and I’m just putting together a reading/signing at Comicazi in Davis Square for sometime in early January.

20. What's next for Tony McMillen?
This is the good part of the Bill Murray movie for me. This is when he gives a speech and tells Dan Aykroyd, “Call it fate, call it karma,” and then takes a swig off his flask and decides to bust some ghosts. So I’m going to get Nefarious Twit into the hands of every man, woman, child and book savvy small animal I can this year. After that I think the next thing will be a collection of my non-fiction, I’ll probably title it simply “Touch the Wonder.”  While I compile that I’ll start fresh on my novel Higher Climbs the Fire or I might start on another novel that’s been pushing to the surface in my head for a while lately. I also got this comic strip idea I’ve been kicking around that the newspaper I write for, DigBoston, says they might be into publishing. So I got plenty of ghosts to bust. And bustin’ makes me feel good.

Thank you!
Goat

Pick up Chewing the Page: The Mourning Goats Interviews here and Tony's book, Nefarious Twit, here!

Also, don't forget to "like" the Mourning Goats Facebook Page!

#60 Morris Collins

2013-10-02T07:36:00.002-04:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW SIXTY

Morris Collins

I was introduced to this guy through a much earlier Mourning Goats interviewee, Pat Walsh, and I'm so happy I was! One of my favorite sections of this interview has to be question 7, as we've been lucky enough to interview "the hot professor!" It was a pleasure reading about and learning from Morris. I hope you all enjoy!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

There was a coffee shop right on the Charles River I used to go to as a kid called Dancing Goats and right now, because it’s 5 AM and the coffee is still brewing, I could use some of that.

2. For those not familiar with your work, what would you consider your style?

Horse Latitudes is dark in subject and sort of hyper-lyrical in style. I was trying to use my prose to recreate the saturation of the tropics with some mix of beauty and sensory claustrophobia. I imagine it, at times, as almost sickly, like something sweet gone bad. The style changes as the book progresses, growing steadily more surreal and febrile—as the situation does. I wanted the lyricism to be almost a lure, like a phantom light, and I hope it encourages the reader down a pretty dark path so that by the novel’s end—in a volcanic city on the brink of revolution—they’re not quite sure how they got there, but realize that’s where they were going all along.

Beyond this, though, the secret truth is I’m not sure that I have one defining writing style and I distrust the notion of each writer having only one authentic voice. We all have our own obsessions and idiosyncrasies, and if those, as expressed by syntax, are what constitute a writer’s voice, I’d like to imagine that my voice has many registers. For instance, the novel I’m working on now, Sleepwalkers of the North Atlantic, is very different from Horse Latitudes—it’s comedic, bizarre, and loquacious. I know the general narrative of a writer’s development always involves them finding their ‘voice’, and it’s true, for me writing is almost wholly determined by voice and what sort of sentences it allows or requires, since I think this facilitates or determines what kind of thing can happen in your story. But those sets of opportunities and constraints change fairly radically for each piece. Sometimes this worries me, because when we talk about great stylists we often refer to writers with one distinct voice, like Barry Hannah and Cormac McCarthy, or to lesser degrees Lorrie Moore and James Salter. Though I suppose I’m conflating style and voice a little here. How about this: no matter its particulars, I assume my style is generally ostentatious and maximalist. I’m a slow writer so the language has to be fun for me while I’m writing. Anyway, I recently heard Matt Bell say that he didn’t want to write every book in the voice of a Russian sea captain. And who would?

3. Your first novel, Horse Latitudes, came out in September. What can you tell us about it?

I like to call it a tropical gothic, though I’m not sure what that means, really, beyond that it’s a dark novel drawing on the American gothic tradition—but it’s set in the tropics. It’s about guilt and trauma-- as those things might be rendered in a weird, increasingly surreal adventure novel. It’s also strongly influenced by medieval post-plague literature and a sort of perverse notion of the quest narrative where the quest has been deformed into a gothic circle. Or how about plot? Basically, a guy whose life has exploded after an act of violence in the US heads south into Mexico and becomes caught up in a quest to save a young girl from slave traffickers. As expected, I guess, things are not what they seem and he’s drawn increasingly deeper into a dangerous landscape of impossible choices and moral ambiguity. To be clear, though: it’s hopefully a fun novel to read, like some mash-up of Malcolm Lowry and one of Graham Greene’s entertainments with Angela Carter thrown in. That is to say: things get weird, fast. There’s a journey through a walled city of prostitutes, a town of private detectives, roadblocks, bullfights, pirate ports, and a trip down a jungle river haunted by a goddess as well as demented intelligence officers and slave traffickers. And it all converges, or circles up, as any novel should, in a city on the brink of revolution and storm and volcanic eruption. So it’s a quiet book, obviously.

4. And, the reviews have been fantastic, "knockout debut novel," "an adventurous moral thriller," how are you taking all the praise?

I could do with plenty more. I’m sort of imagining that now that my first book is published, my life is going to be an undeviating sequence of success and approbation. I’ve cleared out my bank account so as to make room for the spoils and I’m finding new abdominal muscles every day! No, seriously—early readers, blurbers, and booksellers have just been so generous with their time and attention. My real feeling is a pretty intense and sheepish gratitude.

5. What was your book release party in Massachusetts on August 13th?

The release was great. We held it at Brookline Booksmith, which is one of the great Indie bookstores in a great books town. Brookline Booksmith has such an eclectic and well-curated stock, which is no surprise considering how smart and cool and keyed-in to the literary community the staff are. It’s an amazing place with a real tie to the community and a pretty damn good example of why and how indie bookstores remain essential. So yeah, the launch was a lot of fun. At least for me. It was a literary event, so obviously there was a plethora of wine and cheese. And people saying plethora. None of which, actually, you can find in Horse Latitudes.

6. How did you get involved with MP publishing?

Almost by accident, really. I wrote Horse Latitudes a while ago—back in 2007-2008 and not being a savvy or speedy networker just sort of sat on it while I continued to write other stuff. Anyway, back in October 2011 I read a post Stephen Graham Jones had written on his blog about his then forthcoming novel, Growing Up Dead in Texas. The book sounded cool—as all of his books do—and he went on in his post to rave about the experience he was having with his publisher, MP Publishing USA. I checked them out and realized pretty quickly that the folks running MP in the US were many of the same people who had been doing MacAdam/Cage—which had always been sort of a touchstone press for me. A press whose list I knew I’d love every season. Actually, when writing Horse Latitudes, I had kind of imagined it as a book for them, but by the time I was finished they weren’t really taking submissions anymore. But MP was up and running and putting out some really cool books—and they were reading full manuscript submissions, which is pretty rare. So I sent it to them in fall 2011 and kind of forgot about it until June 2012 when the then editor-in-chief, Guy Intoci, reached out really enthusiastically. By this point the book was being considered at a couple other places, but Guy’s enthusiasm and support and the way I’d seen him launch their previous list, made it a pretty easy and exciting decision. Actually, just the day before Guy’s call, I had picked up a copy of Steve Abee’s Johnny Future where he had given Guy a shout-out in the acknowledgments—so it all felt kind of like fate. Guy’s not at MP anymore, but the folks I’ve worked with—Pat Walsh, Marthine Satris, Briah Skelley, Michelle Dotter, Nick Sinatra—have all been really enthusiastic, smart, and passionate. I feel pretty lucky.

7. Found your ratings on RateMyProfessor.com and I've gotta ask, how does it feel to be the "hot professor?"

It’s like this: perched on my desk before them, the young, I slowly remove my pipe from its idle crook in my Alexandrine jaw and ash it into the Etruscan cinerary urn I’ve brought with me for this express purpose. Come class time, I slip from my corduroy blazer so now only my fine slacks, Italian loafers, and thin cashmere turtleneck protect my almost bare body from the eyes of the American youth. But from their hearts and minds, from the empty scaffolding of their nascent souls—what barriers remain are mine to fell.

“Corruption,” I say them, “derives from the Latin corruptus, to destroy or spoil. And yet, as you must recall, when accused of corrupting the youth of Athens, Socrates says, ‘I have never been anyone’s teacher.’”

Do they see me wink beneath my monocle?

Do they see me as I slide from the table and using my stylus as pointer, stand before them in my supple riding boots, my cape, my terracotta ascot? Do their eyes even once slip to the hooded falcon perched on my gloved arm? Hardly. I strum my lute. I stretch. I eat grapes. I swear, Goat, I eat at least a pound of grapes in every class and let the sound of seeds expelled, one by one, into my Turkish brass spittoon play plangent choir to my every bon mot.

“Syphilitic wonder,” I say to them, “did not stop Nietzsche from crying, ‘too much is not enough.’”

I weep, I sweat, my clothes are too tight. I eat with my hands from my tureen of curried lamb.

“Such is beauty,” I wail, “that the nymphs tore Orpheus limb from limb!”

Oh, but see them: the nimble sweep and flutter of fingers over phones, the dulcet languor of their yawns. Like any teacher, I long to show them what they might give, but my love is like a buccaneer with his faithful manatee. My love is my gangrenous hand, my rotting teeth, my falcon stuffed and dead these many years. At the threshold of every desire there lurks a hag in a bonnet, and the roster must lie—they can’t all be named Chris and Megan. God, look, there are ants in my goulash! Did you know Aeschylus was killed by a falling tortoise? Imagine: a tortoise fell from the sky and for an instant Aeschylus must have felt sure it was his final epiphany, a sign from the gods, which it was, but when his head opened, the revelation, kids, was that even the slowest things move too fast for this life.

8. Did you write any novels before Horse Latitudes? Do you think any of them will see the light of day?

Horse Latitudes was the first novel I completed. Previous to it, I had gotten pretty deep into two other novels, both of which I really liked, but both of which I abandoned because they contained several flaws at the level of conception. So I doubt they will ever find their way into print. Anyway, I wrote Horse Latitudes when I was 24-25, so I’m not sure I want to dip much deeper into my youth than that.

9. What's your writing schedule like? Do you write every day?

I try to write every day, early in the morning. I wish I was one of those writers who could just write through the night. It’s a more romantic image: pounding coffee in some Hopperesque diner—all chrome and neon and silence—until the sun comes up and the newsies wander in and the trains start to whistle again. But I’m not. Yeah, I usually see the sun come up, but it’s because I got up to start working at 4:30 or 5:00. This involves me dressing as best I can in the dark and then staring very hard at the coffee machine until I can untangle the three-step sequence in which I grind coffee, put that coffee inside the coffee machine, and then add the right amount of water to a different part of the machine. It’s amazing how much can go wrong between any of those steps, and like any narrative, when you reverse the normal order of events you have a story on your hands.

10. How much social media involvement do you have pushing for your novel? Do you think it's necessary in this age?

It certainly seems necessary. Some books appear to take on a public energy and life of their own, but for the most part it seems that these days a book requires the writer and the publisher both to really pound the pavement. I’ll be honest, though, it’s not something I’m very good at and I think the best way to do it is to engage as actively as one can with the general literary world. Obviously, I’ve got to publicize my events and publications and reviews, all the stuff that pertains to me and my book. I’ve got an obligation to my publisher, to bookstores, to the people kind enough to interview me, and to my own future in the literary marketplace (whatever that means) to do that, even if I am self-conscious about it, or am sure that everyone on my Facebook feed is saying what I often say: “I already bought your freaking book! Why can’t you post a good cat video?” But I’ve always been a fairly active book reviewer and, ideally, what I’d like to do is simply enter the book world as a literary citizen commenting on and promoting the work of others. When I read a writer reviewing or discussing a book he or she loves with passion and erudition, I’m usually drawn to the book being reviewed and the person doing the reviewing. This is actually how I’ve discovered many writers I love and one of the pleasures, I hope, in finally getting a novel published is that I’ll be able to join the conversation even more actively.

11. Which do you find harder to write, long-form, short-form, or non-fiction?

Well long form is probably the hardest, since it requires the longest commitment and there are so many opportunities to screw up. Generally, though, I think, it’s also the form I’m best wired for, or drawn to. I appreciate the possibilities for fugue and play and inversion. I like having the space to mess around and let things build and change as we go. Horse Latitudes is a literary thriller or an adventure novel or whatever you want to call it, so it’s plot heavy, or anyway there’s a lot going on, but still I’m not a natural storyteller, which is to say I don’t think I really see stories as these perfect intersections of character and causality. I like the room for episode and event. I figure if I can ratchet up the intensity (whether situational or syntactical) in an extreme situation we’ll see the way the characters’ vulnerabilities forces them into compelling action. While my best—and still unpublished—short story is fairly traditional, most of my most successful short stories are more tricks of language. A fun voice and interesting situation exploded toward conclusion in a few pages, which is not, I feel, how the great short story writers do things.

12. How did you enjoy your MFA from Penn State? Do you think it was worth it?

Absolutely! Penn State’s program was a fully-funded three-year program where we were paid a good stipend to teach one course per semester—three of which were, in my case, creative writing. So, yeah, it was pretty ideal. It was small and intimate and because everyone was well-funded and not competing, say, for the one or two available fellowships, the environment was supportive and friendly—and not surprisingly a lot of people did good work there. I was lucky to study with great writers who were diligent and thoughtful teachers and with classmates who were smart and talented and generous. Unfortunately it’s gone now, a casualty, I guess, of the financial crisis. Though I have hopes, considering the work its alums are doing and the popularity of creative writing on campus, that one day it will be back. Currently, they’ve got a one-of-a-kind five-year BA/MA for Penn State undergrads, which will, I think be a good way to bolster the undergrad program which is already filled with really strong writers. I say this with some pride, too, because two of my former students have made it into the program and they’re really impressive, talented, and smart writers and it’s exciting to see them doing such good work.

But back to your question: my experience at Penn State was rigorous in theory, art, and criticism. And I was lucky to be surrounded by dedicated and talented people—writers who every week awed and inspired me with their work and their discipline in a town of mountains and rolling fields and all the bucolic pleasures of the good life. A town where a pitcher of beer was 3 dollars. It’s hard to ask for much more than that.

13. What's the most stressful and most rewarding part about publishing a novel so far and why? (aka, is it writing it, promoting it, getting a publisher, etc.?)

Well the book is just now coming out, so it’s possible that my answers on both counts might change, but as far as I can tell, publication—and all its variables—is the most stressful part of the whole thing. The issue, primarily, is that I’m a control freak and when it comes to the actual publication process there’s so much that I have basically no control over—from big obvious things like cover and flap copy, to pub dates and typesetting, print-run and review/blurb garnering. It’s kind of like being a sports fan—total investment with zero control. Except it feels like some subtle and fairly obvious aspects of my sanity, not to mention professional livelihood, are riding on these things, which I won’t feel about sports for another few weeks until the Red Sox are in the World Series.

As for the most rewarding part? That’s got to be doing the writing. Any other answer is probably insane. The pleasures of being deep at work, say only fifty pages out from the conclusion of the first draft…That’s probably the most fun.

14. Do you read while you're working on a new project or do you try and separate the two?

Yeah, absolutely I read. I can’t imagine not. Usually the more I’m reading, the more I’m writing. But it’s a sort of tricky calculus to decide what to read. Usually, at first, I want to read something similar in tone or style or intent to what I’m working on, and then as I get deeper in and my piece has established its own rules, I try to switch my reading up and read things that are entirely different from what I’m working on. Often, nonfiction or poetry. Or another way to look at it: at first I want to stimulate whatever gets the prose flowing, and then I want to leave that alone and just sort of feed my intellect and let that carry over (or not).

Also, when I’m struggling, I use reading as a crutch. I think Martin Amis mentioned that when he was stuck, he’d say to himself, “okay, how would Dickens, do this? Or Bellow? Or Nabokov?” And you know, even if you can definitely see those influences on his prose, certainly the answer he usually comes to—he claims—is, how should Martin Amis approach this? And I’ll do something similar, but often with a slightly less specific method. When I’m struggling I’ll read writers whose prose I love, whose work really speaks to me on some sonic level and I’ll just let those sentences—their cadences and variations—wash over me until they’ve inspired the right amount of pleasure and then I can get back to work. Obviously, if I wrote at night I could just have a few beers, I guess, but a dawn routine demands a little more purity.

15. What's your goal when you sit down to write? Is there one?

I write for pleasure, and my goal when I sit down is to break through my levels of anxiety and doubt and sort of connect with what Jerome Charyn has called the “lyric joy” that is the undercurrent of all art. Someone like Jerome Charyn, actually, is a good example of this. His books—especially the early ones—are insane. They’re these completely absurd fugues where the primary organizing principle behind them is his clear joy in their composition. Like, you’re sure that this vision for him is so real and beautiful and necessary that it becomes those things, if briefly, for you. God, I know that sounds pretentious. But it’s true, and I can’t imagine why else anyone would write. Why else would you bother but to shape your dread and awe, your moments of fear and beauty, all those freaky, anxious psychic abstractions into some form? Basically, it’s a lot of fun and I think that’s all I’ll say about that since there’s nothing more uncomfortable than someone trying to communicate their hidden pleasure in general terms. I’m just glad that the form mine takes is more or less socially acceptable. A squirrel collection might be just as necessary for some.

16. What does your writing area look like? Do you write from home? Coffee shop? Office?

I wrote most of Horse Latitudes in the back crannies of Webster’s Café, a little used bookstore in State College, PA. Nowadays, though, since my powers of concentration seem to diminish by the day I write mostly from my home office. It’s a nice room and pretty standard: bookshelves, lamps, a pull-out futon (it’s also the guest bedroom, I guess). Above my desk I’ve got a few corkboards tacked with postcards of paintings and lists of words I like or notes to myself, many of which are totally contradictory. Also there’s a fortune cookie fortune “To win at anything, a race, your life—you have to go a little berserk”—which I think is pretty good writing advice. My desk itself is the usual blur of notes, quotations, drafts, and other totemic objects: a riding flask from the nineteenth century, a blue bear totem, a glass blue bird, ivory elephant and—until my place was robbed a few weeks back—a bunch of knives including the coolest bowie knife in the world. It’s now—with my back-up hard drive—bopping around a pawn shop somewhere. So if you’re passing through Boston and you see someone just sort of swaggering down the road with a knife too cool to be found east of the Rockies, give me a call, because I’d like to get it back.

17. Who are some of your biggest influence in writing?

This is kind of the impossible question, since there are so many and the list is constantly changing. For Horse Latitudes it would include writers who are literary and inventive within certain gothic, adventure, or mystery genres like James Lee Burke, James Sallis, Faulkner, Margaret Atwood, William Gay and as much as anyone else, Chaucer. For my work now, that list would be entirely different, people like Leonard Michaels, Jerome Charyn, Thomas Bernhard, Aimee Bender, Saul Bellow, Anne Michaels, Hawthorne. In general, though, always, whenever I’m struggling in writing, or in life, I turn to Jim Harrison. All of his early stuff is great, but I think Farmer is pretty underappreciated and Warlock is a really strong comic novel. Even more, it’s his early poetry I’m especially drawn to. I think I’ve read Letter to Yesenin twenty times. And his Ghazals are probably just behind that. But yeah, Letters to Yesenin, it’s just so desperate and beautiful. A howl that turns into a fierce cry of joy. Otherwise, Jeanette Winterson’s Gut Symmetries is a pretty amazing postmodern novel. Cynthia Ozick’s Puttermesser Papers has the most gut-wrenching and perfect ending I can imagine—whatever art is supposed to do, it does it. And Possession by A.S. Byatt is formally as impressive a novel as I’ve read. It’s not really an influence, I don’t think. But a touchstone, still.

18. How did you get involved in the WI8, in February, and what was involved once you got there?

Well, MP was generous enough to send me as their guest author and for that I’m immensely grateful because it was a great experience. Four days in Kansas City, meeting booksellers from all across the country, hanging out with other writers—all of whom were more experienced at this than I was—and trying to keep up with my editor Pat Walsh, who as many of your readers probably know, is sort of an indefatigable font of energy. The man is always going. To put this in some context: the conference was bookended by blizzards, so getting into Kansas City was not very easy, and once there, getting out was even more difficult. So, yeah, that first day I left my house in Baltimore at 3:30 AM and didn’t get into Kansas City until 1 AM. But when I arrived, hours, obviously, after I was supposed to there was Pat, chatting, pounding the (icy) pavement, talking books—a real old school man of letters. Beyond trying and failing to keep up with Pat, meeting people, talking up Horse Latitudes, buying people drinks, and eating a lot of barbecue, I did a book signing where I shared a table with Jill McCorkle who was really very nice. Sherman Alexie, Dave Eggers, Phillip Kerr, were all just a few feet away, so when some of their lines got too long people would wander over to me and sort of stare at me while I rambled with speed and gusto. Then I’d write strange messages in their books.

19. You had a bit of a rough spot lately, everything looking up?

Yeah, our apartment was broken into and all the computers were stolen, plus my back-up hard drive and some of my knives. Most major work was backed-up on email. But yeah I lost some stories and a poem I’d been working on a lot recently. Also taken: lots of syllabi and assignment sheets (which means this just added hours to my class prep this fall, but who knows, maybe I’ll write them clearer and better than I ever had before). Overall, though, I was pretty lucky. They were junkies looking for fast cash and didn’t seem to realize, say, what a first edition of Horse Latitudes might one day be worth. They also left the deeply trippy first paperback printing I have of Paul Bowles’s Up Above the World, which has probably the most insane cover I’ve ever seen.

20. What's next for Morris Collins?

Finishing up a new novel, soon, I hope. Sleepwalkers of the North Atlantic. I’m kind of superstitious about talking about these things, but very generally it’s a dark comic novel set in Boston and Northern Maine about a caddy at a Boston country club who is hired to find a member’s daughter and becomes caught up in a plot to steal Native American land in Maine. It sort of riffs on Hawthorne and takes on issues of New England’s history and American identity and is, so far, pretty insane and wild and a lot of fun to write. Plus I’ve got a few stories and poems bouncing around and an essay in the works on Jewish magic realism in the work of Isaac Babel, Jerome Charyn, and Cynthia Ozick. Also, of course there’s the perpetual search for steady employment. So I gotta get my ass in the chair. There’s going to be a lot of early mornings for the next few months, I hope.

Thank you!

Goat

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Up and Coming Author - Christoph Paul

2013-09-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

Up and Coming Author - Christoph Paul

A friend recommended that I checked out this Christoph character for an up and coming author interview, and after reading his poetry book, ripping apart most of the celebrities that we all hold near and dear, I'm glad I got the recommendation. I'm interested to see where this young man goes!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

I think of girl goats getting milked and feeling sad wishing the milk would be for their babies not to make cheese. I do love goat cheese but that does have to suck for the goats.

2. For those who aren't familiar with your work, tell us a little bit about your first two books.

They are both humor books of high art getting extremely low like Lil’ Jon and Flo Rida low. The first book is a non-fiction and satire ‘The Passion of The Christoph’ I talk about managing a porn store while getting an MA (one of my favorite pieces is having a discussion with the porn patrons about Anna Karenina and of course Infinite Jest of Picking Porn Titles which is me going all David Foster Wallace on how to select the new releases and having a bibliography to back up the choices). There is also satire pieces that are writing related like ‘Ghostwriting Snooki’s Second Novel’ and ‘Old Dirty Bastard’s Self Help Book Proposal’. It is a combo of porn store stories and pop culture humor.

The other book “Psychoanalytic Celebrity Poems” was a collection of poetry that started with me showing my editor this collection of poetry that I referred with great pretentiousness as my’ 808 and Heartbreak’ (a Kanye West album where he whines about a girl) and my editor/publisher said it is hard to sell poetry books and I solemnly agreed with her and then joked I’d probably have to write a poetry book on celeberties for it sell. Then more as a dare and that morphed into a ‘marketable’ and creative idea I took my love pop culture and began to write the ‘celb poems’ book. I just ran with it was lucky to have Loren Kleinman a much more serious poet and talented poet to help edit it and now its getting a lot of love from poetry and non-poetry lovers.

3. On the cover of your first book, Passion of the Christoph, it shows your MA prominently, do you think an MA or MFA is important for a writer?

Absolutely not! The MA on the cover was the publisher’s idea as we’re making fun of the whole MA and MFA thing. It is satirical. I learned more at the porn store just reading the classics, writing when it was slow, and talking to the pervs then I did in workshops. I am a friend and fan of Anis Shivani and agree with a lot of his sentiments on MFA programs. Where I differ with Anis is I do think it’s good thing just because it gives writers a rewarding job that doesn’t involve selling gangbang flicks or working for the Department of Labor (which is actually more amoral than managing a porn store) but no I don’t think a writer has to get an MA and especially an MFA to be a writer. On a personal note, I have to say writing an MFA thesis paper was torture and a waste of time especially when I want to write an actual book and get a band going. I left with just the M.A.

4. As a musician, do you find that writing prose and writing music has a lot in common, or are they completely separate to you?

That is a good question. I’ve gotten similar questions but the way you worded it has my wheels turning. They are the same in that they both have limitations. In songs I have 4 to 8 chords, two verses, a chorus that repeats twice and maybe a bridge. In prose, I have an idea/story and a certain amount of word count with a beginning, middle, and end. The difference is writing prose feels more active to me—it just flows. While song writing I can only describe as fishing—your just fucking around with guitar chords until you catch something that clicks and then you do the same thing with a melody. I don’t outline a song, but prose I do; I’m more ‘hands on’ with prose. I joke that Norman Mailer got it wrong ‘Song Writing’ is ‘The Spooky Art’ prose is just being prepared and hitting the beats.

5. You've released two very different books, what do you consider your writing style?

Literary Low Art? I don’t know, I did one reading and a playwright I really respect called me a genre of my own. Someone else said it was like Nabokov meets Tucker Max, which is unique but I don’t if that’s good though but I never really read Tucker. I am all over the place but I think I am fine with the style and label of ‘humor writer’ for better or worst the people who read my stuff laugh. I feel confident and at my best when I’m writing humor.

6. Do you like giving readings? How do you go about getting opportunities to read, especially in NYC?

I love live performance in general. I would read and play music every night if I could. To get a reading, it is usually knowing somebody who hosts one but I will state the one thing NYC has above other cities is a great open mic scene. You will see professionals at these open mics’ testing their material out. Major shout and love to ‘Penny’s Open Mic’ where I’ve read and seen a lot of top-notch playwrights, comedians, musicians, and poets show their stuff and/or workshop it. The place is always packed.

7. What's your writing schedule like? Every day? When the mood hits?

I write at least 6 days a week, the mood always hits. I try to write as much as I can. I’m very proud of the work ethic and stamina I have built up in the last 4 to 5 years. My philosophy with ‘jobs’ even has revolved on my writing: find one that can pay me enough that I can sneak writing in the day and do music at night. So far so good. The Porn Store and The Department of Labor were both perfect.

8. Have you noticed location playing a part in your writing? You're from Florida and currently living in New York, do you think that changes how you write?

Not really. It’s funny I didn’t hit my stride until I moved to New York City but I think that is just a coincidence. In many ways it is harder to write here cause there is always something going on. I’ll be revising and hear drunk chicks hanging out near my window talking about wanting to get laid. I’m just grateful I quit smoking or I’d be screwed—writing wise. So, I put the music or TV louder for background noise and keep writing.

9. I was told about you and your books through a mutual friend, do you think that kind of word of mouth and/or social media connection is important for upcoming writers?

What I am going to state is sad but true especially coming from a musician who has seen and felt what the digital age has done. But yes, absolutely, it is as equal if not more important than your actual writing skills. The artist in me finds it appalling but the realists in me sees that if you are good at marketing and having a social media presence you are going to do better than the ‘better writer’ just because there is so much choice and good marketing can equal a lot of book purchases. I have gotten decent at the social media game especially twitter and that is why I’m doing okay with my books and gaining an audience. I have no marketing budget so I have to be really creative to reach people. The writing is the easy part getting people to know who you are and pay attention that is tough part of writing today.

When I’m knowledgeable enough and cracked the code, I want to write a book “ Social Media Advice for Anti-Socials and Artists” because nothing aggravates me more than a quality poet, musician, or fiction writer not getting the audience that is merited because they can’t market it right, they hate social media, and their publisher is lazy and/or doesn’t have the funds. I want to teach those people how to do the bullshit because right now you are going to get mediocre writers who play the game better that will sell more books. I’m on the side of quality, risky, and/or unique art and I want to help quality artists achieve success in the digital age.

10. Have you read anything recently that's knocked you on your ass?

‘Horns’ by Joe Hill, really impressed me. The first act was just amazing: such a great premise and tight writing. This is next one is really random and I’m not a zombie guy but I read a book ‘Zombies and Shit’ by Carlton Mellick III and I just loved it. It was just Zombies meets Battle Royale with Mr. T being in it. It was so tight and entertaining; just a pleasant awesome surprise, the writing, story, and characters were so good I can’t even say it was guilty pleasure.

Other than that I’ve been reading a ton of YA books cause I’m working on one. None of them have knocked me on my ass but I’m really feeling ‘Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe’ it is really really good. I also got to be a beta reader for a poetry collection by Loren Kleinman “The Dark Cave Between My Ribs” that floored me but I have bias there. It still knocked me on my ass I think that will be a special poetry book of 2014.

11.What's next for Christoph Paul?

Like I said, I’m doing the YA book, feeling good about that. It will be comedic but more accessible than my others. It won’t be NC-17. That poetry book I refer to as my ‘808s and Heartbreak’ might come out now this year with Swift Ink Books just to show I’m not a shock writer and have serious and soft side.

I am still keeping with my punk rock roots, playing shows and I’m working on an erotica satire under a pen name Moses De Sade that is like ‘The Imperfectionists’ on Viagra and Crack. The plot is a group of extreme liberal activists poison the Fox News water supply with a new designer drug that makes you become a sexual deviant. Right now I have a scene with Lou Dobbs and a Mexican Janitor that is just so fucked up and beautiful. It goes from chapter to chapter with different workers of Fox News like ‘The Imperfectionists’ did with the newspaper workers just they have sex instead of talk about how much working for their newspaper sucks. I’m also working on a short for a Bizarro anthology called ‘The Masturbating Vampire’ about a 400 year old chronic masturbating vampire who stops masturbating because he found love. So I have a nice balance of mainstream and not so mainstream projects, which is great place to be creatively.

Thanks for having me Goat.

Thank you!

Goat

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#59 Michael Seidlinger

2013-08-05T11:41:00.000-04:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FIFTY NINE

Michael J Seidlinger

Michael Seidlinger is one of the biggest and best promoters I've run across online, not only for himself, but everyone he loves and respects. After having the opportunity to speak with him, I'm pumped to hear about the things he's a part of and can't wait to see where he goes. Enjoy number 59, Michael Seidlinger!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

I picture a field of dead, or dying grass, with a dozen or so cows standing around posing as other animals. But not as themselves. How a cow poses as something else… I have no idea but really the cows would have no clue that they’re posing; they’re cows. It would be the person theoretically looking at this fucked up scene. I guess that person would be me which means… I have no idea. What was the question again?

2. I've found with most authors I talk to, they don't normally come from a background of one career choice, but jump all over the place. As someone who's been everything from a professional boxer to a construction worker, do you think the reason for this is that creatives get bored easily?

I think we all get bored easily. Everyone. Nothing lasts forever and after the first impact, the first taste, everything has a tendency to filter away with each repeat experience. It’s a reason to enjoy the first time as if it were the only, or last, time. If you decide to do something, go into it believing that it’s one-of-a-kind. There’s really no guarantee it’ll be anything but that.

3. Do you think writers have a choice to become writers? Or is it's something that just...happens?

I think it just happens but, then again, so many writers are far more certain and confident about their choice to write than I am. I fell into writing after quickly becoming enamored by all sorts of modern/contemporary experimental literature. Ask someone else and they’ll go on about how they have dreamed of being a writer from an early age. Though everyone writes, at some point the inclination to tackle an longer written piece (like a novella or novel) is a conscious one. It is an incredible challenge that is never fully completed. The completion of one novel fulfills its specific constraints but no “one novel” will ever fulfill a writer’s ultimate challenge to write what is in their minds to be the best they can produce. There is, and will always be, better. And so you write. Even in a less than conscious state, you write.

4. What have you done in your life that makes you most proud?

I don’t know. I’m still living it, I think.

5. I see how much promotion you do on your Facebook page, for not only you, but others. Do you think social media is a necessary evil for authors these days?

It isn’t evil if you look at social media as a tool. So many people are quick to call Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc an evil presence on their lives. I have always looked at it as nothing more than a promotional and social tool. It is highly beneficial of writers and “creative” in general to incorporate social media into their routines. You will not only be able to reach an audience but also you’ll find other writing/art that you wouldn’t have discovered without it.

6. What are you most excited about with Civil Coping Mechanism? Anything you can talk about?

Cheesy answer but: I’m excited about the future. All of it. So much great work in the world and I’m merely glad to have CCM to help bring that great work into the world. Specific details? Keep that ear to the social networking channels. I’ll mention more there.

7. In one interview you said that the book that you remember starting your path toward being a writer was House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski, how did you come across a 700+ page beast like that and decide to get it, let alone read it?

I don’t actually remember. It was during undergrad. I believe I found out about it via a friend who had mentioned it in conversation. Something about how it was basically The Blair Witch Project if it were a novel (not via premise but via the sheer ambition to go against film/literary conventions of the time). That was enough for me to go ahead and pick up the book. Upon purchasing it, I ended up reading it cover-to-cover over a single weekend. I barely slept, completely captivated by the piece. It certainly was the harbinger that led me down the literary path. After that extremely positive reading experience, I was lured into the wormhole of postmodern literature – Vonnegut, Coupland, and, yes, Palahniuk before I started on the experimental stuff like the Oulipo authors, Joyce, and so on.

8. You're currently in NYC and it sounds like you're leaving in August, do you think you'll ever make it a more permanent home?

Good question. I hope so. As of now, it doesn’t seem like a possibility. I go where the opportunity is and lately I haven’t founded a permanent funding source. The labels “poor” and “nomadic” seem to be good descriptors for my immediate future. Comes with the territory, I guess.

9. Cameron Pierce said that your new novel, The Laughter of Strangers, is the "most original boxing novel ever," can you give us an idea of what to expect?

The Laughter of Strangers is about a boxer celebrity named Willem Floures on the tail end of his career, struggling to remain the current “most noteworthy” version of himself. This is a world where fighting in the ring means fighting yourself. You face the versions that decided differently; you wage war with the versions that want to be the penultimate, the one that best represents “Willem Floures.” This is a story about the version that had it all and yet still wants more, he wants to keep fighting and is willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means losing himself in the process.

10. Since your first book came out in 2010, you've had six books published, while at the same time going after a master's degree and working on a ton of side projects... when do you have time to sleep?

Secret’s out: I don’t sleep. Ever. Well, the reality is that I am an insomniac. If you are already a workaholic and also suffer from insomnia, you end up, more or less, where I’m at.

11. What's the reasoning behind the Master's degree? Do you want to teach?

I am actually pursuing a master’s in business primarily to learn more about the world of publishing and business at large. There exists a greater purpose that has to do with working with and/or operating a successful business; the postgraduate program, in theory, will help me get closer to this goal.

12. What are you reading these days? Is anything knocking you on your ass?

I find myself gravitating towards indie/small press work these days. Big surprise, I know; however, I really do think the writing being produced within the smaller and independent presses (everything non-Big Five) is more exciting than another 400-500 page hardcover from Doubleday or Knopf. Lately, notable reads include "Crapalachia" by Scott McClanahan, "Go to work and do your job. Care for your children. Pay your bills. Obey The Law. Buy products" by Noah Cicero, "I will never be beautiful enough to make us beautiful together" by Mira Gonzalez, and "I Don't Know I Said" by Matthew Savoca.

Of course, this excludes all the CCM material that knocked me on my ass, aka surprised me, enough to publish it. It's a great time to be involved in the indie press community.

13. The Summer Rooftop Reading Series you host looks like a good time, is it more focused on the reading or the camaraderie and drinks afterwards?

It is all about the camaraderie and drinks. It’s highly informal and in many ways is my way of denying yet another “reading” to exist. There are so many readings in any given city; it’s kind of ridiculous. You have the commodities, the reading series that consistently put out a great event like Franklin Park Reading Series championed by Penina Roth. Those sorts of readings are important; however, for every Franklin Park you have a dozen meaningless ones that end up feeling awkward, sterile, and docile. Whatever happened to just having a writer stand up and read? When did it become more about accolades? I mean, what the hell? Anyway, yeah, I’m not a fan of the standard reading format if it isn’t done well (curated and planned correctly).

14. Do you have a writing schedule or are you a write when the feeling hits kind of guy?

I adhere to a quota. Depending on the novel it can be up to 2000 words a day. By default, I write 1000 words a day. This is the minimum; I always attain more than 1000. Quality matters too. I edit as I go so that I don’t end up with filler that merely exists to exist. There needs to be purpose to each paragraph, each scene. If I didn’t maintain this sort of quota, I’d likely grow lazy.

15. Do you have a favorite book you've written or is it always the one in progress?

It’s always the one that’s currently in progress. Once it’s done and out in the world, I begin seeing them as their own entities. Never “my books” just “a book.” A book always takes on a life of its own. Being its author merely entails that you were responsible for its birth.

16. What would you say your writing style is? Do you feel you fit into a genre?

You tell me because I really don’t know. I’d hope that the world “literary” is somehow attached because I have made it a personal goal to always provide more than a narrative; a story that’s merely a story is hollow. There needs to be an underlying substance that fuels the reason for those words to exist at all.

17. In June you wrote something for Melville House on famous writers rituals. Do you have any?

I need coffee at my side, even if I don’t end up drinking it. I need music, something atmosphere and preferably without any vocals. This is likely why I am so into post-rock. I like to lie down rather than sit up; I also prefer solitude to a hectic coffee shop. However, I can adapt to any setting as long as I have music and headphones to block out the humanity.

18. There are many definitions of "a writer," what's yours?

You could say that all people are writers; however, the one’s that brandish it as part of their being are a breed of person that tries to make sense of the sentences work in a grander scheme of things. Whatever that scheme may be has usually to do with the exploration of deeper themes that only a certain level of creation can achieve.

19. What advice would you give someone who wants to break into the writing world?

I truly believe that it’s important to care about the work above all else. There’s no reason to write if you are only doing so for the satisfaction of publication. If you are looking to become a writer because you want to be a million seller and/or turn novel-writing into your day job, I’m not going to say it’s impossible but I will say that it’s going to make it far more difficult to write because you will treat the craft as more a struggle than a worthwhile challenge. As for “breaking in,” I wish I could tell you because I don’t believe I have any advice to give. It almost feels like “breaking in” isn’t something that happens; rather, it is something that is always, one hopes, happening. It’s the constant fight to find and discover. Hmm. Advice to give. Write what thrills you and fuels those late night writing sessions. Odds are you’ll leave something beautiful imbedded into those sentences.

20. What's next for Michael Seidlinger?

There’s always a novel, always another project; I am always working towards what I distantly see to be something exciting. Other than that, we’ll see.

Thank you!

Goat

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#58 Jessica Anya Blau

2013-06-25T12:46:00.000-04:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FIFTY EIGHT

Jessica Anya Blau

I was lucky enough to meet Jessica a few weeks ago and sneakily stole her phone, sent myself an email requesting an interview, and then wrote back to her with the questions... she may have handed me the phone to do it, but I say what I want, it's my interview. She's fantastic, her books are fantastic, and YOU are fantastic for reading them. Enjoy the one, the only, Jessica Anya Blau!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

Rutting bucks. I realize goats aren't bucks but a mourning goat just reminds me of a rutting buck. And a rutting buck reminds me of a guy with a bottle of imported beer in his left hand. So I guess you could say that I think of guys drinking beer when I think of mourning goats.

2. When Nick Hornby speaks, people listen, what happened after his glowing review in The Believer?

My publicist sent the review to me when I was out running errands. I was on a hectic schedule and couldn't stop and read it so I forwarded it to a friend (while at a stoplight) and had her read it to me over the phone. And then I just laughed. It made me immensely happy. As for what happened to the book . . . I guess we'll see, right? The book just came out.

3. What's it been like publishing through Harper Perennial?

Oh, I love all the people I work with there. They're funny and fun and authentic. No one seems to be playing any part--they're all exactly who they are. And my editor is brilliant. I feel very lucky. Also I have a great publicist who takes good care of every book he has even when you're not Cheryl Strayed or someone like that.

4. You didn't start writing until you moved to Canada after college, what was the prompt?

Loneliness. Pending lunacy. I found I felt okay about myself, my day, my life, when I wrote.

5. For your novel WonderBread, you have a blurb from another Mourning Goat Interviewee, Paula Bomer and you're email pals with Nick Hornby who answered the goats questions last year, do you think that with the connectivity of social media more authors are becoming pals and then helping each other? Do you think it's a necessity in these hard publishing times?

Well, Nick wrote me after that review and, of course, I had to write back and thank him for the review and all that. He is a supremely generous person. I met Paula when she asked me to read with her in New York and found her to be so fascinating and smart and funny, too. I don't think it's "necessary" to help other people out but I do believe that we're all in this together. We writers. And even we people on Earth. It's hard to write and it's hard to get published, and it's even harder to get a published book noticed. If we look it as a community, a group of people who love each other, then it makes sense that we help each other out the best we can. So, no, I don't think it's necessary but I do think it's the right thing to do. We should treat each other kindly and as generously as possible.

6. Are any of your books being optioned for the big screen? Which would you most like to see?

I think Wonder Bread Summer would make a great movie and I'd love to see it on the screen. Drinking Closer to Home would probably be the most difficult to make into a movie. I think Drew Barrymore should play the mother in Naked Swim Parties. It is hard to think of her as a mother, but she is the age of the mother in the book. And she'd be perfect standing at the grill, making pancakes, with nothing on but an apron.

7. Do you have an average timeframe that it takes you to write a book?

About two years. And then there's the year of revisions with my editor if I'm lucky enough to have sold it.

8. Have you ever had negative feedback from anyone you've written about? Either way, does that change anything?

No. My family is used to me writing about them and I pretty much just crack them up. Other people don't see themselves the way I see them. I've had many, many people tell me they thought one character or another was based on someone in particular and they're usually wrong.

9. What are your thoughts on social media? Does it help or harm writers?

I'm on book tour now (actually I'm on an airplane right now) and more than one person has come up to me at a reading and said they showed up because I posted the reading on Facebook. So I guess it helps. I get sick of myself pretty quickly, sick of the sound of my own voice (and my voice in my head, too), so I try to tweet and Facebook post about other writers, ideas, and images as much as possible. Then I stick myself in there from time to time because I do want people to come to readings and I do want people to read the book.

10. How did you get your agent, Brandt and Hochman Literary Agents, Inc. New York, NY? What was the process like?

I met Gail Hochman in the French House at Sewanee. It was late at night and we stood on the porch and talked about kids. She showed me pictures of her kids. I didn't know she was an agent. Later, after we had talked for a good long time I said to someone, "Who was that woman? She's hilarious." They told me who she was and I wrote her name down somewhere. When my book was done, months later, I sent it to her and . . . well, here we are.

11. If someone were to tell you one thing before you started writing, what do you wish it had been?

You aren't as dumb as you think.

12. What's the scariest part about giving a reading?

Standing there and having people look at me. It's terrifying. I try to pretend I'm someone else. Someone who isn't scared out of her mind and trembling inside. I fake myself out. I also try to remind myself that no one really gives a shit about me and even if I bomb, the only one who will remember is me. Nothing I do will make the news, so it's stupid, really, to be so afraid. I once stepped out of a jacuzzi in a women's locker room, and vomited and passed out, NAKED, in my own vomit. Sometimes I tell myself that no matter what happens, it probably won't be as bad as that.

13. Did I hear right? WonderBread is taken from a lot of real events you've been through?

Yup, sure is. Here's the round up of stuff I've encountered in real life: 1. The bread bag full of cocaine. 2. The girl (moi!) working at a dress shop that's really a front for cocaine dealing. 3. The quadriplegic with the head pointer who makes "erotic" films (in real life the guy made sex films that he called "art", in the book the guy makes porn). 4. The blind date with the quadriplegic (my blind date was with a paraplegic). 5. A guy named Vice Versa (the real one wasn't a hit man). Hmmm, there's more, but I can't remember right now.

14. What's the hardest thing you ever had to write?

The hardest things for me to write are promo/ad copy sort of things. Fiction is way easier than stuff like that. Actually, the hardest things to write are mission statements, essays, statements of purpose. The kind of stuff you have to write to get into colonies. I find that kind of writing agonizing.

15. Did I hear that the very first story you sent out was published? What did that feel like?

It did and I was shocked. I was staying home with my baby, pulling weeds from the lawn with my crazyass next door neighbor who had screws in her mouth for teeth and liked to weed my lawn with a fork. I was sitting in the park all day, talking to other mothers, watching my crawling baby eat sand and crawl up the steps to the slide and then slide down face first. When she napped I wrote. I didn't tell anyone, it was my secret. I had no idea if anything I wrote was good or not. Getting that story published gave me the courage to apply to graduate school.

16. I saw your first two books have book trailers, is The Wonder Bread Summer going to have one? What do you think they do for the book?

I'm not sure they do anything for a book. In fact, I'm pretty certain they do nothing. But they're sort of fun to make and fun to look at. I think shorter is better. I don't' think any book trailer should be longer than 60 seconds. We are making one for Wonder Bread. We were going to shoot it last week but my schedule got too crazy. I think we're shooting it next week.

17. Have you ever considered doing the audio book version of your books?

Hey, I'd do the pantomime version of my book if someone wanted it!

18. Do you participate in any writing workshops, or is it just you and your editor?

I have a writers group. It's me and three guys, they all have at least two books out and they're all great writers. We eat dinner. They drink wine. We talk about everything. And then we give macro responses to each other's work. No one's really into the minutiae and that's how I prefer it. It's our editors who get into the micro.

19. On your website it says that you have a novel in progress called Running from Vice Versa, are you nervous about giving away too much too soon?

Really? Does it say that? That was my working title for The Wonder Bread Summer. My webpage was recently updated. I don't think it says that anymore, does it? OH, maybe on the HarperCollins page for me it says that, doesn't it?

20. Other than Running from Vice Versa, what's next for Jessica Blau?

I have five things going at once and I'm feeling somewhat paralyzed. I'm feeling a bit scared and I don't know why. I think it's because I'm in the middle of promoting Wonder Bread and so I can't get my head away from it enough to really dive into something else. I have three first chapters to a new novel (three different novels). And I have short stories I'm writing. And other stuff, too. I need to pick one thing and just dig in. I need to ignore myself for a while (my constantly critical self-doubting, niggling voice) and just do it. I'm starting tomorrow. I swear.

Thank you!

Goat

And as always, don't forget to "like" the Mourning Goats Facebook page for all the latest interviews! www.mourninggoats.com

#57 Jesus Angel Garcia

2013-06-21T07:38:00.001-04:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FIFTY SEVEN

Jesus Angel Garcia

This interview has been over a year in the making, but after the festival with Iggy (yes, that Iggy) and the Stooges, we got some questions answered. So, without further adieu, I give you Jesus Angel Garcia and his book, badbadbad!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

The remorse of a 14-year-old Catholic boy, masturbating.

2. Do you consider yourself more of a novelist or musician?

I've played music and written "seriously" since 8th grade. I'm glad I'm still able to do both, but what's more important to me is how I live, quality of life. I'm just trying to be a decent human being and enjoy what's left of my time.

3. That being said, you have 30 shows lined up for 2013, already. When are you going to have time to write?

Yeah, I've got a lot going on with my string band Three Times Bad. Most of my writing right now is song lyrics. I've also begun to write my next book -- a collection of stories and prose poems based on Billie Holiday tunes. I make time when I can, when I feel like I need to get something down. I like flying because I'm trapped on the plane and all I do is write (and read). It's a respite from everything on the ground demanding head space. I'm doing a writing retreat in Portland this summer, so I'll crank out some more Billie Holiday drafts then (and learn to play this banjo I recently picked up). I'm also seeing this beautiful poet who won't let me not write. We're talking about launching a transmedia publishing company.

4. What was the idea behind doing not only the book and music for the book, but also film? Was it all marketing?

Nah, less marketing than unrestrained creative impulse, I guess. It's hard to remember exactly. I think the multimedia stuff for "badbadbad" started out simply from my interest in exploring the novel's themes through different lenses, just to see what that would look like. I did originally plan to make a couple of videos from the audio-visual material to promote the book outside traditional literary channels. I've always been into music, and at the time, I had just bought my first point-and-shoot camera and editing software, so I was fired by the possibilities. As I got deeper into writing songs and interviewing people on the street, the whole thing sort of took off and I could see these distinct yet interrelated projects coming into being. I couldn't stop once I saw what they could be. I wound up with a complete soundtrack and a full-length documentary film that extended the breadth of the novel beyond the words on the page. It was an unexpected outcome.

5. What's going on with Down in a Hole?

That's my second novel. It took me six years and fifty thousand drafts to get it right. The manuscript's on my hard drive. I should probably print a hard copy. I haven't shopped it much, focusing instead on Three Times Bad. No luck with the few indie presses I've hit up. I should probably put more effort into getting that book published. It's a paranormal anti-romance historical fiction existential meditation on mortality. Got any recs?

6. What was it like working with New Pulp Press? Any plans to go back for another book?

New Pulp's editor/publisher Jon Bassoff is a great guy. He's easy to work with and incredibly supportive. But I don't have plans to write anything new in the transgressive noir vein, and his aesthetic is pretty much twisted crime fiction, so I'm gonna have to look elsewhere for a home for my next books.

7. What's your writing schedule look like? Do you have one?

I travel by plane as often as possible.

8. It seems as though you're a full-time musician and novelist, is that right? What else do you do to fill your time?

I freelance: First Church webmaster, reiki massage therapist, mile-high entertainer on those private jets where CEO's and politicians lick each other's billfolds.

9. Mud Luscious Press just closed up shop, where do you think indie lit is headed?

From what I can tell, indie lit is a luminescent, Hydra-headed beast with boundless energy, badass attitude, and an appetite for self-destruction. Indie lit is hungry, and it feeds on itself. When one braintrust dies, a new one rises from its rotten corpse. As there's no end to cynicism in the indie lit world, there's also no end to the idealism of bleary-eyed writer/editor/publishers-in-training. Have I mentioned that I'm starting a press? Of course: "Unsolicited submissions are not being accepted at this time."

10. What's your take on e-books? Are they killing the printed word?

E-books are... eeeevil? Nah. I don't care. Go on and lick your laptop/tablet/cellphone screens. Me? I eat words on paper. I like acoustic instruments and I like books that smell.

11. Have you received a lot of backlash from BadBadBad? You hit on some pretty rough topics.

Some but not so much. Suffice to say, the book has triggered a range of reactions, most positive, most passionate.

12. You said in one interview that, "the haters tend to hate it with a passion," do you think that those who hate, and share their hate, actually help sales? The whole, any press is good press.

Sales? Surely you jest.

13. You compiled nearly 80 gigabytes of film for the documentary, how did you choose what to include?

At first, the editing process was complicated, searching for connects and just-right juxtapositions and narrative sequences among so many faces, voices, and words. It was easier once I homed in on the sounds. Then I just constructed the film like you'd compose an extended musical work. Once I listened, it was obvious which parts to include and which to cut.

14. It seems as though you're almost angry about how digital the world has become, do you think we're going in a negative direction with how connected we are or does it amplify reality?

I AM NOT ANGRY!!! Maybe we've always been as pathetic as we often appear to be while sucking the digital teat all the livelong day. My biggest problem with e-obsessive/compulsive behavior is that a lot of people seem to have forgotten how (or have simply given up on developing the capacity) to communicate and connect face-to-face, eye-to-eye, skin-to-skin. It seems to me that a lot of us use digital media as a way to tune out, not tune in. Information overload, clickety click culture, always-on oversharing... all that stuff tends to be, I think, a diversion from or disruption to more meaningful nuanced communication, one-on-one connection, healthy sleep patterns, etc. That's a sad misuse of the technology and it makes me feel like too many of us are little more than two-legged hillbilly cyborg dogs.

15. I've never heard of a dating site used for novel research, what went down on OkCupid?

Hunger, hunt, gorge, vomit, repeat.

16. Do you think that being a musician transitions to the way you write? Do you feel that your writing is almost lyrical?

I hope so. Yeah, I think they're connected. They can't not be, right? I've been doing both for so long. My first writing was poetry, so there's that.

17. You're all over the social networks, do you think that they're a necessity in today's self-promotional world?

I guess. I dunno. I'm not sure. I'd like to quit. I guess I would if I wasn't a cyborg dog.

18. What's been the most exciting news you've received about the book, the band, or the film? Each have so many exciting things happening!

Hard to say. Excitement is fleeting, ya know? What goes up... anyway, when you first see your first book in print it can't not feel like something that matters. But then reality kicks in. Do you know how many books are published every year in the United States alone? Still, my favorite moments with the book were probably when a legit critic wrote a thoughtful review and I was like, yes, this writer gets what I was trying to get across and he or she took the time to articulate it. I'm super appreciative for the times that happened. With the band... we just played all three days of this badass Ink n Iron Festival in Long Beach on the Queen Mary, a historic cruise ship, with headliners Iggy & the Stooges and so many other world-class bands. That was an honor. Also, our on-stage partnerships with burlesque dancers are kinda magical dream-come-true experiences. There's nothing like a performance that kills. With the film, getting an acceptance email from the first film fest I applied to was a good day.

19. Are you reading anything that you can't stop telling people about?

Anne Carson's "Autobiography of Red" is kicking my ass and reminding me what language and story can do when you push yourself to write big.

20. What's next for Jesus Angel Garcia?

At this moment, a much-needed vacation with family and old-school friends I haven't seen in way too long. Maybe after that, a new chapter in creative publishing.

Thank you!

Goat

Check out his other places on the web, at www.threetimesbad.com and www.badbadbad.net and as always, go "like" the Facebook page for the newest interviews, updates, and pages to chew. www.mourninggoats.com

#56 Seth Godin

2013-06-12T08:48:00.003-04:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FIFTY SIX

Seth Godin

I've been following Seth for a few years now, and back in February sent my first email to him. Once he agreed to the interview, my first thoughts were, "Goat, what have you gotten yourself into this time? Seriously, what do you ask someone who's been touted as the greatest marketer of our time? Someone who sold their company (Yoyodyne) to Yahoo for $30 million? Someone who's written over a dozen New York Times bestsellers?" After some research, I came up with these twenty. I hope you enjoy, I know I did!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

Nothing. At all. Sorry.

2. Congratulations, you just had your 5,000th post on your blog! Why do you think your blogging has gone longer than any of your other professional projects?

Blogging is magical because there's no business objective. I just get to share. Since there's no peak, there's no end. It's me, thinking and sharing and ranting and musing. I guess I'm hooked.

3. You've had a plethora of New York Times best sellers, what do you owe your success to? Marketing, subject matter, timing, a mixture of it all?

Certainly a mixture. I've been fortunate enough to stand up and name things that needed naming, and to do it at a time when ideas were easier to spread than ever before.

4. You've resisted the pull of social media because it would take you away from what's most important to you, but for the rest of us, just getting started, do you think that social media is a necessity or does it all come down to putting the time in to create something and continue on that path, letting things fall where they may.

I think that for just about everyone, Twitter is a time-waster, not an asset builder. There are exceptions, but not many. Facebook and LinkedIn can amplify your work as a generous connector, but they are more of a symptom than a cause.

Do work that scares you.

5. I usually get your emails between 5:30 and 6:30am, what's your writing schedule for the blogs, the books, and everything else? Do you try to keep any kind of schedule? Is that possible in your world?

I'm super disciplined about many things, it makes it easier to be crazier when I need to be. So yes, there's a discipline to the blog.

6. You recently did a search for a two-week internship and one of the asks was that the person gave back to society in some way, I also saw that you give 5% of profits from Squidoo to charity. Are you a big believer in Karma?

I'm a big believer in doing what you can, when you can. If you can't be generous, who can be?

7. Are you still in contact with your 9 six-month MBA students? Are there any who are really standing out?

I hear from them all the time. I'm incredibly proud of the paths they're choosing to walk.

8. As someone who hardly watches any television, do you read fiction at all? Or is your creative reading in the non-fiction world?

I read junky fiction, but I find I lack the patience for real literature. That's my loss.

9. In one interview you said that a successful book of yours led you to a book that was a failure, led you to another successful book. What deems a book a success/failure in your eyes?

For me, every book is a success, in that if I thought it was a failure, I never would have sent it to the publisher. But many of my books haven't met the publisher's hopes for sales, so in that respect, a failure.

10. One of the questions you included in the internship interview was, "Where are you going?" I'd love to ask you the same, where are you going?

I'm trying to build a reputation, a platform and to leave things a little better than I found them.

11. In one interview, you were asked if you were "satisfied creatively" and you responded, "not even close." Do you think as a writer and as an entrepreneur, this is the biggest driving force in what you do? That feeling that there's always more to explore?

Exactly! It's hard to say, "this is perfect, it's done, I'm done." Some people can do that, but I can't.

12. Mourning Goats published an author interview book in May called Chewing the Page. We went through a traditional publisher (Perfect Edge Books) and I was wondering, do you think kickstarter is a good way for up-and-coming authors to help build their audience and procure a publisher?

Read this: http://www.thedominoproject.com/?p=2228

13. Your thoughts on education are dead on. Do you see passion, experience and insight being something that schools look at and implement in educating students in the future?

We can hope! I think it's going to take longer than it should.

14. I feel like your thoughts on goals and making money are a lot like a fiction writer's. Put hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into a project, do your best work, do something that you're proud of, and if it makes you any money, good for you. Is that about right?

I'd add: make generous connections. Contribute as much as you can to the community that you depend on. Raise the bar and teach what you can...

15. You once said, "When anyone can publish an ebook, anyone will." Do you think this helps or hinders what's put out into the world?

Both. Without curation, it's really difficult to choose. On the other hand, without curators, there's no gatekeeper to keep the undiscovered off the market.

16. 900 rejection letters? Many of the authors who read this interview just fell in love with you for pushing through! What's the best piece of advice you have to get past rejection and on to success?

Rejection isn't about you. Rejection merely means that the story you told to someone didn't resonate with them. Blame the story or blame the rejector, but the work is the work. I saw rejections as, "no for now."

That doesn't mean you shouldn't learn from what doesn't work. But failure is an event, not a person, as my friend Zig used to say.

17. In fiction, most, if not all of us fail, a lot, before getting published; did you write any unpublished books before Permission Marketing took off?

I created 120 books as a book packager--YA fiction, books on gardening and business and many things in between. Some I wrote, some I commissioned, some I built teams for. The Information Please Business Almanac, for example, took 6 people a year of full time work to put together. The original Kaplan review books were a huge project as well.

18. In 2010, you said that Linchpin would be your last book you publish in a traditional way, how do you think this has played out for you and where do you see it changing in the future?

Well, it's been true. I love people in book publishing, but an always not-so-good business model is now officially a terrible one.

19. I started this interview site back in 2010 and have interviewed over 50 of my favorite writers, so far. Who would you go after next? Which authors out there do you think have the most to say?

Charles Darwin?

20. Finally, I've seen a ton of similarities between three of the Mourning Goats interviews; you, Gary Vaynerchuk and Tony Hsieh. Do you think most successful entrepreneurs, as well as authors in general, are the ones not scared to take the risk of failure?

Entrepreneurs don't take risks. We see opportunities.

Thank you, Seth!

Goat

Also, this interview, along with the other 55 will be moving over to Facebook, one at a time, over the next 22 days. "Like" the Mourning Goats page and follow along! And finally, don't forget to grab the book over on Amazon! Chewing the Page: The Mourning Goats Interviews.

#55 Richard Thomas

2013-05-10T09:53:00.000-04:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FIFTY FOUR

Richard Thomas

And we have a new winner in the fastest turn-around time for questions! Questions were sent at 4:56pm and returned to me at 7:07pm. I asked Richard a little bit about his "secret" to success, but after seeing how fast he got this back to me, I found that it's just because he works his ass off. Definitely one of my favorite interviews, thanks again, Richard!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

I see a lot of black shrouds and there is definitely a low, guttural moan—surreal, strange and oddly touching.

2. Medallion Press just bought an anthology you've been working on with Chuck Palahniuk and Dennis Widmyer, what's it like working with the man who got you started in writing?

We’re all really excited about this project. Mostly, I feel honored that I was able to step in and help get this ball over the goal line, yeah? So many wonderful people have been involved with this, the authors have written such amazing stories, and it all started with Chuck, right? I have to say that CP is the main reason I’m writing today. I was in a funk, my career as an art director and graphic designer fun and paying the bills, but not fulfilling. Like many, I saw Fight Club, and then came to the Cult, and then read all of his work. It was a slap in the face, a wake up call. To work with Chuck, to have my name alongside his, it’s really an honor. I’m humbled by his generosity and his work inspires me. It’s just a dream come true, really.

3. You received an MFA from a low-residency program (as did I), what do you think about low-residency programs as well as the teaching of creativity?

I really had so much fun—to be around “my people” like this, to read and write, to talk about great books. Part of the reason I went to Murray State University is that Holly Goddard Jones was teaching there, and Dan Wickett, Matt Bell and Aaron Burch had just visited—all great minds that have gone on to heavily influence my writing career. Back then, the MSU program was reading Knockemstiff, by Donald Ray Pollock, and I thought that was awesome. I was reading it, too. Being a part of that program I read so many wonderful authors, some, people I’d never read before. I got into Flannery O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, Haruki Murakami, and Mary Gaitskill, to name just a few people.

I had a job, and a family, so a low-res program was the best option. I had some great teachers, and Dale Ray Phillips was my thesis advisor. The man was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and was an encyclopedia of information. Tell him you were working on a story about swimming pools and he’d rattle off three other stories, and tell you to go read them. The creativity, the community, it’s all what you make of it. You get out of it what you put into it. I wish they were more accepting of “genre fiction,” that they would talk more about how to be a commercial success, to actually make a living at it, and I wish they knew more about what’s going on in contemporary literature, but otherwise, I had a blast.

4. You took a class from one of the Mourning Goats Interviewees, Craig Clevenger. What was it like learning from someone you admire so much?

That was another pivotal moment in my career. I’d read both of his books, and took his class to see if I had any ability at all. If he told me I sucked, I would have quit. He liked my work a lot, even compared it to an idol of his, Steve Erickson, and I have to admit, I was surprised, and really moved by his support. In fact, the one story he personally encouraged me to send out, was “Stillness” which got accepted in Shivers VI (Cemetery Dance) where it was published alongside Stephen King and Peter Straub—another dream come true. I owe Craig a lot. Palahniuk, Clevenger and Baer, they have all been major influences on my career, in a number of different ways.

5. What's your writing schedule like these days? Do you write every day, do you think it's necessary?

I don’t write every day. The last year has been a ton of management—getting Disintegration to my agent and out to publishers; sending off my thesis stories; editing two anthologies. But I also rewrote my first book, Transubstantiate, as a YA title, and I’m part of a collection of novellas called Four Corners, and I’ve been writing as a part of the various WAR battles over at LitReactor.com. I write when I find time, when a story comes to me, when I’m moved. I write for deadlines, anthologies that get my attention. For example, when Michael Gonzalez announced the whole Cipher Sisters anthology at Thunderdome, I KNEW I wanted to write a story, so I kept that brewing in my head, simmering for weeks, and then the story “Dance, Darling” came spilling out. First time I’ve used German in a story. (Yes, the story got in!) What’s necessary is to do what works for you, whatever that is.

6. The more interviews I do, the more I realize how many tight-knit groups of writers there are all over the world. What do you think about the support system of the writer in general and in your world?

It’s so important. We need that network, a support system, for when we fail, and for when we break through. Not all of our spouses and kids and co-workers really “get” what we’re doing. For me it’s been The Velvet, The Cult, Cemetery Dance, LitReactor, and of course, social media like Facebook and Twitter. It’s silly, I suppose, but when I have a big announcement, and I see the people that comment, that click “like,” these authors, editors and artists that I really respect, it’s touching. It really is.

7. You're very active on social media, do you think that self-promotion these days is more important than ever?

I do. You never know where you’re going to be discovered, you need to get the word out, build your audience. I don’t try to shove it down people’s throats, but I’m always thrilled when I find a new fan, when something I write really resonates with somebody, when it inspires people to write, or submit their work, or just push through an obstacle. I have my mentors, my rabbits to chase, the Stephen Graham Joneses and the Matt Bells of the world. We’re all struggling to get our work published, and it’s my dream to be a writer, a teacher, an editor, and a publisher. When you’re as small-time as I am, you need every means of promotion you can get your hands on, and the time I spend on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, etc. it’s very important—it really helps to get my name out there. And then, it’s a matter of the writing being good. That’s all I can hope for, to get somebody to read a story, and hope I impress them, entertain them, take them to another place and time and do something that impacts them emotionally.

8. Navigating your Facebook page, there are a lot of publication announcements. Do you do anything other than write or is it a pretty 24/7 focus?

Oh, sure. I do other literary things—editing, teaching, advice columns, and book reviews. And then outside of all of that I’m a father and a husband. I love to read, see movies, play golf and tennis, softball—I do exist in the real world.

9. You recently "harpooned" one of your "white whales" in writing, with a story in Midwestern Gothic, where else would be a dream for you to publish?

Ha, just got that in the mail today. I was holding it in my hands and looking at it, and then I set in on the shelf. I’m sending a copy to my professor, Dale Ray, down at Murray. I wrote that story, “Garage Sales” under his guidance. So many places, where to even start? Plus, I write across so many different genres. I won’t hold my breath about The New Yorker, Tin House or The Paris Review, but I’d love to get into The Missouri Review, Cream City Review (short-listed there as we speak), Hobart, Juked, Barrelhouse, Caketrain, GUD, Copper Nickel, Ploughshares—and those are just the literary places. As for horror, I still haven’t gotten into Cemetery Dance the magazine, or Shroud, Shock Totem, and that damn Shimmer. Fantasy & Science Fiction is one I’d love to get into, Clarkesworld, too, Fantasy Magazine. I got close with Ellery Queen, they’re a big name, as well as Hitchcock’s—not to mention smaller places like Needle.

10. Your goal after getting the MFA was to teach, in the Chicago area, is that what you're doing now? Is that still the goal?

My goal is definitely to teach, and I’ve finally started getting in-person interviews. I’ve taught some shorter classes, a day at Story Studio Chicago, and a two-week class at LitReacotr.com. It’s brutal out there. I feel like I’ll have to take that MFA and cobble together something that is a mix of writing short stories, novels, and columns, as well as editing, teaching, and publishing. It’s all connected, and I love doing all of it, but yeah, if I could make a living just writing? Wow, that would be amazing.

11. I saw you got an agent last year, what do you see as the best part of having an agent, other than saying you have an agent? ;-)

Ha, yeah, that is a bonus. Paula is getting me in front of people that I couldn’t get to on my own. Without an agent you just can’t get in front of the big six, and their imprints. Hell, you can’t get to a good number of independent presses either. We’ve gotten so close. It’s come down to board votes, losing by one vote. Paula really believes in my writing, my voice—she thinks I’m special. And I know that sounds stupid, like I’m talking about my mother or something, but isn’t that what we all want? She gets my voice, the reason I write the way I do, the heavy settings, the lyrical prose, the layers of language, emotion, metaphor, love, lust, darkness, death and rebirth. She gets it all. And that's who I want representing me. The biggest problem with the big publishers is they want a guaranteed success—they want to sell books, so in many ways all that they want is a book with a broad appeal. My writing does not appeal to everyone. But I’m okay with that. I’d rather be closer to Palahniuk, Baer, and Cormac, than Grisham and Patterson.

12. You're working with Shya Scanlon, another Mourning Goats Interviewee, at The Nervous Breakdown. What do you do there and how do you like it?

Shya is great—he makes my writing so much better. He’s an ideal editor, and one hell of an author himself. I loved his novel, Forecast. I’ve worked with several editors, and it has been painful at times. I’ve had to rescind my review before. But Shya gets it, he lets me speak about the books and authors I enjoy, and say what I need to say—and then he steps in with his scalpel and trims the fat. He’s amazing. I keep reviewing books at The Nervous Breakdown because of the authors I profile, and my relationship with Shya. He’s just that good.

13. In 2011 you were a residency at Writers in the Heartland, seven days in a house with 9 other writers, what came of it and how did you get involved?

That was a lot of fun. Aside from my MFA, I’ve never done anything like that. We wrote a lot, and then wandered the cornfields at night, smoking clove cigarettes, howling at the moon. We’d sit in the hot tub and talk about writing. We’d walk around the pond and get lost in the overarching branches of the trees.

I wrote about 30,000 words while I was there—a novella originally titled The Outskirts (now called The Golden Geese) which is being shopped by my agent as part of a bigger project called Four Corners, with Nik Korpon, Caleb Ross, and Axel Taiari; a long short story, “Chrysalis,” which was just accepted at Arcadia, out this May; and the first 7,000 words of my third novel, Incarnate, which has been stalled for a while. It was a great week. And I’m still friends with a few of the authors and poets from back then.

14. You've only been on the scene a few years and it seems like you're connecting with all the right people. What do you think the biggest "secret" to your success is? Other than the obligatory hard work?

Thanks for that, you’re a very generous Goat. I think it’s a couple things. First, I have no fear. I have no problem asking any author for a blurb, or advice. I just track them down. But it’s not about the name—I have to have a genuine love for their work. So whether I'm talking to Peter Straub or Tim O’Brien, Brian Evenson or Dan Wickett at Dzanc, I just speak from the heart, and find common ground. I also do my best to support other authors, big and small. The books I review at TNB are almost entirely independent small presses, or if they are bigger presses, it’s that first or second book, that breakthrough. You’d be surprised how easy it is to connect with people if you just aren’t a dick. Plus, like you say, I try my best to put my money where my mouth is. I don’t just stargaze and talk about things I’ve never done. I’m out here in the trenches with everyone else, suffering, crying in the dark, hoping and dreaming, glowing when I break through, grateful when the kind words and acceptance comes. I’m constantly floored that Stephen Graham Jones, Craig Clevenger, Karen Brown, Joey Goebel, Craig Davidson, Donald Ray Pollock, Scott Phillips, Rob Roberge, Kealan Patrick Burke, Lisa Morton, C. W. LaSart, Damien Walters Grintalis, and Max Booth III have all blurbed my work. Every time I sent out a manuscript and ask for a blurb, I worry that they’ll pass, and many people have, but when they come back with generous words, it’s just so amazing.

15. What's your favorite and least favorite part of giving readings?

I hate the nerves, the way that I get sick to my stomach, even if I know the crowd, even if I’ve read that story before. I love it when I finally settle in and find my voice, when the crowd slips away, and I’m there, in my story, wherever it is, and I’m sharing that vision with them, and they react—they laugh or gasp, they go silent, heads bowed, a tear in their eye, and then the applause. I just want to share with them what I’m feeling, and when we connect, it’s really quite intimate.

16. I saw that you released one story, “Transmogrify,” on kindle, as a teaser for your short story collection, Staring Into The Abyss. What success have you seen come out of this? It's a brilliant idea!

Thanks, that was George’s idea over at Kraken. He’s an amazing artist, but this publishing is a new thing to him. I think I’m the second book he’s put out. It seemed like a smart thing to do. I don’t know if it’ll translate into sales, last I heard we had several hundred downloads of the free story. But when you’re an unknown author on an unknown press, you do whatever you can to get the word out. The free eBook, the microsite, the blurbs, the Tweets, Facebook, Goodreads, the book trailer, etc—you just throw it at the wall and see what sticks. We’ve gotten good reviews so far, mostly 4 and 5 stars across the board. I know it’s not a perfect collection, what is, but there are a few of my favorites in this group of stories, so I’m excited to get it out there and find new people with my work.

17. Staring Into the Abyss comes out this month (April 2013), you have one sentence to sell it, what do you say?

“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”—Nietsche

18. Did I read that you were a designer before being a writer? Do you think that that kind of creativity changed the way you see things and in turn, the way you write?

Yes, I’ve been a graphic designer and art director for almost twenty years. It’s still what I do for a living, my full-time work, how I pay my mortgage. I do think it informs my writing, and visa versa. It’s all connected—writing, television, film, music, art, dance, etc. There is beauty and horror in all of it. I do see things in visual terms, my stories are almost always short films in my head, and there is always color, the five senses, it’s visceral to me, something real. I think that’s why at the end of my second book, Disintegration, I started crying, thought I might throw up. I’d been this man, this monster, for two years. It had drained me of my own spirit and emotion and left me an empty shell. I filled up again, but for a moment, it was intensely overwhelming.

19. Who are some newer authors you'd like everyone to know about? Or anyone currently blowing your mind?

Oh, man, where to start? I feel like I talk a lot about the male writers I read, since I grew up reading genres that were dominated my men, but lately, it’s been the women that have really been destroying me. In addition to the names I’ve already mentioned earlier in this interview, here are some women that I really love to read: Roxane Gay, Lindsay Hunter, xTx, Amelia Gray, Ethel Rohan, Monica Drake, Amber Sparks, Jac Jemc, Mary Miller, Paula Bomer, Claire Vaye Watkins, and so many others. They all take risks, they all bring a lot of emotion and power to their stories, and they continuously surprise me.

20. What's next for Richard Thomas?

Well, Staring Into the Abyss releases soon. I just had that story, “Garage Sales” come out in Midwestern Gothic. Up next is “Chrysalis” in Arcadia out in May, and you know about the anthology with Palahniuk, Burnt Tongues, in August of 2014. I’m also editing an anthology for Black Lawrence Press (The Lineup: 25 Provocative Women Writers) out in late 2014. You’ll see ALL of the women I just mentioned in that anthology, such an amazing collection of edgy, contemporary fiction—I was so lucky to get them all to say yes and contribute to this book. It’s basically 25 of my favorite stories from the past five years. Beyond that, there are other things in the works, but only time will tell how they turn out! Wish me luck.

Thank you!

And thank you, Goat. These were some excellent questions, you obviously did your homework, and I really appreciate the support and respect you’ve given me here, it means a lot.

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#54 Michael Gonzalez

2013-04-15T00:00:00.000-04:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FIFTY FOUR

Michael Gonzalez

In our line of Perfect Edge Books interviews, the next up is Mr. Michael Gonzalez, author of the new novel, Angel Falls. The goat is looking forward to a lot of good stuff from this guy!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

I think of Fainting Goats, but instead of falling over, these goats get intensely, stoically sad when there’s a loud noise.

2. You just got back from AWP, right? How was it? Meet any of your favorites while you were there?

It was pretty cool. It’s an interesting experience. Overall, it’s a bit of a boat show for MFA writing programs, but the ancillary things happening there, readings, hangouts, etc, is what made it fun for me. A lot of people seemed to be there to sell books (myself included) but there was a heavy bias towards writers, not readers. I think I’d like to give bookfairs a shot one day to see the different crowds. I got to network though, and met a lot of writers I’d only known online. My favorite thing was seeing people walk up to each other and meeting face to face for the first time. It’s a weird social thing that hasn’t truly existed prior to facebook.

3. What's it been like working with Perfect Edge Books?

Wonderful! They’re very transparent with their operation, and the whats and whens that they expect from you. I’ve heard stories from other authors lamenting that they don’t know when their book is coming out, or waiting on some mysterious round of edits or meetings, but Perfect Edge is very upfront. You know what’s needed and when, and it happens. I’ve also been pleased at the amount of input I’ve gotten in the overall process. I’ve seen other horror stories of authors getting saddled with horrible covers or jacket copy, which might mean less in the age of the eBook. Still, I feel there’s something about a book cover with “curb appeal” that could end up swaying a few people to read and share.

4. Give us a quick summary of the book, did I hear Satan isn't such a bad guy?

Angel Falls works on the premise that every religion that has existed throughout creation is true and accurate. And much like businesses in a capitalist society, some corporations thrive while others die. Lucifer is currently charged with mergers and acquisitions by the current head honcho, condemned to hell to unify all of the world’s dead and dying religions while tormenting the souls of the damned. Thing is, he’s lazy, and not all that into cruelty. He’s allowed Hell to become a melting pot, a theme park of different cultures and beliefs, where people can spend eternity doing whatever they want. An old god awakens and finds a loophole that will grant him access to Heaven, where he plans an assassination attempt that will allow him to assume the throne. It’s up to Lucifer (with some help from a knuckle-headed Philistine, a surly waitress, and a Monkey) to do the one thing he never dreamed: save God’s life.

5. Where did the name of your site stem from, monkeywright.com?

When I was working on my playwriting MFA, several of us decided that we should have softball jerseys for a non-existent team of the playwriting department. We chose nicknames for each other. Mine stemmed from a playwriting exercise earlier in the semester where I’d envisioned a scene involving a variety show, monkey, and a condom. So I suppose I’m lucky I’m not Condomwright. I’ve always been pretty obsessed with monkeys because they’re awesome.

6. Do you have a writing schedule or just write when the mood hits?

I fight tooth and nail to maintain a writing schedule, but I don’t get to do it as often as I’d like. I should say, I’m not at the keyboard as often as I’d like. My mind never stops writing. Whether I’m jogging, driving, watching a movie, in a conversation, chances are my mind is somewhere else, moving characters around like chess pieces.

7. Can you tell us about Thunder Dome Magazine? What is it? What do you do there?

ThunderDome is a lit mag I started a few years back because the internet was severely lacking in lit mags and places for authors to publish. Is there a font for sarcasm? I’m the editor, the webmaster, the slushpile reader, the… everything, I guess. It started as a lark, sort of, just a place to really get stories going for writers I knew, and it’s grown into a much bigger thing. I subtitled the venture as A Writer’s Collective, because I like to publish multiple pieces from authors. If you publish on the Dome, you’re part of a family, so you’ll always have a place to hang your hat. Beyond short stories and poems, we’ve done multiple-week runs with authors unveiling segments of novels in progress, full novellas, chapters, interviews, whatever we can do to help further the creative process. We released our first print collection a little over a year ago, and we have two more coming this year. (shout out to the irrepressible Amanda Gowin for being my fearless co-editor on this next book). We’re also working with authors to release short story collections, but it’s a small, slow operation.

8. It looks like you're a web production designer as well as an author, what does that entail?

That job is (mercifully) coming to an end soon. It wasn’t bad work. I essentially started doing graphics work for a company that was like a 1-800-Dentists for plastic surgeons. This meant I spent eight hours a day looking at before and after pictures of boob jobs, which isn’t nearly as entertaining as it sounds. It’s given me a pretty good eye for spotting fake boobs though, which is the most useless super power a hero can have.

9. Your novel, Angel Falls, came out on March 16th, how're sales going? Did I read you sold out for a bit?

I did! It was pretty exciting to click over to Amazon and see that they were out of stock. It’s happened a couple of times over the past week or so. It would be fun to imagine that there are thousands of copies flying through their warehouses, but I know that’s not the case. Still, movement is movement. Hopefully some of those people will remember to come back and toss a few stars my way.

10. I saw you're a writer for ManArchy Magazine, too. What's the story with that?

I joined the ManArchy crew when the magazine relaunched under the guidance of Pela Via. It’s been a kick in the Pants, getting to unleash some of my crazier thoughts. ManArchy has gone through this crazy identity not-quite-crisis while we figure out what it’s all about. A men’s interest magazine that’s not run by men, but appeals to readers and geeks instead of douchebag frat guys. Mostly I let my inner crank out to complain about TV and sports, and this reminds me I need to get back there and complain about a few more things. My last article, defending Women’s MMA, was pretty well-received in the fight community and got passed around by a few fighters and even the president of Invicta Fighting Championships (an all-female organization)!

11. It looks like you put out In Search of a City: Los Angeles in 1,000 Words, through CreateSpace, do you recommend it?

I liked the experience of using CreateSpace (and missed the step where I could list the book under ThunderDome Press). If you are a decent editor and know your way around basic design and layout, there’s no easier way to publish a book and get it out there. The next collections from TD might go a different route for printers. Small presses always have to balance cost and turnaround times. One thing that’s nice about CreateSpace is the removal of minimum print runs. Rather than having to order 100 or 1,000 books to make your book a reality, it’s entirely print-on-demand, so anyone with a few bucks can get their vision out there (for better or for worse).

12. How did you end up in LA from Cheyenne, Wyoming?

I was an Air Force brat and Cheyenne was my dad’s last station. I went to college at the University of Wyoming where I quickly attempted to set a record for changing majors (music performance to music education to small business management to theatre). I caught the writing bug late in my college career, but UW didn’t have a playwriting program at the time. Hunting down grad schools, I ended up at Southern Illinois University, home of the Salukis and binge drinking Halloween riots. I decided to go for broke after graduating. Scriptwriters need to live in LA (even in this modern telecommuting age) so I made the jump… and started writing prose upon my arrival. I’ve produced a few novels since then, Angel Falls being the first to achieve publication, but I haven’t given up on scriptwriting yet.

13. Have you been doing any readings for Angel Falls, yet? How do you like giving readings?

I had my first reading in Boston at AWP, but read from a different novel I’m working on. I felt like there was a time crunch element in Boston, so I wouldn’t have time to set up the excerpt the way I’d need to for the crowd to really “get” Angel Falls. I have some more readings coming up though, where Satan will have his say. I had to do plenty of public speaking during my time as an actor/playwright, so it’s not a big deal. I was a bit rusty in Boston I think. If I had to give a reader any advice it would be to slow down. You’re always speaking faster than you think you are. Or maybe it’s just me. No, it’s you too.

14. You're a playwright, too! What do you like/dislike about writing plays that you don't do in novels?

What I love about plays is the purity of dialogue. There’s no place for description or flowery prose when you write for the stage. Anything you want conveyed has to come through the mouth of a character. I’ve always hated flowery, over-descriptive prose in books. I don’t like passages that get bogged down on physical description unless it’s absolutely necessary, and most of the time it’s not. People should have an image in their mind of your character based on what they do and say, and aquiline noses and almond-shaped eyes rarely factor into that equation. That said, I think I can get too caught up in snappy dialogue exchanges, which get tricky to follow in a novel if you have multiple characters bantering. I’m always working to find that balance.

15. In one interview, you said that the main theme of your new book about Lucifer is Love. Do you think this is at the base of all books? Stories?

I do. It’s the best piece of advice I got from my undergrad playwriting teacher (William Missouri Downs. Look him up, learn from him, love him!). Every story is about love. Silence of the Lambs, Mein Kampf, Moulin Rouge, The Notebook, Titanic, Army of Darkness… all of these are driven in some way shape or form by love. It’s like that old saying that love and hate are two sides of the same coin. The opposite of love would really be indifference, and nobody wants to read a story about characters who have no real feelings about each other, except for Jonathan Franzen, I guess. What does your protagonist want? What stands in his way? Why does he need it NOW? All good questions to ask yourself as you write your story, and the answer always comes back to love if you dig deep enough.

16. Do you think being a photographer also helps you as a writer?

It does. Most of the time when I’m taking pictures, there’s something I’ve caught that sparks an idea or a fragment of a story in my head. Being married to a photographer, has helped me learn a lot about composition and shot selection. Your subject is only part of the story. The way you choose to shoot it says even more. Plus, photographers end up in some of the weirdest places. We took a workshop in Poland with ace photographer Gokhan Cukurova that had us breaking and entering into abandoned castles, rolling around in burned out fields, chasing nuns down the street, dodging buses… photographers are the honey badgers of life, I think. You have to be intensely aware of everything as you take a photo. Background, focus, angles, motion. As a writer, it’s the same thing. Your chapter is two people talking at a table in a restaurant, but what’s happening around them? Where did they come from? Organized chaos, all of it. Really, I think all writers studying at the college level should make a point of taking playwriting, acting, and photography classes, because they will only help sharpen the tools you use every day.

17. Speaking of photography, I've never heard of cowbird, what do you use it for? It's not just photos, right?

It’s a blogging site that I became aware of through Monica Drake. I’ve neglected it a bit, but I need to get back there. Mostly it’s a life chronicle type of site. You take a photo and post it, then add a story, be it about that photo or something else. You can also add ambient sounds under the photos. I realize this sounds like every other blog site out there, but there are ways to connect with other cowbird writers, share stories, mark stories as inspirations, etc. It’s more of a communal writing experience. It was in invite-only beta phase for a while, but maybe it’s open to the public now (checks…) ah! It’s open to the public now with paid and free options.

18. At AWP did you read any new authors, or are you currently reading any new authors you want to share with the audience?

I’m reading Craig Wallwork’s The Sound of Loneliness and Eddy Rathke’s Ash Cinema at the moment. I’m a painfully slow reader and I wish I could go through stories a lot faster. I heartily recommend both of these gents (also see Craig’s short story collection Quintessence of Dust).

19. Angel Falls is actually your 3rd book, what's going on with the first two? And you're currently working on two more?

My first novel is, well, a first novel. It’s a decent story, and I may polish it up and try to submit it somewhere. It deals with Urban Mythology as well, some of it got absorbed into Angel Falls. My second novel, Hello, Darkness, is a crazy revenge story about a mutilated woman with no legs who goes on a drug-fueled rampage, seeking revenge on a list of ten people (I know, THAT old tale).My next two novels in the works are a near-future story set in an alternate Los Angeles and a tale of a young writer stuck in corporate drudgery who finds a way to break free and ignite a city-wide revolution of underpaid office drones. And after THAT, I plan to go back to the world of Angel Falls. My ultimate goal there is to have a tale spanning five books (three main novels and two related short story collections). I’m also kicking around a few short film ideas to shoot with some friends, and continuing on the pitch journey for a TV show my friend and I cooked up a while back. Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you’ll still end up in the stars. Starved of oxygen and frozen, with your internal organs imploded and your mind wondering how the hell you wound up in outer space, but still, for those last few moments? Stars!

20. What's next for Michael Gonzalez?

If you find out, let me know. I need to know what to wear.

Thank you!

Goat

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#53 Gary Vaynerchuk

2013-04-08T14:46:00.001-04:00

*Interview below is transcribed from audio.

Welcome to the first LIVE, 20 Questions with Mourning Goats! Today we have Gary Vaynerchuk, for interview number 53! Let's dive right in with the question we start every interview with!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

Ya know what’s so weird, the wine world comes to mind. You know I grew up in the wine business. And for some reason, I don’t know if that’s a former wine name or how I think about certain places in Burgundy or France that I’ve visited. But, for some reason when you ask me that question, the wine world comes to mind.

2. You're on the cusp of a million followers on Twitter, what's the plan when you break a million?

I cannot believe you just asked me that. Literally, no joke, literally, today was one of the first days I’ve thought about it in a long time and I decided that I would do absolutely nothing. I don’t want people to think that the overall number means anything. I’m a big believer in engagement and how many followers really care, not how many you have on the list. I’m going to make sure I don’t do anything about it.

3. Your next book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook comes out October 15th. You have one sentence to sell it, what do you say?

That’s a great question. I have one sentence to sell it. One sentence. I would say, “I’ve actually built businesses using social media, so I deserve your twenty bucks.”

4. You did a 5-hour Q&A at South by Southwest, what was the coolest thing you learned from it?

It reminded me that my thesis is right. Which is, even though I could have given a 4,000 person keynote, like I have in the past, the 250 people that I was able to engage with one-by-one, created more content and built deeper relationships with me than I could of with 4,000 and so, once again, back to the last question, it’s not quantity it’s quality.

5. I heard you have some unique flooring upstairs at the wine library, tell me about that.

Yeah, so in the wine room at wine library, we have stone that actually comes from Burgundy and has purple in it. Because the grapes kept falling to the ground and seeped into the ground and through hundreds of years of grapes hitting the ground and that purple, it affected the stone and the limestone and things of that nature. It’s pretty exceptional flooring.

6. I saw your Piers Morgan interview and one of the things I loved, you said that "grandparents are more equipped to run business today, than we are," do you believe that the small mom & pop shops still have a chance with competition like Amazon, Wal-Mart, and stuff like that, if they embrace your "Thank You Economy?"

I think yes, to a degree. I actually think that it would take a little more umph, because size does matter. But I think the mentality of small-town business applied to businesses that have umph, are the ones that are going to win. So, in a battle between Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Oracle -at that scale- I think the one that most embraces Grandparent DNA, small town rules, and The Thank You Economy, wins. And then at every level, I think whoever does it best, wins. At the small-business level, I don’t necessarily think a small electronics store, just using The Thank You Economy, can necessarily beat Amazon.

7. What was the bet with Myles and Cole Lazerow?

They’re the sons of a very good friend of mine, Mike Lazerow, the founder of Buddy Media. One day I was over at their house and they were wearing Patriot and Giant’s gear and I told them that I wanted them to be Jets fans. And they said, “sure,” because they’re younger, “if you pay us.” And, basically through a series of videos and tweets and different things we got into a huge negotiation which continued very recently. I was vacationing in Turks and Caicos with my family and the Lazerow’s were down there as well and I saw them again and we continued our conversations and negotiations. So, ya know, part of my quest to turn every single kid in the world into a Jets fan.

8. I also saw, Michael Lazerow had a column about why weirdos outperform normals. As a weirdo, myself. Do you agree with that thought process?

Yeah, I mean, I think there are many ways to skin the cat. I definitely think that people that draw outside the lines have a competitive advantage in a creative world if they put themselves in a position to let their creativity drive their success. So, under the context of creativity in entrepreneurship, and taking risks, and all those things, they certainly do. If a creative person and a weirdo, tries to be a lawyer or a teacher or a doctor, I would say no. So, it’s about putting yourself in the best position to win.

9. I’ve heard of like, 2-book deals, 3-book deals, but you did a 10 book deal? I've never even heard of something like that. How'd it come about?

Ya know, I gave a talk at web 2.0 2008, it caught fire, it hit a lot of people’s nerves, it was a very big talk for me and a lot of publishers wanted me to write a book about what I said on stage, which became Crush It. It was pretty insane. There was a lot of competition and I’m a good negotiator and business man. I was able to strike a ten book deal with Harper Collins.

10. You're the keynote speaker at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show on April 19th, how the hell did you get involved in something like that?

I think that it comes down to a lot of times in the industries, they want to be a little more progressive and have a wake-up call. Because every industry is being affected by technology and the change of the way that information is consumed. And, I think that I’m one of the few characters out there that has enough practicality about business, while still delivering a rousing and emotional speech that is going to actually make some of the people take action and realize that advertizing in kitchen and bath magazine just doesn’t get you as much as it used to. And so, I think that’s why they had interest.

11. I read in "The Thank You Economy" that you have no vacation policy for your employees at VaynerMedia, how does that work out?

Ya know, actually it hasn’t worked out as well as I wanted it to. Meaning, I want to give my employees the freedom to take breaks when they need them. Some people need one day a year and some need a thousand days a year. And so, when I say it hasn’t worked out as well as I had hoped. I feel like some people abuse it and some people don’t take advantage of it enough. It's been an interesting learning experience for me. I thought I was doing something really well for everybody, and I’m wondering if that’s true. I’m still figuring it out. I do like the fact that as more years go by, people trust it more and then do take the time. But, I also preach hustle and work-ethic and hard work, so ya know, it’s a blend of those things always. And so, I think that it’s a work in progress. I do want to find the right balance of work-life and personal-life for myself and for everybody that works for me.

12. Yesterday (April 2nd), a professor at Virginia Tech requested you to visit his wine class, do things like that happen often? How often can you actually facilitate?

They happen often in lesser pizzazz than the way Tech’s done it. You can’t do it all the time, you want to, I definitely want to, but you can’t. If you go on YouTube, you’ll find the one they did the first time, and I did go there and it worked. I have a lot of heart for Virginia Tech, so I might have to do it again.

13. I love the newest Vaynerism about "the regret factor" and worrying about the past ten years instead of the next ten. Is there anything you regret, business-wise, about the past 10 years?

Not really. Because, probably another manifesto of mine is not to really regret. Ya know, I’m so happy, everybody is healthy. I can’t regret anything, I’m just in such a good place why in the world would I regret. I’m sure there’s been plenty of things that I’ve made decisions on that haven’t allowed me to make as much money or as much upside or as much growth as I’d want. But, at the same token, I’m a very simple man. I actually do think things like, "Well yes, I could have done that and made a $100 million dollars but that would have made me go to this business trip in Texas and maybe I would have got hit by a car, right?" And so, I really do think that way, and so, I never regret.

14. I'm a big believer in visualizing success; listening to you talk, it sounds like you're the same, especially with owning the Jets, do you think that having that clear vision of where you're going and what you're going to achieve is a choice or a goal?

That’s a great question, do I think it’s a choice or a goal? I can’t speak for everybody, I’ll tell you why I do it. I love the process so much. I love the climb. To me, the climb of success is everything. And so, when you create a goal that’s so big of a climb you can always be playing it. I didn’t want to achieve something that I could of achieved in my 20’s or 30’s, right? And so, it’s just always been in me, it’s something that I’ve always wanted. To me, I feel like it’s almost picked me as much as I’ve picked it.

15. Mike Dilorenza, formerly of the NHL, told your friend Chris Dessi (of SilverbackSocial Media) that he could beat you at floor hockey. What says you?

Mike Dilorenza told Chris Dessi what? That he could beat me in floor hockey? Bubble hockey or floor hockey? Floor hockey, I don’t know, cause floor hockey you have to play 5 on 5, it’s real hockey. I’m great at floor hockey, I had two championship caliber floor hockey teams in high school. So, I’d have to disagree with Dilorenza.

16. I think you're one of the first honest entrepreneurs out there. You said in an interview that there is no such thing as a life/work balance. What about on the large scale? Won't working hard now give you freedom in the future?

It does, but I also think that working hard is a trait and some people don’t. Ya know, honestly, I have my balance. I make my decisions. I’m making choices every day to either work and travel or to stay home with my kids. Right, so, ya know, maybe, I think, back to the honesty, I think it’s far more likely that I’m just gonna burn out and get tired of working more so than fall out of love with it. I’m in love with working. I’m in love with the hustle and the grind. I’m also massively in love with my kids and as they start getting older and having more of a personality they’re driving me to a place that I want to spend even more time with them. And so, it evolves. I feel like I’m working harder than ever, but I’m also spending more time with my family than ever. So, I’m clearly doing something right, and you keep on working on that, ya know?

17. Alright, four more to go! In researching for this interview, I found VaynerMedia's website. What's the reasoning behind only having the name, address, and jobs you're hiring for?

That’s a great question. The reason that I think an agency needs to work is to get new clients and to get new employees. We have no issues getting either. And so, it doesn’t feel like a place where I really need to put a lot of effort. I think everything should have a reason for doing it and we don’t have a real reason to have a website that’s really robust.

18. The goat has a book of author interviews coming out in next month (May 31st, 2013), called Chewing the Page: The Mourning Goats Interviews, as a New York Times best-seller, what advice do you have for someone putting out a book these days?

Oh, that’s awesome. Congratulations! My advice is to build the audience before the book comes out. Right? And so, if you want to reach the most people with your book, have an audience ready for it instead of starting to promote and sell it once it comes out. And so, to me, it’s write the best book you possibly have in you and then put the most work into building a community, long before the book ever comes out.

19. Here’s a hard one. Gun to your head, someone says, "You can own the Jets, but you have to burn the Jets sweater your mom made you. What do you do?

I have to burn it? I would burn the sweater. Because, my mom would be happy that I achieved that goal. I would pick up the ashes and put them in a jar.

20. Finally, what’s next for Gary Vee?

Ya know, that’s something I’m never good at answering. Because I really don’t know. I’m a very reactionary entrepreneur and human-being. Right now, I’m extremely focused on building VaynerMedia and that’s what I’m focused on. And, I’m sure there’ll be something next, it’s just how I roll. But for now, I’m quite content on operating and putting my head down and that’s what I’m doing.

Fantastic, hey, Gary, thank you very much for the interview.

Thanks, brother.

And, can’t wait to see what you do.

Thanks man, I’ll see you soon.

Check out more from Gary at any and all of the following links!

http://garyvaynerchuk.com

http://vaynermedia.com

Crush It! Why NOW is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion

The Thank You Economy

Gary Vaynerchuk is a talented entrepreneur, a self-trained social media expert, and a best-selling author. With close to 1 million followers on Twitter, Gary is recognized internationally as one of the top people every entrepreneur should follow and a social media trailblazer. He’s received substantial attention from the media including guest appearances on Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Ellen. Gary’s ultimate goal is to own the New York Jets. Although his various businesses obviously play an enormous role in his life, he always puts his family first.

And finally, "like" us on Facebook to keep up to date with all the Goat news and interviews, including the book coming out in May, Chewing the Page: The Mourning Goats Interviews!

#52 Erika Napoletano

2013-04-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

Erika Napoletano is a snarky speaker, strategist, author, and columnist, hailed by Forbes as a “spinless spin doctor” for her BS-free perspectives on business, marketing, branding, and life in general. She's a twice-published author, including The Power of Unpopular (Wiley 2012), a columnist for both Entrepreneur Magazine and OPEN Forum, an acclaimed speaker from TEDx Boulder2012, and speaks at conferences across the U.S. on the inherent power of truth in business… or as she refers to it, the power of unpopularity. She lives in Boulder, Colorado and is the Head Redhead at RHW Media, a brand strategy firm that helps businesses get UNstuck and over those annoying problems that keep them from being awesome. Learn more about her at www.erikanapoletano.com.

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

Well, by the sound of it, I imagine some well-groomed goats frolicking in a field of flowers between the hours of 8:30 and 10AM. It's a happy thought, not one that goes with your chosen spelling of the first word.

2. You're a little bit different of a writer than my normal interviews, how would you describe yourself to my readers?

Well, someone recently described me as a cross between Lisa Lampanelli, Tina Fey, and Rachel Maddow. I kinda like it.

3. Your language could be described as brash, especially in the business world in which you operate. How do you justify your language...should you have to?

I don't justify it. Love me, hate me, just don't be indifferent. I love hearing from people that they were at first kinda turned off by my chosen vernacular but they sat back and read or listened...and now they're fans for life.

4. Does that language ever get you into trouble?

I have a simple rule: if you don't like the language I use, don't read my blog and don't hire me. Can I dial it back? OF COURSE! And I do quite frequently, especially for speaking engagements. My use of what some people would call naughty words doesn't diminish whatever message I'm sharing. So I'd say no, my potty mouth doesn't get me into trouble. The day it starts being more important than the message I'm sharing for the audience I'm trying to share it with? That's when I might need to have a look. For example -- I recently spoke at a conference with 1200 people. They received four complaints about my potty mouth. Statistically, that's 0.3% -- less than one percent. I don't know about you, but I'll take 0.3% of the people in any room not picking up what I'm putting down every day of every year.

5. You just had a book come out last year called, The Power of Unpopular, what's it about, why should we buy it?

Well, you should buy it if you're sick of shitty business books that are going to be outdated in 6 months. It's a guide to building a brand, a community around that brand, and the things we need to do to take care of that community. It's not a social media book. It's not one of those books with crappy worksheets at the end of each chapter. What it DOES have is a fantastic array of case studies, all of privately-owned businesses from a wide variety of industries, who are using the principles in the book to make their businesses successful and their audiences appreciative.

6. What's your writing process like? Do you have a spot, time, every day, when it hits you, what?

I'm a vomit writer. That means when I get an idea, I vomit it on the page, give it a once-over, and hit publish. It's kind of odd -- I rarely remember what I write unless I go back and re-read it later in the day!

7. I love your sleeve! What does it entail and what does it mean to you?

Well, it entails about 16 hours of work over a year, from November 2010 to November 2011. The sleeve depicts the journey from fear to strength to wisdom, and demonstrates that it's a cycle and not a one-time-process. I fucking love it.

8. What's the deal with hedgehogs?

They're cute and often look like hairbrushes. What's not to love?

9. You've done a lot of appearances, but what was it like doing the TEDx event in Boulder, last year? Craziness?

Doing TEDxBoulder was the single most transformative event of my professional career. In two months, I went from not knowing what the hell I was going to talk about to giving the talk of a lifetime with a standing ovation from 1200 people. How's that for a process? It also completely changed the way I do speaking events and prepare for them -- I owe the change in that process to Erin Weed, the speaking coach I worked with during the 2 weeks prior to the event. She helped me face my truth which made me able to write and hone the talk that everyone saw that evening. And the best part of the whole thing was calling my mom on the way to the airport the next morning and telling her that her kid got a standing ovation. Fuck. Yeah.

10. Is social media what makes or breaks most marketing these days? Is it a necessity?

I think there's entirely too much talk about social media and not enough talk about WHY businesses do what they do and figuring out for WHOM they're doing it. The answer is never "to make money" or "I'm doing it for US" -- you have to find your WHY and WHO. And no, I don't think social media is a necessity. If you're in the semiconductor industry, your audience probably hangs out in different places online and you shouldn't be concerned with building a damned Facebook page. Social is only a component of a marketing strategy -- and any successful strategy comes down to WHY, WHO, and then your business' special thing, the HOW. Social media won't make up for a poorly-focused marketing strategy. In fact, it can probably kill it before it ever has the chance to succeed.

11. Do you ever take any time off? It seems like you're always working!

I take weekends off. I also take small vacations and am planning a bigger vacation later this year to Nepal to do a trek to Everest Base Camp. I work to live, not the other way around! Oddly enough, when I lived to work, I wasn't really doing any living at all.

12. I love how much respect you have, and demand from, your followers on facebook. I don't really have a question for this one, just really appreciate it, where did it come from? Most people would just let everyone say whatever they want, but you demand more from your folks.

Well, I'm not in a place to demand anything from my audience. I think they demand more of me. The Facebook community has grown into something of its own -- it's not the blog audience, it's not Twitter. It's just a kickass group of people who want to be inspired and who in turn, inspire me. Every day, I'm amazed at where this page has come to in just a few short years. Facebook's changes be damned, we're all still here and kicking!

13. A lot of the readers here are writers themselves, what's the number one piece of advice you'd give writers on branding themselves for success?

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken!

14. What's the most important part of pitching an idea?

Every pitch should have an emotional appeal to your desired audience. If you can't demonstrate (show, don't tell) why anyone should care about what you're offering, they won't.

15. Your "Buy Me Coffee" session sounds badass, can you tell the readers what they entail and why they would consider it?

It IS badass! It's a one-hour, high-octane, one-on-one session with me to help people get UNstuck. Bring your challenges and questions and the entire hour is about you, your business, and your life. At the end, I offer to-dos, potential introductions where appropriate, and other tips, trick, and resources to get folks from where they are to F#%K YEAH. My clients have ranged from CEOs of multi-million dollar companies to emerging entrepreneurs. Not a single one of them is the same!

16. I see that both of your books are on kindle. What are your thoughts on the e-book revolution?

I love that readers can devour my books in nearly any format they like. I read books in both physical and digital formats. I do think that publishers need to get up to speed with eBook royalty rates and marketing so they're in line with the changing way people consume content. Authors should be paid comparable royalty rates for digital sales and physical book sales. More, even, because there are no printing, shipping, or inventory costs for digital editions. There are fabulous publishers out there doing great things with enhanced eBooks with embedded digital-only content that I'm loving. I would love to see the value-adds continue along this trend. If I can do it for a downloadable eBook I offer, why can't publishers?

17. If you could sum up your own brand, would it be GSD? I feel like the simplicity of it is the brilliance.

My brand is unpopular thoughts and blunt advice -- delivered. No one ever got anything awesome in life from being polite. They did, however, make epic shit happen because they and the people who surround them were honest and respectful. Don't like it? Don't read my stuff or hire me. I want my life filled with people who want to make epic shit happen.

18. Is it really as bad as it sounds to be a redhead?

Aside from the fact that we molt instead of tan in the summers, I think being a redhead is pretty badass.

19. What's been the most exciting part of your career thus far?

Realizing that it can become anything I want it to become. Yeah -- that. I'm the only thing standing in my way every day and learning to get the hell out of my own way? That was a damn valuable lesson learned.

20. What's next for Erika Napoletano and Redhead Writing?

Well, come hang out with us! New things are coming along every week, but there's some exciting stuff in the works. If I told you now some of the ideas, maybe you wouldn't come back. Better to let you get to know them on your terms instead of me telling you about them, dontacha think?

Also, check out her TedX talk, here!

Thank you!
Goat

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And, pre-order Chewing the Page: The Mourning Goats Interviews, now!

#51 Tony Hsieh

2013-03-19T00:00:00.000-04:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FIFTY ONE

Tony Hsieh

What do you ask one of the most influential businessmen in America? He's not only the CEO of Zappos, he's also investing 350 million dollars in Vegas (www.downtownproject.com) and the paperback of his book Delivering Happiness hits today, March 19th! Hope this interview delivers happiness to you!

1. What comes to mind when you hear "Mourning Goats?"

Sad sunrises high up on a mountain.

2. Zappos isn't about selling a shoe or a coat, it's about selling a feeling, is that the future? Do you see anyone else truly grabbing on to that belief?

I think almost by definition a brand is a short cut to one or more emotions. The good brands end up mapping to positive emotions.

3. Happiness framework is one of my favorite parts of the book, but can I ask why two of the four start with "perceived" (perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness, and vision/meaning)?

There has been research that has been done that show you don't actually need control, you just need to believe you have control. For example, there was one experiment when participants were subjected to loud, uncomfortable noises for a long period of time, and afterwards they were asked to rate their happiness level. There was another group that was subjected to the same thing, but they had a button in the room they were told they could press in order to stop the noise. Nobody ever pressed the button, but their happiness level was much higher at the end of it because they had perceived control of the situation. For all we know, it could have just been a fake button.

4. I got goosebumps when I read about ROC, can you tell our readers what it is, and how it's different from ROI?

For our DowntownProject.com investments, we don't just focus on short-term ROI (return on investment) goals that most developers focus on. Instead, we think about the long term ROC - "Return On Community" - as a necessary filter that must be passed for every investment we make. In addition to it being a good investment, each investment must also somehow help build community.

5. Making mistakes is encouraged in the book, as long as you learn from them, what was your biggest mistake? What did it teach you?

My biggest mistake was with my previous company LinkExchange, when we didn't know any better to pay attention to company culture, so by the time we got to 100 employees, I myself dreaded getting out of the bed in the morning to go to my own company. For Zappos, I wanted to make sure we didn't make the same mistake again, so company culture has always been important to us from the beginning.

6. PLUR is something that hits home with me in the book. Was this the backbone of your philosophy?

PLUR is an acronym for Peace, Love, Unity, Respect from the days I attended raves. I think an attitude of being accepting and non-judgemental is an important part of our culture at Zappos.

7. I feel like a lot of people would have tapped out after selling a company for $265 million, what drove you for more?

I think probably boredom more than anything else. I enjoy building things that require creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, and being an entrepreneur allows me to do that on an ongoing basis.

8. Boy's Life... do you believe that is where you really got the first taste as an entrepreneur?

Trying to sell greeting cards to neighbors that I bought from the back of Boy's Life magazine when I was a kid was definitely one of the first experiences I had where I learned that not everything is as easy as it seems.

9. As a creative, I tend to struggle with happiness, even in success, what's your advice on getting that delivery?

One of the frameworks I write about in the book is that happiness is about four things:

- Perceived Control

- Perceived Progress

- Connectedness (the number and depth of your relationships)

- Being part of something bigger than yourself that has meaning to you and purpose

Usually when people struggle with happiness it means that at least one of those elements is missing, so I would say try to figure out how to incorporate the missing element(s) into your life and work.

10. When they say, "put your money where your mouth is," they usually don't mean a $350 million investment and transforming a city. What's happening with all of this development in Vegas?

Our goal is to make downtown Vegas the most community-focused large city in the world (in probably the place you would least expect it). We want it to be a place of inspiration, entrepreneurial energy, and learning. We want it to be a place where you have everything you need to live/work/play within walking distance.

You can learn more about DowntownProject.com - or next time you're in Vegas, I'd suggest coming for a Zappos tour as well as a Downtown Project tour!

11. Is pressing the snooze button a good reason to think about what you're doing with your life?

Yes.

12. I've recently been thinking a lot about brand, can a person, a company, and a location all have the same brand or are they independent of each other?

I think they can be similar in the beginning but eventually each will have its own separate unique facets that will be amplified over time.

13. As a known personality, how hard is it to go out, nowadays? Has celebrity changed any of your views from the beginning?

I don't really get stopped off the street when I go to a random place, it's usually just at certain conferences that I speak at.

14. You've made a lot of references to poker in the past, why is Vegas your "poker table" for Zappos? Why not build up in Kentucky?

With Vegas, everyone eventually comes to visit you. It's hard to say that about very many cities.

15. What's your writing process like? Are you always writing? Outlining? Planning?

For my book, I locked myself up in a cabin for a week (and then two long weekends afterwards) and just cranked stuff out. I would write for an hour or two, take a nap, then repeat over and over again. It was definitely a very strange sleep schedule.

16. In one interview you were asked what question or two you would ask to get a sense of a person, and you said, "what would you say is the biggest misconception that people have of you?" How would you answer it?

I've heard feedback that people think I don't like them because when I first meet people I don't really say anything. It's because I'm just shy and introverted, but for some reason people think I must be thinking bad thoughts about them, which is not the case.

17. The paperback version of your book is coming out on March 19th, are there plans for other books?

Too early to tell. One of our goals with DowntownProject.com is to come up with a model for community-building and urban revitalization that can be easily replicated to other communities and cities. So instead of focusing on an expensive stadium or sports team or having a Harvard or Stanford, we'd like to show that there's another way. For Downtown Project, we focus on acceleration collisions, community, co-learning, and connectness.

18. Is the Zappos culture book still going strong? How do outsiders get a copy?

Yes, just email ceo@zappos.com with your physical mailing address to get the latest copy.

19. And all of this is going down before you're 40? Big plans for the birthday?

I turn 40 in December. No big plans yet, but I was joking with some friends that I might do a "Pixel Party", in which everyone that comes to the party gets a tattoo with a single pixel (including myself - I don't have any tattoos yet). Maybe it'll turn out not to be a joke.

20. What's next for Tony Hsieh?

I think Zappos and Downtown Project will keep me pretty busy for the next five years. :)

Thank you!

Goat

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#50 Craig Wallwork

2013-03-04T00:00:00.000-05:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats
INTERVIEW FIFTY
Craig Wallwork

Here's the first in a series of Perfect Edge Books Interviews. Not only did they support the goat and ask to publish our book, but they've grabbed onto some amazing other authors, definitely keep an eye on them, here.

Craig is one of the nicest guys I've met from across the pond and it's a pleasure that he's interview number fifty! I'll let him speak for himself and goat out.

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

Aren't goats the personification of the Devil, and isn't the Devil always horny? And Morning Glory, isn't that an euphemism for a man's erection? So is it when a man is feeling a little frisky in the early hours, thus the collective noun is Morning Goats? I have no idea.

2. How's it feel to get all of this attention, all of a sudden? Novel out, in newspapers, all over the web; must be amazing.

It's great to hear nice things about your work, but I have a tendency to feel awkward around compliments. I tend to use distraction techniques to avoid dealing with them. I'll never get used to the attention for this reason. But I appreciate the praise and kind words people have been giving the novel, but it's still early days yet. The novel has only been out a few weeks and is slowly gathering momentum. This time next year it'll either have vanished off the radar, or I'll be a megalomaniac drinking panther piss and proclaiming myself the new Hemmingway.

3. Speaking of The Sound of Loneliness, did I read that you wrote it years ago? How did it come back from the dead?

I wrote it about 5 years ago. It took me about 6 to 7 months to write. After the second draft I sent it out to a few independent publishing houses. It got chewed up and spat out by each one. Disheartened, I archived it and wrote another novel. I treat novels like relationships in French New Wave cinema: the first thing you do is find someone else to fuck if the one you're with is no good. That novel became To Die Upon a Kiss and was more universal hated than the early drafts of The Sound of Loneliness. So, you guessed it, I began writing another novel. 5 years had passed by this time, then Richard Thomas mentioned my name to some guy called Phil Jourdan. I didn't know Phil but I had heard of his band Paris and the Hiltons. He sent me an email, told me he was a setting up a publishing press called Perfect Edge Books and wondered if I had anything. To die Upon a Kiss had just been accepted by Snubnose Press and The Sound of Loneliness was the only completed novel still free. Phil read about half of the manuscript and offered me a contract. The only reason that novel is in the world and not deleted is because of Phil Jourdan. For those that hate it, you can blame him.

4. What do you think making a book trailer for the book will do for you? Is it about pulling in the movie audience? Just another form to promote?

I've heard mixed opinions about book trailers. Some say it can force the reader to establish a prescribed image of the protagonist, or their voice. I was reticent to undertake the process for this reason. I'm not savvy enough to understand if book trailers work or not, but for me, it was just a nice little foray into a forgotten skill set. I used to make films and was an editor for nearly ten years. I'm a frustrated filmmaker and this allowed me a moment of indulgence. Plus, I can't see it harming book sales. Not unless they hate my voice.

5. I loved your question to yourself, "What do you hate about being a writer?" Have any more insights other than advice, doubt, publishing, and whoring?

We are limited in life by constraints imposed by science, physics and finance. The only limitation a writer has in life is their imagination. Don't abuse that.

6. What's it like working with the goats publisher, Perfect Edge Books? And Snubnose?

Perfect Edge Books are really transparent. They have this cool website which allows you to see every stage of the process, from the contract, all the way through to the production and marketing phase. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of my input, but they’ve been accommodating and made the process as painless as possible. It helps having Phil there too to bounce ideas off. I’ll get these crazy ideas in my head, fire him an email, and soon after he’ll come back with something like, “Are you fucking joking?!” It’s a good relationship. Snubnose has been less transparent, but Brian Lindenmuth has been keeping me informed about things and was kind enough to allow me to work with their graphic designer, Eric Beetner, to help design the cover.

7. Menacing Hedge Magazine? And...go!

I wrote a short story a couple of years ago called Human Tenderloin about fine dining for cannibals. I wasn’t too sure who would take it so I was doing that thing where you search Duotrope for the best markets. I stumbled on this fledging journal called Menacing Hedge. They pitched themselves as "committed to fostering access to emerging and experimental poetry and prose." I liked their mission statement and artwork and the fact they were giving the authors the option of recording their story in the spoken word. I submitted and the next day the editor-in-chief Kelly Boyker got in touch me with an acceptance. Since then we kept in touch. Last summer Kelly sends me an email asking me if I would be interested in being Menacing Hedge's fiction editor. I thought she’d sent it to the wrong person, but she assured me she hadn't. I’d never done anything like that before so I agreed to edit one edition, mostly to see if I could fit it around work, family life and writing. Turns out I could. I’m now the full time fiction editor, except for the Spring edition. This is being guest edited by the crazy-brilliant writer Amanda Gowin, who is doing such a good job, I’m unsure at this stage if Kelly will want me back. It was always a goal of mine to try and pair fledging, or previously unpublished writers, with more well-established authors. That's why you'll see names like Aimee Bender, Amelia Gray, Stephen Graham Jones, Andrew Kaufman, and the UK writer Adam Marek, alongside unknown writers. And I can tell you this, all of those fledging writers are just as talented as the pro writers.

8. You had two novels come out with different presses very close to each other, how do you feel the two novels differed in how they were published, promoted, etc.?

To Die Upon a Kiss released by Snubnose Press was supposed to be my debut novel. It was due for release in the summer of 2012, but was postponed until later in the year. Brian (the editor) got seriously ill so it was put back again to the beginning of 2013. The whole process has nearly taken a year, and save for the time I was talking with Eric about the cover, it’s mostly been something bubbling in the background, out of my hands. There has been no official promotion yet, but Brian has ties with Spinetingler Magazine so I'm sure it'll feature in there at some stage. I don’t mind that approach. It’s quite nice, and I assumed that was how these things happened. But with The Sound of Loneliness it was much more involved, and I guess its journey was better mapped out. Dates for the various stages of production were given in advance and you could see the boxes being ticked at each stage. But either method works for me. The hardest part is never the production of the book, it’s getting the contract. Once that’s done, the rest is gravy.

9. Do you think it's important to be a part of a writing workshop, or a support group of sorts, being a writer? It's a lonesome career.

Workshops are only good for two things – keeping you writing, and proofreading. They provide a support mechanism for writers who have little to no discipline and are easily distracted. But in terms of feedback, the main problem is you’re allowing writers to critique your writing. If they love it, they’ll be indifferent towards it. If they hate it, it really means they love it but are too fucking envious to say so. Writers are petulant creatures that are too self-absorbed to wilfully engage with their peers about their work. They may throw out a comment or two, but that’s mostly constructed with an air of superiority, which renders the sentiment as an exercise in control management. I maybe wrong, but Poe, Dickens, or Hemmingway weren’t part of any workshops. I certainly know Bukowski was never part of any workshop. They just wrote. They learnt the craft via practice, life lessons and reading as many books as they could get their hands on. Sure, they knew other writers, and I imagine those meetings were just pissing contest disguised as an “intellectual conversation”. For me, the lonely writer is the REAL writer.

10. Who's your first reader? Is it different for each story/novel/etc.?

As in, who reads the very first draft of anything I write? It is always my wife. She deserves to be sainted for the amount of shit I’ve sent her way.

11. I don't think I've heard of anyone saying, "I’m a firm believer that you should never allow family and friends to have copies of your work anyway. It’s not healthy." Please explain where this came from.

It’s the reason tone-deaf people enter X Factor – family and friends lie. Even if they think you can’t write, they will just avoid talking about it, or perhaps word it in a way where the writer can misinterpret the feedback as positive. That I allow my wife to read the first draft of anything is not because I’m expecting approval or plaudits, it’s because I’m a sloppy writer. I rarely proofread and she helps clean up the prose.

12. On Goodreads, you were called a writer's writer, why do you think that is?

A "writer's writer" is a nice way of saying the only people who will tolerate your prose are writers. I think it was D.B. Cox who said that about me, right? He's right. I'm never going to be airport fiction.

13. I love the social media push you're doing right now, do you think it's necessary for today's authors to be their own promoters?

Any writer out there who thinks writing a book is the only thing they have to do is delusional. The writing part is only 30% of the job. The rest of the 70% is divided into editing, submitting and promotion. In truth, of that 70% I would say 50% is promotion. I know writers who don’t want to entertain that side of things, like it’s dirty, or compromises their integrity or work ethic. Bollocks. You need to do it because everyone else is doing it, and those that are doing well can’t write for shit, but I can guarantee they’ll be the one with the 3-book deal with Random House next year. You’ve got to get into the bed with the devil in this game, spoon the fucker and whisper sweet nothings into his ear if you want any chance of making it as a writer.

14. Do you think UK writers are different from US writers, or that location when writing dictates output?

Life experiences naturally bleed out in prose, so I think where you live does influence your writing. The Sound of Loneliness is all about location. It is set in Salford, a rough area of Manchester, and it's about the people there and the things I remember while growing up. Had I grown up in Oxford or some quiet hamlet in Hampshire, then I would never write something as gritty and underbelly as TSoL. So yes, location does has some bearing on your writing. As for who is best, Uk or US? I don’t know many UK writers. I used to love Jim Crace, especially Being Dead and Quarantine, but his work is not really regional. It’s more literary. Flann O’Brien was the only regional writer that I could say really impressed me, but I can’t remember if he’s southern or northern Ireland. Only if he's from the later will he be classed as a UK writer. A lot of writers who I have liked in the past are from America, but that doesn’t mean the US is better than the UK. In terms of good writing, I think now is a good time for the UK. In acting we’re becoming more prominent in major Hollywood movies, and back in the mid-90s we were the epicentre of the musical revolution with Britpop. Now is the time to shift the pendulum of literature this way for the new breed of Brit-Lit. Just you wait. We're coming.

15. In one interview, you said, "Art allowed me to open doors in my mind that many keep closed." Can you expand on that, what did you mean? How?

I remember being in art college and there was one lesson where the teachers made a construction of chairs, boxes, plants, vases etc, a sort of Jenga tower of domestic furniture smack bang in the middle of the classroom. They told us we had to draw it, but, we couldn’t draw the contours of the chair’s legs, or the sides of the vase, or the outline of the plant’s leaves. Instead, we had to look at the negative space between each shape and draw that. All the negative space, or “gaps” between objects were many and varied. And it was only drawing out those hundreds of tiny rectangles, squares and rhombuses that the full construction came together on the page. That exercise taught me to look at the world differently, to see the gaps formed in life, the little negatives areas of society, and deliver them to the page. That’s all my writing is. I think that’s what I meant.

16. Your short story book, Quintessence of Dust, has an amazing title. What do you dive into in the book? What were you trying to do with it?

I approached Quintessence of Dust the same way you approach making a mix tape for a friend. I had written upwards of forty short stories by then, most of which had been published. A lot of them were in print, or the magazines were no longer running. It was important for me to try and get a book out that I could use as a introduction to my writing. I’d been talking with Pablo D’Stair, who at the time was creating KUBOA from the ashes of Brown Paper Publishing, and I floated the idea by him. He went for it. As it stands QoD is just some of my favourite short stories. If you’re asking me to pick a favourite, I think the most personal are the first two, Night Holds a Scythe and Railway Architecture, but people always seem to gravitate toward Anal Twine. I think no matter what I do in my career, that damn story will be the only thing I’m remembered for.

17. I love your thought on society trying to get "fixed" instead of embracing their defects as what makes them unique. Do you feel like your writing is a way for you to show the world your uniqueness in an acceptable way?

Yes. I’m one of those people in the world who, given a chance, people would like to fix. I’m broken. I’m flawed. But in some ways, I’m okay with that, and this is why I write about characters that are on the fringe of society, who are not accepted among their peers and who, better or worse, are broken to the point that no amount of glue will fix them. To be honest, I find perfect boring. I’d much rather read about a person who sees the world slightly askew than one whose vision is tinted rose coloured.

18. What's your writing schedule like? Are you an every day writer?

I can’t do that. I’ve heard some writers say you have to sit in front of the computer and just write. How depressing a concept. No, for me I have to have a little idea that, over time, germinates into something worthy of sitting in front of the laptop for. Time is a commodity people should use more wisely. I have family, and I need to balance my life as a father and husband along with being a work colleague and a writer. I’m fucked if I’m going to sit in a room staring at a blinking cursor because the allotment of my imagination is cultivating weeds.

19. Who are you reading, these days?

I don’t read that much these days. I used to read a lot, maybe two or three books a week at one stage, but I find most modern literature dull. the books these days lack any real heart or guts. I have come off two decent reads, Nod by Adrian Barnes which is the novel Palahniuk should have written ten years ago, and Twilight by William Gay. I’d been compared to Gay and I wanted to see if there was any truth in the association. Turns out Gay shits on my prose.

20. What's next for Craig Wallwork?

Rest my fingers. It’s been a hell of an interview.

Thank you!
Goat

P.S. "Like" Mourning Goats on Facebook for the most up-to-date news on new interviews, etc. Find us, here!

#49 Tony O'Neill

2013-02-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FORTY NINE

Tony O'Neill

I've been reading and recommending this guy for years, but never did the research about him as a person...found out he's awesome. He's been to hell and back and once he landed he wrote some amazing books. Down and Out on Murder Mile is one of my favorite 'novels' and I couldn't be happier to have Tony here with the goat!

ALSO! He will be doing a reading on Sunday, March 3rd, in Brooklyn! There may be a goat there...Get tickets, here!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

MOURNING GOATS (1999-2003) were a Doom-Metal band from Bergen, Norway. Formed out of the ashes of the punk-metal outfit TESTICULAR CANCER and black metal legends GLORYHOLE INFECTION, they are perhaps best known for their involvement with a spate of church burnings in 2002, which eventually lead to the arrest of lead guitarist Animal De Gilles. Their single, “Drunk of the Blood of Christ” appeared on the soundtrack of the 2008 Jennifer Aniston movie, “Marley and Me”.

2. You have one of my favorite openers of any book in Down and Out on Murder Mile, please tell me that that really happened.

Yeah, it happened. Everything in “Down and Out” and “Digging the Vein” was basically pulled from real life. I presented them as novels because I hate the memoir genre. It’s so associated with Oprah-endorsed slush. All I did was change names and alter the time line a bit to keep the narrative moving.

3. How do you go from writing about heroin and crack to writing a memoir about an NFL player?

Ah well he was a crack smoking, heroin using NFL player, so that was the connection. He had an NY Times sportswriter who knew nothing about drugs interested in the story, but Jason read some of my books and I won out. I guess he figured teaching a limey about American football might be easier than teaching an NY Times sport journo about smoking crack.

4. What's it like co-writing a book? You've done two, Hero of the Underground and Neon Angel.

It can be a challenge, depending on your subject. It’s nice to get away from your own work for a while and go live in someone else’s head for a while. The deadlines are usually insane. Six months to write and edit a book. You got the subject on one hand who wants the story presented a certain way, and then the publisher on the other, and in some cases the subject’s agent screaming their demands at you. But you take the check, you know? Its keeps money coming in while you’re working on your next novel, without having to go out and get s straight job. And then six months later the book comes out and you see it on the bestseller charts and you don’t have a pot to piss in because you spent the advance paying off your debts, ha. I’ve co written three books. One got tied up in some kinda legal mess but is apparently coming out. I was going to do one with a well-known guy from the punk scene, but I had one phone call with the guy and he was a complete pain in the ass. A nightmare, ranting drunken queen from hell. I told him I had to get off the phone and he says, “You’re hanging up on ME? Who do you think you are? Oscar Wilde?” So I called up the people who’d pitched the book and said, “I need at least three times as much money to work with this guy” and it didn’t happen. Shame, the guy was a maniac but I always admired his work. Ships that pass, and all that. Still friendly with Jason though. Weird that I would end up liking a football player so much, especially given my lack of interest in sports.

5. I read that you ended up in LA after your tour with Kenickie [late 90's British indie band], but how did you end up in NY from LA from

Well the brief version is I ended up in LA because I married this girl in Vegas on a meth binge, and when I got back to London it was raining, and snowing and forty below zero and I just thought ‘fuck this’ and decided to bail to California. Then two marriages later I was strung out on heroin real bad, and owed a lot of money to drug dealers, and the cops were looking for my old lady over some fraud beef so we high tailed it to London to get on the free methadone program. Then I got clean in London and met my wife Vanessa and, well I started writing the first novel and she was pregnant and we decided to go to New York because that’s her hometown and I just felt I couldn’t stay in London. Too many memories, too many temptations. Wanted to do be a good father, you know? And you need family around you when you have a newborn. I have family in England, up in the northwest, little cotton-mill town near Manchester but there was nothing for us there. We went up for a few months and I worked at a liquor store. Made so little money, it was a joke. Eight in the morning all these men with faces like the inside of Bowery flophouses staggering in to buy liters of cider with a handful of greasy coins. It was a total death trip. I go back now and I find a lot to love in that town though, but at the time it just wasn’t the right place for me. I was too fragile emotionally, fresh off junk, newborn baby, living at my parents’ house with a manuscript I was trying to get published that nobody wanted to read. I would have relapsed, no doubt about it. It wasn’t until I moved to NY that I was able to get my book past the door of an indie press, so yeah, NY has been good to me.

6. In one of your interviews, it sounds like you're almost angry that the places that used to be seedy in LA are now filled with million-dollar apartments, any truth to that?

Yeah, of course. You only really meet real human beings in alleyways. I might have stolen that line from Genet. But hell, LA isn’t as bad as New York. Giuliani and Bloomberg have killed NY stone dead. That’s why most NY literature is so fucking bloodless and dull. 25 years ago you could go to Times Square and buy drugs, pussy, weapons, fake IDs, it was a free for all. Now you can’t even smoke a cigarette there. You’re seeing the future of America, the future of the whole world right here in NY. A crypto fascist police state run by oligarchs obsessed by regulating your sugar intake. Makes you wanna puke. LA… well it’s happening there, but the skuzzy places are still holding on like a stubborn roach infestation. I guess I have more of an emotional connection to seedy LA so each closing really feels personal. Old New York was already gone by the time I landed here. But yeah, the day they closed The Spot Light was a sad one. It was a great gay hustler bar in Hollywood, opened at 6am. You’d see all kinds of life in there, man it was so inspiring.

There’s nothing inspiring about 20 million dollar condos is there?

7. Jerry Stahl is a big supporter of yours, how did that come about? Have you met?

Jerry is such a cool guy. I just always loved his writing and I can’t remember how the initial introduction came about but it may have been via my old agent, and he was very nice about my second novel. I just got a story published in The Heroin Chronicles, which he edited. I was in LA when the second novel came out and I met him at some weird party taking place at the 20^th Century Fox studios. What a freak show. Dr Drew was there. Jerry was there. Mariel Hemingway, some guy from SNL and all of these odd Hollywood freaks. It was like being on acid. I was talking to Jerry and he points out a toilet off up the way – we’re standing in an exact reproduction of 70s era Little Italy by the way – and he says, “I useta shoot up in there while I was writing ALF, heh heh.” I tried to give Dr Drew a piece of my mind, hate that guy, but his handler pulled him away. Vanessa and I ended up at some party in the Valley with Ron Jeremy. Really sweet guy. Tried to fuck my wife, but what the hell - he’s Ron Jeremy of course he’s gonna try it, you know? Its like shaking hands to him. I was sad to hear he ended up in hospital. Not surprised though. Everywhere he goes these women just run up to him and pull their tits out. Happened at the party about 2 dozen times, and then we were at the Rainbow on Sunset and it happened all night. I was with him for like 6 hours and I nearly had heart failure just seeing it. Imagine that for like 30 years straight. Ron and I danced to “Sweet Home Alabama” at one point. It was a fun night.

8. One of the funniest things I read about you is your fear for others if you were behind the wheel of a car. Still the case?

Yup. We recently moved to a little town just outside of NY and I still don’t drive. I’m easily distracted. I guess I gotta learn but hell I lived in LA for years and didn’t drive. A girl tried to teach me once. Took me driving up Sunset boulevard and within ten minutes the cops had pulled me over assuming I was drunk because I was veering so wildly. She told them, “He’s not drunk, he’s English.” I did my best confused “Hugh Grant Englishman abroad” thing and they let it go. That was, shit, 13 years ago? Haven’t been behind the wheel of a car since.

9. Did I read correctly that a lot of the stuff from the first two books is pulled from your life? Some of that stuff is pretty rough...

Yeah. I wonder how I survived sometimes. You’re a maniac when you’re in your early twenties, aren’t you? You just don’t think you can die. And even when people start popping off all around you, you still think it can’t touch you. I had people wipe out in drunken car crashes, OD’s, suicides the works. But I always figured I was invincible. To me I guess I kept going because I knew that no matter how bad it got it was a hell of a lot more interesting than just getting a job. I had that kind of conformity drilled into me as a kid. You grew up in my town, and you went to college and you got a decent job with a pension, and you settled down with a girl, and you popped out some kids. Then at the weekends you got as drunk as possible, and started all over again on Monday. If felt like soul death to me. I just ran, as soon as I could. Music was an escape. Drugs were an escape. Relationships with crazy bipolar girls were an escape. As long as I was totally miserable, and in total chaos at least I knew I was alive, you know? Until I looked around one day and I realized I was dying. My teeth started falling out. I couldn’t find working veins any more. I mean, Jesus I was a mess.

10. Best line in an interview ever, "Thank god drugs came along because I probably would have been an alcoholic." Is it really strange going back to your hometown?

Yeah and no. Like I said earlier as a teen I just wanted out of there. Felt trapped by it. As I get older I look back on it more nostalgically I guess. I don’t know any of my old friends, I don’t know if I would have anything to say to them. Our lives just went on completely different courses. But I went back recently and it was nice, you know? Just walking around places that I remembered from my childhood. After a while it gets draining, you know, not having roots. You spend so long running away, terrified of being trapped by people or geography that you end up a kind of non-person. I realized I was completely amputated from my past and it scared me. Just going back, touching the same piece of wall I touched as a kid, waiting at the same bus top… I don’t know. It was powerful. Strange, for sure. But comforting.

11. Do you think that being a musician helps you write, vice versa?

I think the discipline you learn certainly helps. An undisciplined musician will get nowhere, and ditto with a writer. There’s no-one standing over you telling you to produce. And you have to learn to take rejection, to take knocks, to be told you’re a worthless piece of shit that what you’re doing will not amount to anything. If you cant handle that then you have no business in the arts, honest to Christ. If a bad review upsets you, or people talking shit about you anonymously on the Internet, or bitchy blog comments, or endless rejection is too much for you then this business will drive you over the edge. Your job is to keep moving forward, to create.

You also have to get used to being broke. That’s another way in which music preps you. I remember when we did Top of the Pops with Kenickie…. I was living in a house share with a bunch of drunken French backpackers and some Canadian hippies in Chelsea. Picked up by a limo, driven to the studio, we record us miming along to the single. Like being in an episode of the Monkees or something all these teenage girls screaming and dancing. Then the limo drops me home. I go to the ATM and I’m negative 300 quid. I walk to the house and all I have to my name is a bottle of cheap brandy and a tin of tuna. So I drank the brandy and ate the tuna. Talk about a come down.

12. You've done it all, short stories, poetry, novels, memoir, music; what's your favorite focus, now?

You just got to go where your instinct is. I’m in the middle of a novel at the moment. Working on some screenplays. I do a bit of non-fiction for money. For me so long as I’m in front of the screen and typing, I feel okay with myself. As long as I’m producing something, anything.

13. Two agents? Joel Gotler and Carrie Kania. How did that happen?

Well Joel helped me negotiate the deal when a screenwriter optioned the rights to SICK CITY. He liked my stuff and he’s mostly a book-to-movie guy. I liked him straight away. He’s got a no bullshit thing that appeals to me. And he makes deals. Carrie used to run Harper Perennial, and then she decided to move to London to become an agent. It just felt natural that we’d continue to work together because she has supported me since the beginning and you know, I just know she has my best interests at heart. I don’t know how unusual a set up it is – Joel has people he works with in Europe, etc already and I just said that I wanted Carrie to be that person. Of course he knew Carrie so it was a bit of a no brainer – she’s an incredibly smart lady. I feel lucky to have both of them on my team.

14. It looks like you release one novel every 2 years (2006, 2008, 2010, 2012), are you expecting to continue this output?

Wow, I never looked at it like that. But yeah, I’m about ½ way done on a new novel so 2014 wouldn’t be bad. I’d like to see it out sooner. They take as long as they take. I feel a year is long enough. If you work on something for more than a year you start to hate it, I feel. You can't be objective any more. Once the initial spark of enthusiasm fades it becomes really hard to sustain work on a novel. Then it becomes like a day job, slogging forwards, putting a word here, a sentence there. Writing a novel to me is just a painful process. You think you’re going mad. Always at the midway point I am gripped by incredible amounts of self-loathing. I hate every word I’ve written. Then you push through the last half thinking that you’re all washed up. Not until you type the last line can you really get a sense of it.

15. That being said, what's your process like? Are you an every day writer?

Every day. I try to keep a regimen. Start at 8am, finish at 2pm. After 3 o clock, I gotta be a dad. I get dressed. Put on my clothes, like I’m going out to see people. You can’t write in your pajamas. That’s death right there. Encourages laziness. I have to treat it like a job, create a routine. Every morning when you sit down to type it's like preparing for battle.

16. In one of your most recent posts on your blog, you said, "For me a writer's job should be producing books, not boring everyone to death about what they had for breakfast or what they watched on TV or thought of so and so's book. There's plenty of writers out there who can't write for shit but they're really good at self-promotion. Good for them, Hell, if the writing thing doesn't work out in the long term they can always get a job in PR." In these times, do you think that it's up to the author to promote or should the work just speak for itself?

I just hate all of that. I hate facebook, twitter, I like when writers had mystique. I mean even calling that thing I wrote a blog is overstating it. Every so often I just write something on my website to remind people I’m not dead. Six months can go by. That’s the problem with a society in which everybody is telling you their innermost thoughts. It makes you sick. Most writers are boring people. Catty, dull, awful, awful people. Who gives a shit what they think? Show me the book and shut up. I hate most people’s opinions. PR departments crack me up. You have a book ready to go and you get a PR person assigned, and you ask them – so what’s the plan? And the plan usually involves them talking you into writing some stupid blog about something vaguely current. I mean have you ever picked up someone’s book because you read some stupid blog they wrote about Lindsey Lohan? It’s madness. But that’s the way things are.

Or they say, “reach out to your followers on Facebook”. When I tell them I’m not on it they look at me like I’m some kind of fucking Neanderthal man who just thawed out. “You’re not on FACEBOOK?” Jesus Christ. I mean what happened to sending the book to the New York Times? Blowing some people, or threatening them to make them look at the book? When did everybody get so passive? Peter Grant… he was dangling people out of windows when they tried to screw Led Zeppelin out of their money. We need more of that. People are too nice these days. “Oh start a blog….” Fuck off.

I prefer to do my interacting face to face, preferably over drinks. I mean, I DO promote my books. I give interviews, I hit the road, and I read. I present the book – here you go, hope you like it. But I’m not going to spend the next twelve months on some fucking charm offensive boring people with the mundanities of my existence. But I see the writers who came up after me and they spend as much time blogging and tweeting as they do writing. I mean in between all of the blogging and tweeting, and then producing their work, when do they get a chance to live? They don’t! That’s why their books are so boring. They don’t get out there and experience life. They’re too busy updating their profiles.

17. You've done readings all over the world, what's the biggest difference you see between the U.S. and readings in Europe?

It’s a massive, massive difference. In the US there’s a small, but fanatical following. People either really, really dig what I do or its complete indifference. In the US it’s only ‘book people’ who show up to readings, and there’s less and less ‘book people’ as time goes on. That’s why a publisher like Harper Perennial seems like such an anomaly. Feels like most US publishers are only interested in putting out celebrity dross, and mainstream shit. Perennial on the other hand have a really oddball roster of writers, but to me some of the best working in the US today. They’re like a really cool indie, except they’re not. They actually get your books into bookstores. France has been very good to me. Germany too. I just got published in Italy and I’m hoping to work more with them in the future. The people who read my books in France… man, they just really GET it. Its beautiful, they see the poetry in there it’s not just “oh drugs and sadism and whatever” you know? They get it. I always joke that its because I’ve got wonderful translators. I think they’re slipping all of the poetry in there, ha. I have a great publisher in France. 13e Note editions. They’ve published every single one of my books, including books that never found a US publisher. They really believe in me, get what I’m doing, and support me all the way. The Germans, likewise, have been exceptionally good to me. Produced beautiful hardback editions of the books, with illustrations, the whole bit. On that first German tour you’d have 200 people at the venue with is just unheard of for a debut author in the states. It was a madhouse. People lining up afterwards to say hello, give me wine, smoke a joint with me. I didn’t want to come back.

18. Were you always interested in writing or did it come as a result of what you've lived?

I was always a big reader. Teachers always said I could write. One short story I wrote in an exam – a kind of post apocalyptic thing with people reduced to eating the corpses of the dead - came back with an A, and a note that said “is everything all right at home?” Wrote a pulp kind of novel when I was 15 or 16 trying to impress a girl. When I read it back it was so awful, so deliriously bad that I stopped writing for years. Threw myself into music but just read continuously. That’s the best education a writer can have – read the good ones. Jim Thompson, Herbert Huncke, Alexander Trocchi, Dan Fante, Anna Kavan, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Burroughs, Thompson, etc etc. Teaches you more than any MFA can. And it’s free. The thing was I was only really able to write something good when I finally had something to say. Up until then, it was like learning to play an instrument by imitating your favorite records. I learn the hard way. Life had to knock several rounds of shit out of me before I found my voice.

19. It feels like you're writing is a way to get it out of your brain, so it doesn't keep driving you mad. What do you think you would be doing now if you never got into that scene?

I’d probably be dead. An OD or maybe shot over a drug deal. My luck was bound to run out, I think I jumped ship just in time. Really I don’t fit in most places. I wish it were different, but I don’t play well with others. I’ve hated every job I had. My favorite job was when I was out in Queens, NY painting iron railings. We’d just roll up to these factories or private houses and lay the concrete and put the railings in and then my job was to slap on the primer and then paint ‘em black. We’d do it in the dead of winter, up on top of an Indian food factory in Bushwick, the place covered with ice, people doing crack deals in the house across the road. The guy I worked with a tall German, stinking hung over, he used to chew garlic bulbs to hide the smell of booze from the clients. I loved that job because it was a chance to just think. No small talk, no customers, just slap the paint on and daydream. I used to run home and write stories, I'd have so many ideas. But most jobs… they don’t give you that space to daydream. You’re on the phone, or you're selling shit, or you have some maniac chattering bullshit into your ear all day long. They expect you to care, and of course you don’t. I couldn’t last like that. I’d have been back on the needle for my own sanity.

20. What's next for Tony O'Neill?

Another book. And then another… I’ll keep writing them so long as people keep wanting to read them. I’m working on a screenplay with a director and I’d love for it to get made. But there’s no game plan, there’s no point because nothing you plan out works anyway. I didn’t have a career path. It’s just a case of one situation leading onto another and another. I just take whatever doors are open to me and hope for the best.

Thank you!
Goat

#48 Nicole Audrey Spector

2013-02-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FORTY EIGHT

Nicole Audrey Spector

I've known Nicole for a while now and when I heard she was getting this mash-up, Fifty Shades of Dorian Gray, published, I knew that she would be the perfect interview for Valentine's Day. So boys, go pick up this book for your girl (you should read it too), help out a friend of the goat, and check out her answers below!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats”?

Porn, obviously.

2. You were almost named Goat? Please explain!

Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't really. I was just making a bad joke. See? I'm a great humorist.

3. What was it like working with The Picture of Dorian Gray?

In a geeky fan sense, it was terrific. I've loved Wilde since I first heard his fairytales as a child, and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is one of my favorite novels. It's shocking, irreverent, and naturally hilarious, which makes it a prime vehicle for parodying the “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy. I think Wilde would have been all over the mash-up genre – anything to laugh in society's face and show them how idiotic they are. Now, while I of course wanted to poke fun at the Fifty Shades books, I also aimed to appeal to its audience, which meant taking the sexual themes already present in Wilde's original text, and exploiting them for a heterosexual readership in a way that was genuinely erotic.

4. You described this book as humrotica, what is that and tell me you have more?

I'm glad someone caught on to my stunning neologism! Basically, it's humor with steamy sex stuffed in. Sometimes the sex scenes themselves have laughable moments, and sometimes the scenes are straight-faced. Do I have more humrotic? I guess if I write a memoir...

5. Are you doing any kind of touring for the book? Around NYC?

I do readings here and there, but there's no official tour. Would you like to send me somewhere? Can I bring my dog?

6. How did you get a blurb from Fred Armisen?

Fred and I have been buddies for a while. He's awesome and just as funny as you'd imagine him to be.

7. What's it been like working with Skyhorse Publishing?

I love Skyhorse. The book's editor, Jennifer McCartney is so intelligent and discerning. Oleg Lyubner, my publicist (ha, he hates when I call him that, as technically he is the book's publicist) is a deadly shark of skill and know how! And he's read Chekhov in Russian.

8. Guerrilla Lit Reading Series? What's that all about?

Me and some writer friends (Marco Rafala, Dani Grammerstorf French, and Lee Goldberg) formed that years ago here in NYC. The idea was to curate a prose-centered reading series that would promote upcoming as well as established talent. We've come a tremendous way since then, largely thanks to Marco, Dani, and Lee. We're now featured pretty regularly in TimeOut NY, and have a full calendar of stellar readers to look forward to meeting. You can find us every last Wednesday of the month at Jimmy's No. 43 in the east village.

9. You had a reading last week, do you do a lot? Excited? Nervous?

I'm the biggest ham around, so I love reading. Plus, it was with my Guerrilla homies so I felt greatly supported. I read a funny scene where the protagonist of FSODG, Rosemary Hall gets her period. During the Victorian era, “the curse” wasn't exactly the commercial coming of age experience we now see in tampon ads, so it was a lot of fun.

10. You're working on multiple novels and a short story collection. Where else can we read your work?

I'm still tying the loose ends up on that, but I promise to keep you updated when all is said and done!

11. Your book came out in print, e-book, and audible, what are your thoughts on books? Remember when they were just books?

There are some annoying attributes to e-books.

1. You really should not read them soaking in your own filth, aka in the bathtub, which is my reading space of choice.

2. Authors can't sign them

3. Footnotes are a disaster

4. They die

Other than that, they're excellent and boast their own convenience and readability. I support everything about audio books. They're great while driving, or cleaning, or for those who dislike music, whoever such a people may be. Also, if you have really bad vision or no vision at all, audio books are the way to go. It really pisses me off that all books are not automatically converted to audio for the visually-impaired – and that audio books are so expensive.

12. How did you get the contract for this book? Is it something you wanted to write from the beginning?

Jennifer McCartney, a senior editor at Skyhorse saw a reading of mine and thought I'd be a great candidate for the project. She gave me a lot of freedom with it so I was able to really create my own thing.

13. A writer for the New Yorker, as well? What do you write for them?

I'm still so star struck by that fact. I moved to NYC at 17, basically thinking only about how one day I must write for The New Yorker. Twelve years later I got my chance. Right now, I write blurbs for the “Goings On About Town” nightlife section.

14. Who's your audience? Especially for Fifty Shades of Dorian Gray?

Hilarious feminists, diehard Wilde fans, and just sexy beasts in general. Oh, and Mourning Goat readers.

15. Do you have any more mash-ups in the works?

No, but I do have insomnia, which leads to a lot of whacky ideas.

16. You were in Huffington Post, how awesome was that?

Exceptionally! You can see some of my off the wall mashup novel ideas in that article.

17. Do you have an agent? Do you think new authors need one?

I don't have one yet. I guess I'm in the process of getting one. I don't think new authors need agents, but they do need a terrific team like the one I had at Skyhorse to whip them into shape. Discipline is always the hardest part, and that's the part an editor and a publicist help you hone.

18. Who are you reading, now?

I actually am re-reading “Dog Soldiers” by Robert Stone right now, because I think I read it too quickly when I was younger. What an incredible book! On my nightstand is also Didion's “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” and James Salter's “Dusk”. I suppose I should mention that I am also reading, albeit slowly, “The Red and the Black” by Stendhal because I put it off too long and I need to be put in check. Oh, there's another perk about e-books. That shit is free, and you don't have to settle for tiny font. You can make it big and couchy.

19. Other than Fifty Shades of Dorian Gray, what would you recommend for a good Valentine's Day read?

The Romance of Lust--its anonymous author of the Victorian era makes Henry Miller look like a prude.

20. What's next for Nicole Audrey Spector?

Hopefully, a day job with health benefits: Setting the bar real high.

Thank you!
Goat

#47 Cheryl Strayed

2013-02-06T08:49:00.003-05:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FORTY SEVEN

Cheryl Strayed

It's been a hell of a 2012 for Cheryl. In March, Wild was released, four months later Tiny Beautiful Things, then Reese Witherspoon bought the movie rights to Wild, and Nick Hornby is writing the script for it (just turned in the first draft, actually).

But, someone who's been interviewed by Oprah doesn't need an introduction, right?

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

When I hear it—rather than read it—I think of goats in the morning waiting to be fed, butting up against me with their scary little horns. My family had a goat when I was a teenager. Her name was Katrina. Like most goats, she was a mixed bag of delightful and dastardly.

2. Like most of your readers, my favorite line of yours has to be, "Write like a motherfucker." Where did it come from, what does it mean, to you?

I have to credit my husband, Brian Lindstrom (aka Mr. Sugar) with the genesis of that phrase. The night I met him in September of 1995 we were talking about my writing and his filmmaking and he said something about how you have to be a motherfucker to be a writer, meaning you have to be fierce and pursue it all out. I felt like he was right, so I never forgot it. The phrase made its first official appearance in a piece I wrote for a wonderful blog called Backstory http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/backstory/ that M.J. Rose used to do. I wrote the backstory of my first book, a novel called Torch, and in my piece I said I wrote like a motherfucker. http://mjroseblog.typepad.com/backstory/2006/05/cheryl_strayeds.html) A few years passed and I’d forgotten I’d written that, so I was surprised when my Sugar column went viral and a few internet sleuths figured out I was Sugar because of it.

3. You currently have three books in three different areas (columns, memoir, and fiction), which of them was the most fun to write, why?

They were all equally pleasurable and painful. I guess I’d say Torch was the hardest to write because it was my first book and I really didn’t know if I could write a book, so I was full of fear and doubt. By the time I was writing Wild I was experienced enough that I knew fear and doubt are simply part of my process. I think Tiny Beautiful Things might have been the easiest book to write of the three, but only because I didn’t know I was writing it until it was nearly done. It was like an accidental book. I was writing those columns, one by one, week by week. It was only after some time that I thought to put them together in a book.

4. What was it like getting your agent, Janet Silver, at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Agency? Did you query them or did they come to you?

Janet Silver was my editor for Torch at Houghton Mifflin, so we’d already worked together by the time she became my agent in 2009, when I was ready to sell Wild (based on a partial manuscript). She was a fantastically smart and sensitive editor and I felt such a tight bond with her that when she decided to become an agent I decided I wanted her to represent me. I love her as both an agent and a friend.

5. Like the Goat, you had a pseudonym over at therumpus.net, why did you hide your identity for so long, Sugar? And, was anyone angry or upset about it?

I inherited my anonymity. Steve Almond had been writing the Dear Sugar column before I took it over and he’d been writing anonymously, so I followed suit. There was a conversation at the very beginning about whether I should keep the column anonymous or not and I thought, Well, why not? I’d never written anonymously before and I love to try new things, so it seemed like fun. Having said that, I always knew I would someday reveal my identity, so even though most readers experienced the column as anonymous for nearly two years, I didn’t write it from a place of anonymity. I wrote it as if my name appeared at the top of each one. No one felt angry or upset about my anonymity--at least not that I’m aware of—but some people were rather passionate about not wanting me to reveal my identity. They feared it would mean I’d be less honest in the column, but that wasn’t true. I’m equally honest in the writing I do as Cheryl Strayed.

6. You received an MFA from Syracuse University, do you think it was detrimental to your career to have the degree?

I don’t think the degree itself either helped or hindered my writing career, but I know the three years I spent in the program were crucial to my ability to complete my first book. SU fully funds all the students it accepts into the MFA program so not only did I attend tuition-free, but the university also paid me a stipend that covered most of my expenses. For the first time ever, I got to put my writing before everything else for an extended period of time. I’ll forever be grateful to SU for that.

7. You've won the Pushcart Prize, how did it feel to win such a prestigious award?

It feels great to win things. It’s a nice affirmation as well as an ego boost. But it feels better to write things and also to celebrate the things other people have written.

8. Now, more than ever, you have to have a lot going on, how do you balance everything and continue writing?

My life is out of balance, with all the travel I’ve been doing for my books in these past months while also trying to be present for my children. I’m writing a bit—mostly essays for magazines or anthologies, but I can’t wait to really sink into another book. It’s going to be another few months before I can do that. I’m in the midst of a hurricane right now, launching WILD and TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS both here and abroad. What’s getting me through is the knowledge that every hurricane blows away eventually. I’ll get back to writing when it does.

9. Your memoir, Wild, has been optioned by Reese Witherspoon's production company, Pacific Standard, what's going on with that? How did it go down?

How it went down is that Reese read an advanced reading copy of WILD a few months before it was published and she connected with it and felt strongly that she was the person to bring the story to the screen. It resonated with her. The same thing happened with Oprah deciding to restart her book club for Wild. In both cases it comes down to the simple fact that they liked the book. It was as sweet and straightforward as that. I’m terribly cheered by that. Nick Hornby is writing the WILD script. I’m a long time admirer of his work, so I couldn’t be more thrilled.

10. In one interview you said, "You've got to do the right kind of shopping. That's my main advice to young writers." about living cheaply. Can you expand on this? Why?

I was really only joking, but I suppose in any joke there’s a bit of truth. I don’t get to shop as much as I used to before I became a mom. In the past eight or so years, I’ve had far less time to poke around looking at things, but I still go to thrift stores when I can. A few years ago I bought these like-new-but-used, knee-high, black leather Harley Davidson motorcycle boots that I wear all the time. I consider them my signature piece. When I have them on I feel like the person I most deeply am and also like the person I always wanted to be. They cost me $25. In shopping, as in writing, it’s never about the money. It’s about patience and luck.

11. I've interviewed Monica Drake, Lidia Yuknavitch, Chelsea Cain, Suzy Vitello, and now, you. What is it about your writing group that is pushing out so many quality writers?

I feel fortunate to be among such a distinguished bunch. Most of the writers in my group have kept at it for years. They’re talented, yes, but more importantly they’re committed to the art and craft of writing. I have so much admiration for them and their work. They’d be doing it whether our group existed or not, but it’s pretty damn cool to share our writing the way we do.

12. You teach writing at conferences and retreats. Do you think creativity can be taught or is it more about teaching craft?

I think you can learn the craft, absolutely. A close examination of what it takes to make a story or essay or poem is a key piece to becoming a writer. So I ask my students to pay attention to what’s happening on the page on a very close, technical level. Another thing I do is offer emotional support, which I think is pretty crucial. Most writers need to be told to keep going. It might be the most important thing a teacher can give a student writer. I don’t mean I turn my classes into therapy sessions, but I talk a lot about how important it is to persevere, to keep the faith, to try and fail and keep trying. One must do as Winston Churchill famously implored his countrymen to do: never, never, never give up.

13. Apparently, there's a battle between Brooklyn and Portland for the hippest place in the country, what are your thoughts?

About this, I have only one thought: the amount of fuck I do not give about such battles is so gigantic it cannot be measured.

14. What do you feel the differences are between your different book publishers (Vintage, Houghton Mifflin, and Knopf)?

Vintage and Knopf are on the same team, both part of Random House. Vintage is my paperback publisher, Knopf my hardback. The amazing Robin Desser was my editor for both Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things and Vintage recently reissued my first book, Torch. I also just sold my next two books to Knopf, so Knopf/Vintage is my literary home. I’ve been very happy with how well they published my books, how incredibly supportive and enthusiastic they’ve been. Everyone at Knopf and Vintage who has anything to do with my books is outstanding at their job—publicists, sales reps, the wizards of design, marketing and god knows what else all those people who bring books into the world do. I’m so thankful for their work. Houghton Mifflin was also great to me when they published Torch back in 2006. I’ve been on many panels about the book business at conferences and at each one someone inevitably talks about big publishers as if they’re the evil empire—that all they care about is the bottom-line, or they’re too conventional, or they don’t give their authors the attention that small presses do. I’m sure this is true in some cases, but it hasn’t been my experience and it wasn’t my experience well before my books became bestsellers. My observation has been that big press or small, the people who work in this business are in it because they love books.

15. You had pictures taken for Vogue, what was it for and why?

Vogue ran an excerpt of WILD the month before it was published and they wanted a photograph of me to print alongside the excerpt.

16. You’ve been touring for your new books, Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things, do you enjoy it? What's the most interesting story, so far?

I do enjoy it. It energizes me, though it’s also exhausting. The most powerful part of the experience is meeting thousands of people who’ve made a very personal connection with something I’ve written. I’ve been humbled by the kindness, heart and generosity my readers have shown me at my events. I’ve often wished I had a camera strapped to my head so I could make a documentary of all the amazingly beautiful things people have said to me as I’ve signed their books, the stories they’ve told are astounding.

17. What do you think social media is doing for communication and literature? Helping, harming, both?

I think it helps when it comes to spreading the word and reaching new readers. Through social media, I’ve discovered dozens of writers I’d never previously read and probably wouldn’t have if someone had tweeted or posted a link. The success of the “Dear Sugar” column can be traced directly to social media. Almost all the people who read the column found it because some tweeted or posted: Read this.

18. You hiked 1100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail by yourself. How do you even begin to think about doing something like this?

Well, you’ll have to read Wild because the answer is inside. But honestly, I thought to do it because I knew I needed to shake up my life in a positive way. I needed to do something big and incredible because at that time I was feeling small and crappy. I knew the wilderness was the place that I felt most gathered, so I went there and gathered myself.

19. Your husband is filmmaker, Brian Lindstrom, does he have a lot of input on your work? Do you think that being a filmmaker gives him a different view of things?

We’re very supportive of each other. We give each other feedback. We hash things out together when one or the other of us is artistically stuck. I love that I don’t have to explain my work to my partner. He understands the struggles, the sorrows, the joys, the insecurities, the ego-bruises, the victories. We have a very similar aesthetic and sensibility. We’re both drawn to the same things, both gritty realists who dig into emotion. You could draw many lines between my work and his, not because we made each other that way, but we were each that way and then we found each other and the way we were deepened.

20. What's next for Cheryl Strayed?

Another book! That will be my answer until the day I die. Another book. Always that, always that.

Thank you!

Goat

And finally, don't forget to "like" Mourning Goats on Facebook and pick up Chewing the Page: The Mourning Goats Interviews on Amazon!

#46 Paula Bomer

2013-01-28T20:20:00.002-05:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FORTY SIX

Paula Bomer

Sean P. Ferguson, a good friend of the goat, did a review of Paula's book for ManArchy Magazine and I was intrigued. When I asked the Mourning Goats readers who they wanted, he suggested that I ask her a few questions. So, knowing he has pretty good taste, I searched out Paula and found out she's awesome, even though she writes about a few things the goat has not dove into, literaryily (I believe in the freedom to make up words...like that one) speaking...

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

Honestly, a question mark. But I love your webzine.

2. What's your novel, 9 Months about, in your own words?

My own words sort of fail me regarding my work, so I'll quote some other people- I like the ones who say it's a woman having an existential and identity crisis. It's also an examination of one woman's pregnancy and birthing experience.

3. Your first book was Baby & Other Stories, then 9 Months, please tell me the next one is conception.

My next book, Inside Madeleine, is a novella and a group of stories that are about young women generally is some sort of crisis. The novella is decidedly unfunny and the stories range in tone.

4. You have your MA in English and Creative Writing from City College, what do you think about teaching creative writing? Is the degree necessary?

I've never taught creative writing, but I really enjoyed my time at CCNY. It was good for me, a twenty something year old. I took a lot of English classes because that's how that program was structured and that was wonderful. I should take some more now. The workshops were a mixed bag, but working one on one with great professors was helpful and often inspiring. That said, it is in no ways necessary.

5. I saw on your Facebook page about a review that was just downright mean, what's it like getting reviewed by people all over the world, stressful?

I do find getting reviewed by people who hate my book as mildly distressing. Then I can laugh it off, usually. I wrote Nine Months to purposefully push the PC buttons of the world, so I really have no right to be distressed when someone hates it. I tell myself, whoever hates my book it's because they are not the right reader for it. And I try to focus on the positive reviews, and that sometimes works. I can't wait to get to the point where I don't read them. I already don't really read my goodreads reviews.

6. What's your process like? Do you write every day? When the urge hits?

I write as much as possible and that varies tremendously. I'm pretty good with deadlines although I do bang my head on the desk at times or not get out of bed for a really long time to avoid working. I love it when I get that "flow" and I hate it when it's hard coming. It's often hard coming.

7. You have a reading coming up on February 11th, are you excited? Nervous?

I hate reading. My husband says I've gotten better at it but that's just because I discovered how relaxing vodka is. That said, I love getting out of my house and talking to people in the literary community because I don't do it enough. And I do love it when the audience laughs. That's gratifying.

8. If anything, you and Sonia have one thing in common, you're both Brooklynites, do you think living here changes a person?

I think wherever we live and wherever we are from greatly affects who we are. I've lived in Brooklyn for 22 years and frankly, I'm done. But I have a few more years before my kids are in college so I have to stick around. Then I'm going to try to force my husband to retire- oh wait, he has to pay for college. I'm stuck here for a while longer. Sigh.

9. Another Mourning Goats Author interviewed you, Shya Scanlon, what was that like?

That was wonderful. Firstly, Shya is just one of my favorite people to be around and I don't see him and his fantastic wife nearly enough. And he was an excellent reader of Nine Months and I loved his questions. He's a very smart man. He's funny, too.

10. I've heard whispers of a sequel? Where are you in that process?

Haha. One reviewer mentioned they wanted a sequel and I was so flattered and then I thought- what a great idea. Like Roth's Zuckerman, I can use Sonia in other books. I think I'll have her freak out on her teenagers who drive her mad and have her fly to some exotic land where all sorts of absurd and terrible things happen. I am absolutely nowhere with this book. I've got two other to finish up first. But who knows, maybe it will jump ahead of one of them.

11. Do you work on multiple projects at the same time? Reading over some timelines, it seems like there's a lot of overlap.

Yes. Baby was written over the course of many years and two novels were written within those years as well as some other stories from Inside Madeleine. That said, when working on the novels, I focused pretty intensely for months at a time just on those.

12. Where do you find the time, you have two kids, Sententia Books, AND writing?

I also have two dogs two cats and three houses. And I still manage to watch way too much TV. Frankly, my kids are teenagers and want nothing to do with me and are never around. They are so busy! I beg them to hang out with me, so they are not the problem. Any problem I have or ever had with writing comes from inside my brain.

13. Your book was reviewed by an online men's magazine, ManArchy, did you ever thing there would be a mail audience for this?

I am happy about it. I'm not really surprised. I don't think I write Chick Lit or even upscale women's fiction. I write literary fiction- or try to- and that should appeal to everyone. The excellent Jon Reiss wrote an interesting piece where he admitted he wasn't interested in Nine Months because of the subject matter and then said it was one of the best books he'd read in years. He discusses the prejudices we have as readers. Anyway, I;m just happy to have readers, period. Really really happy.

14. This was a very different book when you first wrote it. What happened?

I wouldn't say it was different. Sonia has always been Sonia and she was on a road trip after having a freakout. But I did revise it with the great help of my editor Mark Doten. He made me make her go to different places which is quite funny if you think about it. He made me make it a better book. Maybe some writers can do that themselves- I often hear about writers revising 400 times. I needed some direction and feel fortunate to get it. That said, with Baby, we didn't change a word. I'm much more comfortable in the story form, or was. Now I seem to have lost that comfort level. Here's hoping it comes back.

15. You have some awesome blurbs! How do they come in to play? Friends or just a publisher that pushes to the right people?

Some of the blurbs are from friends and acquaintances and some, frankly, are complete strangers that I contacted, writers I admired. I urged my Sententia author Scott Wrobel to do the same. He got some great blurbs that way. You'd be surprised who's generous and who wants to help out, and equally surprised who doesn't. But as a writer, I had nothing to lose. What's the worst that can happen? Oh wait, a former mentor insulted a book- this after being so encouraging for years- and refused to blurb me. I cried for three days (not non-stop).

16. You are the first author I've read about who's told their spouse and children to NOT read their work. Why?

My writing is my private thing. I never shared it with my parents or other family members, although they stumbled across it from time to time. My husband, at this point has heard me read -so therefore knows- quite a lot of my work. Maybe half? But we don't sit around discussing it. And if my kids at some point want to read my work- and they've attended two readings and my older son helped me with the Indiana chapter and once in a while I ask him to read something- then I have no power to stop them. But I think it's fine to warn them away from graphic sex scenes or really depressing stories. And they KNOW me. They don't want to read my fiction. That said, they're super proud of me. I was 42 and had been writing for 20 years before I got my first book published. No one is happier for me then my sons.

17. I read somewhere that you didn't want your kids to go to college in New York, do you think your schooling and travels created the author I have before me? Could you not have done it if you stayed here?

I think seeing as much as the world as one can is ideal. I'm pushing them a bit. Once they're done with college and want to move back to Brooklyn and never leave, I'll have no say in the matter. That said, we have a cabin in the Dominican Republic and I've traveled all over Europe and parts of South America with them so I think I've instilled in them the desire to travel. We shall see. For me, it's a huge priority.

18. You've worked with two presses, what are your thoughts on sticking with one, or jumping from press to press? How was publishing through Soho and Word Riot?

I am so fortunate that Jackie Corley at Word Riot loved Baby and did so well with it. She's become a friend and a writer and editor that I adore. When Mark Doten- another stroke of great fortune in my life- asked to see novels and loved Nine Months, Jackie was really happy for me. As a person who runs a small press myself, I'd love it if my authors nove to a bigger press. I'd be so happy for them. And so it was with Jackie- she was happy for me. It think that's the healthy response- Jackie is pretty sane. Except she runs more than me and that makes me - envious? Something like that. I wish I was in as good as shape as her.

19. When did you first really consider yourself a writer and why?

That's a good question. In my own little mind, at 22 even though I wrote some in high school and college. Openly admitting to the world was a slow process. That first story getting published, being in grad school for writing, and then- a book. And then another book. I'd say now that I have two books out, with a third on the way,I can safely call myself a writer,

20. What's next for Paula Bomer?

With great pain, I hope to God to finish this book I'm working on soon. Then I'll try to finish another. I'd love to quit smoking. And I'm desperate for a long vacation at my cabin in the Dominican Republic. I'll say this- no more pets- the last one was an impulse buy. And just a few nights ago, my husband and I were oohing and ahhing over photos of Maine Coone cats on the internet. Lord help us.

Thank you!

Goat

#45 Holly Goddard Jones

2013-01-02T08:21:00.001-05:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FORTY FIVE

Holly Goddard Jones

You asked for an interview with Holly, and I'm here to please! Not only is she a fantastic short story writer, but she also has a novel coming out the day before Valentines day called, The Next Time You See Me. Check out the interview, buy the short story book, Girl Trouble, get the novel next month, and take note of Holly, she's one to watch!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "mourning goats?"

When I first saw your Facebook friend request, I misread it as “Mountain Goats.” I have some friends who are really into that band.

2. Your first book was a short story book, back in 2009, in February, your first novel, The Next Time You See Me will be published, how was writing and publishing the books different?

I was a grad student when I was working on the stories in Girl Trouble, and the book went through a few different incarnations. I took away a story, completely rewrote one, and heavily revised the others. But there was never, during all of this rewriting, the panicked sense that one move could unravel the whole project. There were plenty of other kinds of panic, but I never doubted that I was making a collection that would eventually hold together.

The novel, on the other hand—75 percent of the writing experience was believing I would never finish it, that I didn’t have the skill or the wherewithal necessary to pull it off. I can admit this now only because I did finish it. At the time, though, it was years of feeling like I was playing pretend. It wasn’t until I got to about the 250-page mark of the rough draft, and went back and did a structural overhaul of those first pages, that I saw the way the rest of the book would go and started to feel some confidence.

As for the differences in the publishing experiences, I’ll probably be able to better answer that a few months. This book will be out in hardcover, whereas Girl Trouble was a straight-to-paper release, and that feels significant in an entirely superficial way. If there’s a negative, I guess it’s that I probably no longer have the automatic goodwill that comes to a young person publishing a first book, especially a less commercial project like a book of stories. The pressures are more acute this time around.

3. What's it like being married to another academic?

Well, that’s a question I never thought I’d be asked, if that tells you anything. It’s still really hard for me to think of him that way. Brandon worked for years at architectural firms, he seemed content in the professional world, and he’s frankly not a stereotypically bookish, professorial type. But when I got my current job in North Carolina—this was 2008—the economy was tanking, and architectural firms were letting people go, not hiring. So he decided to go back to grad school. Two years later, this teaching job happened, and he’s great at it. It’s a luxury for us to both be on academic schedules, and it’s good to finally have a partner who really understands me when I’m griping all the usual gripes. The bad side is that when he gripes to me, as he has every right to do, I feel almost as stressed on his behalf as I do on my own. I’m hoping this will go away with time.

4. What was it like studying under Lee Abbott, a master of short fiction?

It was terrifying and exhilarating in the way that you see students in movies getting terrified and exhilarated by larger-than-life, brilliant teachers and mentors. He was confident, encyclopedic in his knowledge, and analytical in a way that really resonated with me, as I’m not (and especially wasn’t then) a touch-feely, spiritual sort of writer. He was plain about what he hated and even plainer about what he loved. I was smitten with him.

5. Another interviewee of the Goat, John Mantooth, just reviewed your upcoming novel, what's it like getting reviewed by other writers? I can only imagine it's a huge compliment.

Oh, of course. It’s a compliment, and it means something extra, just because you know what a writer is having to sacrifice to make time to study and review someone else’s work. And you feel that a writer understands what you’re trying to do, and can at least give you credit for that, in a way that someone who doesn’t write might not. I’ve not had the courage to step into that reviewing role myself, though.

6. Do you think an authors success these days circles around their willingness to embrace social media as well as their talent?

This is something I’ve thought a lot about, and even despaired over some, and I just don’t know. I deleted my Facebook account a few months after my first book came out and stayed off for 2 and a half years. I felt embarrassed about how I’d presented myself on social media and how hard I’d promoted that book. Then, the new book got picked up, and I felt some pressure to go back. So there ended up being this paradox: I thought I needed to be on social media for the sake of promoting my book, but I didn’t want to be the kind of person who promotes herself on social media. What I decided to do was have a personal FB page, where I’d post dumb stuff and dog pictures and connect with friends and other writers in a non-professional (and sometimes unprofessional) way, and I’d also create a Twitter account and a Facebook Author page, and the author page is where I’d post the blurbs and the reviews and the reading dates. Then, I was on Twitter recently, and this group of writers was talking back and forth about how gauche it is to have a Facebook Author Page. I just crumpled with humiliation. So really, I have no idea what I’m doing and what effect it’s having and to what extent I look like an asshole.

7. LitReactor.com just mentioned you as one of the top ten authors you've never heard of, how do you respond to that?

I think it’s an honor but also really funny. I don’t disagree that most people haven’t heard of me.

8. What was it like winning the Hillsdale Award? The presentation is coming up in April, are you excited? Nervous?

The email notifying me I’d won came out of nowhere. It’s not something you apply for, and I hadn’t known I was in the running. So I was thrilled, of course. What a gift. I’m excited to go to this conference in Chattanooga, because I’ve heard about it for years, and I have friends in nearby Sewanee.

9. Girl Trouble was featured in O: The Oprah Magazine, what was that like and how did it happen?

I don’t know how or why it happened. Getting reviews—that’s mysterious to me. With Girl Trouble, I’d just suddenly hear from the publicist at my press, usually by email, with a PDF scan of the review attached. And you can tell when the review is going to be just so-so because the publicist says something like, “Here’s a very winning review of your book!” With O Magazine, I remember I was actually called on the phone by the publicist a few weeks before the review hit newsstands, and I could tell she was just as excited as I was. So that was a great day.

10. If someone who wasn't familiar with your work picked up one of your books, what would you tell them to expect?

I’d warn them that it’s pretty dark stuff, usually. And I’d say that I love to develop characters, but I also enjoy a good page-turner, and that’s what I try to give a reader.

11. Do you feel that since you're considered a southern writer, you tend to be drawn to southern writing?

Of course I appreciate southern writing, and have drawn a lot of inspiration from southern writers, but I don’t seek it out in particular over other kinds of fiction. I’m just as capable of enjoying a dystopian novel or a novel about self-absorbed upper class New Yorkers. And I hope, in turn, that you don’t have to be a southerner to like my work.

12. If you were given one piece of advice before getting into your MFA program, what would it have been?

I think I intuited then the advice I’d still give now, which is to not amass a bunch of debt to get the degree. After that—once you’re in a program, committed to going—I would say to be kind (which is not the same thing as being falsely nice or a pushover). I was insecure and defensive, 23 years old, and there were too many times when I wasn’t a generous reader of my peers’ work. I’d take that back if I could.

13. How did you get your agent, Gail Hochman?

Gail is my second agent, which is a long story. She represented one of my grad school professors, and I sent to her before signing with the other agency, only to get a long and thoughtful email from her after I withdrew my manuscript from her consideration. So when things didn’t pan out with the first agent, I got in touch with her—this was a couple of years later—and she still remembered the book and me. Which is one of the amazing and wonderful things about her. She is so sharp, so thoughtful. I don’t think it’s simply a matter of having a good memory. It’s that she is a reader and not just a businesswoman, and her way into selling a book is first making an emotional connection with it.

14. I love how dark you like to go in your stories, should we expect the same in your novel?

Oh, yeah. And then some!

15. You're a pretty recent MFA grad, what do you think of MFA programs? Are they a necessity? Highly recommended?

Well, I teach in an MFA program, and I had a wonderful experience in my MFA program, and so I certainly see plenty of good in getting the degree. But of course they’re not a necessity. If you have means to attend, you can get some time to be serious about your work, make friends and lifelong readers, learn some stuff that you might not learn otherwise, or as quickly, and yes, make some useful connections. But all of that can be done in some configuration outside of an MFA. And programs are so different. The program where I teach is really different from the one I attended—just a completely distinct vibe. I think some students could be happy at both places, but not all. The people I’ve known who were unhappy with their MFA experiences either had unrealistic expectations for the degree—didn’t understand that it wasn’t a set path to publication or a college teaching job—or chose a program with a vibe that didn’t suit them.

16. Do you remember the first short story you sold? What was it like?

The first story I placed was at American Literary Review, and I was paid with contributors’ copies, and so the first story I literally “sold” was to The Southern Review. And that was probably one of the best milestones in my writing life, not only because it was such a great journal—and such a tidy little paycheck for a grad student!—but because that story, which would ultimately lead my collection, felt like the first achievement of my grown-up writing life. Seven years later, that still seems right to me.

17. What did the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award mean to your career?

It meant everything. Not just to my career but to my life. The day I got the news—I mean, that ranks up there in top life moments. Top five, easy. My husband and I had recently moved to Murray, Kentucky, where I had a teaching job, and we’d bought a little house. He didn’t have a job yet. The day we were signing the closing papers, I was on the edge of a panic, because we were making the first real major financial commitment of our lives, and I was suddenly sure we didn’t have the resources to do it. We left the bank, kind of shellshocked, and I checked my phone, and there was a message from Beth McCabe, who coordinates the prize. And at this point I’d known I’d been nominated for the prize—I got a letter requesting a writing sample and a CV—and so, though she didn’t come out and say I’d won, it felt like a very good sign. I called her back, managed to reach her, and she confirmed it, and I wigged out. I think of that day a lot, especially when I get down, or get passed over for some opportunity or honor, which happens all the time. And one of the things I think is that as many people as possible should have a moment like that, and if missing out on this or that means that someone else can scream with joy and relief, with the knowledge that someone is willing to make that kind of investment in what they perceive is your talent, good. It’s as it should be.

18. Workshops... love them? Hate them? Or, what is your editing process?

I’ve had my fill of them as a student. The thought of passing a pile of my freshly photocopied manuscripts around the table makes me feel a little nauseated.

As a teacher of workshop, I see a lot of good in them, though it’s not the same good I thought I was getting on the other side of the process. I don’t think now that workshop is about improving individual stories so much as it is about getting new writers reading and thinking critically. It’s a lab that allows us to talk about craft issues in a concrete way. There are things about the workshop process that I find harder to deal with, the longer I do this. In graduate workshops, I no longer uphold that old “the writer doesn’t speak until the end” rule. I’ll ask the writer questions, get him or her to reflect on some of the comments. There’s a theatrical quality to the old school workshop that seems designed to create the highest level of discomfort and anxiety possible, and I’m just worn out on it.

19. Your website says that you have a ton of readings already lined up, do you like giving them? Any fun stories from past readings?

I don’t mind the act of giving a reading. That can be fun, and I still have a bit of the old high school drama geek in me. But I have a lot of anxiety about the apparatus around readings. I almost never finish a reading and think, “That went well.” I don’t know how to react to people reacting to it. Oh, and I’m a blusher, so I tend to get bright red when I’m stressed, and that’s mortifying.

Bookstore readings are humbling. When Girl Trouble came out, I had a few readings with great turnouts and several readings with an attendance of only a couple of people. This time around, I think I’ll be grateful for whatever I get. Five people in the audience who aren’t my husband or a paid bookseller sounds like heaven.

20. What's next for Holly Goddard Jones?

I’m coming off a semester’s leave at the same time that my book comes out, so it will be a hectic spring: teaching, doing some traveling for events, reading MFA applications, reading theses. I’ve started a new novel, and I hope I can carve out some time to work on it.

Thank you!

Goat

#44 Kaylie Jones

2012-12-12T07:59:00.000-05:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FORTY FOUR

Kaylie Jones

Kaylie is fantastic. I've known her for years and finally went to her for some knowledge. Between a new imprint, second black belt, a novel competition, and everything else in her life, I was elated when she said that she would answer a few questions from a sad goat. Check out all of her books, especially one of her newest stories in Long Island Noir, released earlier this year.

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

We always call our dogs “the goats” because they act more like mountain goats than dogs. So I think first of my two dogs; then I wonder immediately if I am meant to think that this moniker applies to a writer who is mourning his lost goats, or whether the goats are in mourning.

2. Which of your writings are you most proud of? Why?

Usually I am most proud of what I have last finished. This is a bit like asking a writer, “What is your favorite novel?” It is an unfair question and depends entirely on my mood that day. I think my novel CELESTE ASCENDING was the most complex book, structure-wise, that I will ever write. It took me six years. But, in terms of courage, I’d have to say LIES MY MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME. Memoir leaves the writer more exposed, more open to personal criticism. I realized, however, that the subject of denial and alcoholism is such that, in taking this on, I was not going to open the eyes of the world – those that are standing on my side of the fence, who have been forced to deal with their own denial, don’t need the book; those who are still on the other side of the fence would rather shoot themselves than have to face the truth.

3. How did it feel to have one of your books turned into a movie? What was that process like?

Having A SOLDIER’S DAUGHTER NEVER CRIES made into a movie was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. James Ivory and Ismail Merchant are literary filmmakers and they involved the writer whenever they could. My family traveled all over with them and the film; we were on the set; we went to the Venice and Deauville film festivals. It was the most amazing year of my life. I am only sorry that my daughter was too little to remember any of it.

4. What was it like writing a screenplay with your husband, Kevin Heisler? Do you think you'll do more collaborations?

At heart I am not a screenwriter, though I love movies. This was difficult for me, because my instinct is always to add more. Kevin was always cutting, cutting, trying to explain that a screenplay is just the template for a film. We sold several screenplays, but the films were never made. So I’ll never know if we succeeded in our screenwriting endeavors, or not.

5. Your students have had some big successes, what do you think you do differently, to help them in the right direction?

As a teacher, I think the most important thing is to never get in the way of the student’s vision. Offer technical advice, suggestions, give emotional support, but allow the student to write the book s/he intended to write. It’s about trying to remain objective, not take over the project and impose a different vision on it. I very rarely suggest a major change in the story. Most of the time, I try to get a feel for what the writer is trying to get to. I think part of being good at this is being able to discern what the writer is trying to get at, rather than what is actually showing up on the page.

6. How do you think growing up in Paris influenced what you write and how you write?

I believe every writer should speak at least two or three languages. The ability to express myself in another language has been very helpful to me as a writer. Also, when you grow up in a foreign country, and you are always an outsider, even when you can assimilate pretty well into the culture, you learn to watch and listen as an outsider. Most writers are outsiders in one way or another; I have found this to be true almost across the board. Growing up in France also made me open-minded toward other cultures. Open-mindedness toward other cultures is something I feel is sorely lacking in the US.

7. Who's your first reader and why?

I have four or five people I give my early drafts to for feedback. They are great readers, very intelligent, usually writers, and are not afraid to tell me what they think. I give the same pages to different people for different reasons. I have an old friend, a former athlete, who doesn’t read fiction much, and I give him my pages to whether my work a) can be appreciated by men who spend their free time watching football and basketball; b) will put them to sleep or keep them awake.

8. Do you feel that you're compared to your father, novelist James Jones, a lot?

The only thing our writing has in common is honesty. We had completely different educations, different influences. My father loved the great American novels of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. I like books that are tight, light on their feet, at their perfect fighting weight. I sometimes wonder what he would have thought of my work. I believe he would have liked my books. The thing I regret most in life is that I never got the chance to sit down and discuss my work with him. How I wish I could have asked him why he did this here, and that there, and why did he think Tolstoy did this in this in his battle scenes, and what did he think of, for example, Edith Wharton? Oh, the things I would have discussed with him. My heart still aches at the thought of that loss.

9. Are you a fan of e-books? How do you think they're going to change literature?

I used to go on vacation with five or six books in my suitcase or carry-on bag. I am delighted to have a tablet on which I can carry as many books as I like. I spend way too much money on e-books, but I don’t feel nearly as guilty as I used to, bringing home bagsful of books, to this little apartment where the books were already three deep on the sagging shelves. When we moved two years ago, I said, “That’s it! No more books!” We got rid of 75% of our library. I can’t say I miss them. They gathered dust and exacerbated my bronchitis. I no longer feel the need to identify myself to others by the books I’ve read. I couldn’t care less what people think of my erudition or lack thereof. In a way, it was a huge relief to get rid of those books.

In terms of whether e-books will change literature, it is hard to say at this point. Everyone can self-publish nowadays. But that doesn’t mean the work is worth reading. It’s a veritable tidal wave of self-published books. Hopefully, we’ll figure our way through this, just as we figured our way through the invention of the printing press. However, the option of not having to answer only to big publishing houses, or to distributors, is quite refreshing to me as a writer of literary fiction. Many of my students have had a hard time finding publishers. This is extremely distressing to me, when I know how good their work is. Because a book is not ‘commercial enough’ does not mean it is not worth publishing.

10. Do you think you would be a writer today if you hadn't grown up rubbing elbows with some of the biggest writers in recent history?

They were rich, they were famous. I never knew any struggling writers. I thought people could make an excellent living as writers. Boy, was I in for a rude awakening! Writers used to be taken much more seriously than they are now in our society. After 9/11, no one asked the great American writers what they thought. They asked the actors!

11. You've done readings all over the world, what's your favorite part about them? Least favorite part?

I enjoy meeting new people and discussing books. But I don’t like walking into a strange bookstore or library, not knowing who is going to be there, and how many people are going to show up. It can be very uncomfortable, going to a new place and having only one or two people in the audience. I no longer just randomly agree to do readings in unknown venues anymore. It’s too nerve wracking.

12. You spoke in another interview about thinking it's better that someone else adapts a book into a screenplay, and not the original author, can you go into more detail on why you think this way?

Novelists are often too close to their own work to do a good adaptation. Screenplays are all about structure, and ultimately, the director’s vision. Writers often can’t see the proverbial forest for the trees when they are adapting their own work. I advised on the screenplay of my novel, but I am glad Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and James Ivory wrote the screenplay.

13. What's it like being a chair for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship? What do you look for when judging this?

This contest is a lot of work, but so rewarding. We have many, many talented readers who initially read the manuscripts. I often ask my graduate students to read for us. It helps them identify what they shouldn’t do in the first 50 pages of their novels! We whittle it down to the top 10%, then down to the top five best manuscripts. Often, if it comes down to two manuscripts, and one is clearly more commercial and has a better chance at getting published, we pick the more literary, more difficult sell, because that book needs the help more than the other one.

Calling the winner is such a life-affirming gift. Every year, we ask one of the judges to make the call. Everyone loves getting a chance to do this. Imagine, you get to call a total stranger and say, “Congratulations, you just won $10,000 and we loved your novel.” People sometimes burst into tears. Sometimes they drop the phone. Once, the woman was speechless. She literally couldn’t talk and I had to wait several minutes, trying to convince her that it was not a hoax. One winner told me she was about to throw her novel out, she was so discouraged by the rejection of publishers and agents. After she won the award, her novel was published and became a best-seller.

14. Do you still have a writing group that meets at your house? Do you find them necessary?

This master class has been going since 1989. Some people leave and come back; some have been coming for twenty years. Most of these writers have published but they still relish the feeling of community and support. It’s also a trust issue. If you’ve been working with the same writers for many years, a certain bond develops, and it is very helpful to the struggling writer who feels alone. Most writers are ‘different;’ their friends generally don’t write, and they feel quite isolated in their process. Most of these people have become my good friends; I no longer think of them as students or of myself as their ‘teacher.’

15. When do you know that a book is finished?

Never. I generally don’t go back and reread my published books, because my instinct is to get out a pen and start editing. Akashic did a beautiful reprint of A SOLDER’S DAUGHTER NEVER CRIES, and the first thing I asked was, “Can I change some things?” I even added a new story, which was blatantly missing from the first edition. A story about the mother, which I was not ready to write when the book was first published in 1990.

16. New York City; what does the city mean to you and your life in publishing? Is the location key?

I have not found another place in the US where I could live and this has nothing to do with publishing. If anything, the New York publishing world feels provincial to me. But to live -- I tried New Orleans, Florida, Long Island. I feel at home in Paris. I feel at home in New York. What I love about New York is the neighbors don’t come knocking on the door with cookies and the expectation that you are going to invite them in for coffee. I love the anonymity of New York City; I love that a person can walk around with purple dots on his face and no one says, “Get the f***k out of here!” Walking my dog this morning, I heard Russian, French, Arabic, and some other language that might have been Hungarian. I love that. Particularly what I love about New York is that no one tires to shove evangelical Christianity down your throat, which seems to be the case in many parts of the country. Just driving down the highway in Indiana or Illinois, posters yell at you to repent now and what have you done for Jesus today. That kind of religious zealotry makes my skin crawl. My daughter gets school vacation days for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. She wants to get a menorah this year, even though we’re not Jewish. I’ll have to ask my Jewish friends, is it okay to get a menorah if you’re not Jewish? We also have a little statue of Ganesha and a bronze Christ figure, as well as a Buddha. That’s what I love about New York.

17. Do you think you've taken any of the things you've learned earning your black belts and incorporated them into your writing?

Earning my two black belts was probably the thing I am most proud of. I started very late in life, so I will never be a great martial artist, but the mental control and overcoming fear (fear of failure, fear of being laughed at, all kinds of fear) has been an immeasurable gift to me. I can truly say, after that experience, I fear very little. And I’ve gotten used to getting laughed at, my martial arts instructor laughs at me every day.

18. What would you say if your daughter decided to become an author, as well?

My daughter is an excellent writer but I have been trying to convince her to be a rocket scientist since she was two. No acting, no singing, no dancing, no painting, and definitely no writing. Someone in this family has to learn to make a living.

19. You're a creative writing professor at a low-residency program as well as an in-residence program. How do you feel the programs prepare students for the real world, differently?

I don’t think they are very different. The in-residence program meets at night, so most of the students have day jobs, just like the students in the low-residency program. My feeling about MFA programs in general is that we don’t prepare students enough for the brutal reality of what the world of commercial publishing is like. I believe students come to MFA programs thinking they are going to be the next Stephen King, or the next Margaret Atwood. They have no idea how hard it is to find a publisher, let alone a good agent. I try to help my students as best I can, but it’s an uphill battle. Some of my very best students have not been able to find publishers, which breaks my heart.

20. What's next for Kaylie Jones?

I’m starting an imprint at Akashic Books. I am going to publish emerging writers whose work, for whatever reason, is considered a ‘hard sell’ by mainstream publishing. This is a very exciting endeavor, and we’re all set to go with the first novel, which will be published next fall. It is a historical novel set in 1917 rural Illinois, by Laurie Loewenstein, a graduate of the Wilkes MFA program. The novel is called UNMENTIONABLES, and is about a dress-reform activist who goes on the Chautauqua lecture circuit and in her rousing speech, urges conservative Midwestern matrons to free themselves of their corsets and other confining undergarments and join the 20^th century.

Thank you!

Goat

Up and Coming Author: Andrew Post

2012-12-06T08:40:00.002-05:00

Welcome to a fun new section of Mourning Goats, with up and coming authors! A quick 11 questions brought to the Goat by Andrew Post, our first Up and Comer!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

I see a lonely day-drinking goat in a run-down bar. Flipping through a photo album on his phone, of him with the one he lost.

2. What is the working title of your next book?

Knuckleduster.

3. Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was doing laundry, daydreaming, hands on autopilot as one does when they have to pair a thousand identical socks when a scene just hit me. A man in an interrogation room. Just this scruffy, roughed-up fella who was unwilling to speak in his own defense at all. He knew he was in the wrong and was completely okay with it. Brody, the main character, appeared in that sudden mind-gust just as he does in the novel.

4. What genre does your book fall under?

Science fiction. Near-future SF with a light sprinklin’ of noir gumshoeing.

5. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

For Brody, Dermot Mulroney was who I saw as I was writing the novel. For Thorp, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

6. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

After an injury in the military, blind vigilante Brody Calhoun tempers his rage with brass knuckles -- but is he really in control?

7. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It’s being published by Medallion Press, March 1st, 2013.

8. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

It took me probably close to three months to do the first “draft.” I tend to do those pretty quick, get all of the broad strokes of the story out as fast as possible. I let it sit for a month or two, then go back and tweak, then let it sit again. I accumulate ideas for additions and changes, set them aside, and then dive back in a third time and rejigger where needed. I consider all of that to be the “first draft.” So, collectively, close to eight months, nine.

9. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I’d probably compare it to Richard K. Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels. Similar vibe, with the stiff-upper-lip protagonist and grimy future backdrop and what-have-you. Grunge. Nastiness. You know, that fun stuff. Maybe some early William Gibson stuff as well, when he was writing stories in the Sprawl.

10. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I was living in a small town out in rural Minnesota for a few years in a rented house, writing precious little. Nothing really inspired me there. Work, home, work. When my wife and I moved into the Twin Cities, I experienced what I consider to be picture perfect culture shock. I wasn’t a bumpkin or anything, I’d been there before, but living in the city, being there all the time, I felt like such a fish out of water. It wasn’t like it was in the sticks, no one waved to one another, everybody here had this look on their face like, “Get the hell out of my way.” Noise, traffic, the smells, that relentless hum of the highway you can hear no matter where you are. Being out of the boonies made me want to write about it, oddly enough, and feeling like an interloper to urban life made me feel constantly anxious when outside. Those two things collided and my version of a near-future Midwest is what came out.

11. What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

Brody Calhoun is based on a certain individual in Greek mythology who also had a remarkably short fuse, Hercules. If my homework is correct, Hercules went through twelve trials. And if I’m to keep with that theme, Brody should experience twelve trials as well. We cover just one in Knuckleduster. That leaves eleven more . . .

Thanks!
Goat

#43 David Rees

2012-10-15T22:07:00.001-04:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FORTY THREE

David Rees

David is one of the first authors that I saw a review about in some magazine and then couldn't stop running across his book, How to Sharpen Pencils, in the bookstore. It felt like I couldn't go into a bookstore without seeing the book, so I had to seek him out, and I'm glad I did. I loved reading about him, and his interview is a treat! Thanks, David!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

John Darnielle feeling sad.

2. Let's just start this with "How to Sharpen Pencils," you're honestly making money sharpening pencils? About how many have you sharpened for money at this point?

I've sharpened about 800 pencils for clients around the world.

3. What's one of your favorite pencil facts that you want to share with the Mourning Goats audience?

American pencil consumption increased 6.8% from 2010 to 2011.

4. Every time I see your book in the store, I think to myself, "that's awesome, he's really rocking pencils," how do you explain your success?

My goal was to celebrate the common #2 pencil as a nostalgic object and a highly engineered communication tool. I think people are happy to be reminded of how cool pencils are.

5. I love that you referred to your books as "coded memoirs," did your close friends and/or ex, get that sense from the book?

My ex-wife really liked the book and picked up on a bunch of references that most readers won't pick up on.

6. Are you living back in the city again? I read in one interview you said that the pencil-sharpening period of your life might be coming to a close after moving back.

I live in Beacon, NY but I take the train to NYC fairly often.

7. It feels as though you have specific blocks of your life and personality in each of the projects that you take on, your books, your stand-up, and your comics, care to comment on that?

I think I get interested in different things and then I explore them until something else comes along and attracts my interest.

8. Speaking of your comic, "Get Your War On," when you first started it, you were listening to slow-jams, like Jodeci and R.Kelly, is music a large influence of your work?

I listen to music a fair amount. Usually when I'm writing I'll listen to a single song over and over again. I probably listened to "The Box" by Johnny Flynn around 700 times while writing How to Sharpen Pencils.

9. I love how much emphasis you put on the importance of language and professionalism in your humor writing. Where did this come from?

I've always liked language. When I was a kid I would make up fake words and say them over and over again. It drove my parents crazy. Then I studied philosophy, and a lot of 20th century philosophy is about language and the use of language.

10. When Rolling Stone contacted you about putting the comic in their magazine, how did you feel? I couldn't imagine Rolling Stone calling me and saying, "Hi, we love what you do, want to do it for us?"

I was excited. I really liked being in Rolling Stone. It made me happy when people would write to say they read my comic while waiting in the dentist's office.

11. What was it like self-publishing a book and then getting it released by Soft Skull?

Self-publishing can be rewarding, but it's a lot of work. Soft Skull did a great job with the first GYWO book. They sent me out on a pretty extensive tour, and I had a blast.

12. I'm so impressed abut you giving away around $100,000 from your "Get Your War On" profits. Do you think that doing this set you up for future success, especially working for the census?

Well, it set me up for working for the census insofar as I had no money.

13. How did John Hodgman end up doing the forward to "How to Sharpen Pencils?"

John is an old friend and a supporter of ArtisanalPencilSharpening.com. He's a great writer who can balance funny writing with sincere writing, so he was the first person I asked to write the foreword.

14. You cut out an entire chapter about mechanical pencils from your book, can it be found anywhere? It makes sense to cut it, but I'm sure people would be interested in your thoughts.

It was an extended analysis of different mechanical pencils available at my local Rite-Aid. It was very detailed and very boring.

15. How long does it usually take to sharpen a pencil? I guess each technique is different?

I can sharpen, document, and pack about four pencils per hour. Five, if I'm in the zone. Different techniques take different amounts of time -- the technique that takes longest is using a knife.

16. Have you heard from a lot of your earlier fans from "Get Your War On" coming and reaching out when they read "How to Sharpen Pencils? What's that like?

Not really. I assume most people don't make the connection between GYWO and my pencil sharpening business. The vibe is pretty different.

17. What's your writing process like? Do you write every day?

Procrastinate, procrastinate, panic, write.

18. One of the funniest things I read was that you don't use pencils too much because your left handed, does it make you sad? A little ironic (don't ya think)?

It doesn't make me sad, but when I was younger it would frustrate me to get pencil smudges all over the side of my hand. I was jealous of my right-handed friends.

19. We know that you've been a cartoonist, writer, census worker, and pencil-sharpener (as noted on your wikipedia page), but what other positions have you held? Do you feel like they've made you the writer you are, today?

I've had lots of jobs over the years-- office jobs, teaching jobs, cleaning jobs, temp jobs. I spent two years working for a corneal surgeon; that was interesting.

20. What's next for David Rees?

I have a project I'm working on that makes me more excited than anything I've done in years. It will be a 90-second video that will make you very happy, I promise. That's all I can say about it.

Thank you!

Goat

#42 Suzy Vitello

2012-07-15T00:00:00.003-04:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FORTY TWO

Suzy Vitello

Suzy is another writer out of the Portland, Oregon writing group touting Chelsea Cain, Monica Drake, Lidia Yuknavitch, and many others. She's great and after reading the interview you should go find as much as you can by her! Enjoy!

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

Grieving livestock.

2. What's the deal with your writing group? What's different about it that so many of you are getting so much press?

It’s a crazy Zeitgeist, isn’t it? To have so many writers in one group achieve best-sellerdom and critical acclaim? I think there’s an element of luck, but the other thing is, the members of my writers’ group are incredibly hard-working and disciplined. For the most part, we’re workaholics with strong personalities, big dreams, all smothered in that famous quirky Portland vibe.

3. I completely agree with the line on your website, "Everything I write is a love story of one type or another," what does that mean to you?

What I mean by that rather lofty statement is: stories are a writer’s particular vehicle to exploring universal humanity.

That said, I’ll tell you a funny story. Recently, I was trying to extract my domain name from a notoriously evil domain management principal who shall go unnamed. He was jerking me around, so I had to throw the ICANN rules in his face—which state, if the domain owner wants a registrar to release a domain (and issue the magic release code) they must do so within 5 days. He wrote back that my tagline was a lie, and that I should change it to “almost everything I write is a love story.” Score one for the asshole.

4. Your work is represented by Melissa Sarver, over at The Elizabeth Kaplan Literary Agency, how did that happen? Do you think having an agent is necessary?

As far as how it happened, the usual: tenacity, rejection, more tenacity. I ventured into the world of YA with my EMPRESS CHRONICLES novel, and I really had no leads for YA agents, so I researched, queried, and after a couple of months landed Melissa, who has tirelessly helped me through two subsequent drafts of my book.

And yes, though the times they are a-changin’ in publishing, at this writing, an agent is still a writer’s best advocate to significant publication. However, my friends who chose different paths (self-pubbing and small press) have been pretty satisfied with their choices.

5. You're leading a 6-week online workshop, over at LitReactor. What's going on with this and how did you get involved?

My friend, colleague and, back when she did that sort of thing, agent, Erin Reel, pitched me to them. I have worked as an editor and a sort of coach and “prose therapist” in small group and one-on-one settings for several years. I love it! Really, getting the toolbox out and getting under the chassis of a project with its author is exhilarating.

LItReactor is a terrific craft resource. The folks taking my class are from all over—Australia, Prague, Canada, various U.S. cities---and they’re so enthusiastic about getting their writing in kick-ass top-notch form. The infrastructure itself—the backend, if you will—is one of the best I’ve used. Intuitive, easy to navigate.

6. Do you think that Facebook, Twitter, and websites are needed tools in writer's toolboxes, nowadays?

Absolutely. It’s where all the buzz is being spread now. That said, it’s so easy to get sucked into the constantness of it. There’s this really funny Portlandia skit where Fred gets trapped in a technology loop: the various devices and mediums—you can become an air traffic controller of infinitesimal minutiae. All these writers tweeting about how they’re not writing. And God forbid you forget to post Happy Birthday upon the Wall of someone’s Facebook. That shit can keep you up at night.

7. You talked a lot about branding last year on your website, was that because you were re-doing your own brand, or because it's something people need to realize earlier on, or both?

I’ve spent the last decade in communications: writing content for websites, ads, packaging, and working with companies, small businesses and nonprofits on building their businesses, so talking about branding is an occupational hazard. My first copywriting gigs were directed at hedge fund managers. Talk about your shark-infested waters. Those guys gobble each other up for breakfast.

As my colleague and web-designer Julia Stoops says, “Information is cheap—it’s attention that’s become expensive.” So the elements of voice, specificity of language, depth and freshness of character and plot, all those things need to be delivered in an identifiable visual brand now in order to rise to the top of the heap. That brand needs to permeate web, social, bookcovers, even in-person events. My friend Lidia stripped down to her bathing suit on her book tour for CHRONOLOGY OF WATER. Swear.

8. Would you consider yourself a short story writer, or a novelist?

After WHO WILL RUN THE FROG HOSPITAL? came out, I heard Lorrie Moore answer a similar question in a lecture q & a. She said something about throwing a stick for a dog. If it comes back right away, it’s a story. If the dog takes it and runs with it, it’s a novel.

So far, I’ve had more publishing success with my stories, but that’s about to change. It better change. Will it ever change?

9. You have three kids and two step-kids, how do you make time to write, let alone blog, be social, and answer interviews?

The kid part is not a problem. Only one of the five is still underfoot, and he’s just turned the corner to the You must knock before entering my room phase, so mostly it’ll just be about sporadic redirection and begging him to play the occasional game of Yahtzee with us.

Like many writers building a career, the multiple-hats thing, well, there’s no getting around it. You’re either teaching, editing, promoting, fixing your car, getting a mammogram, building a chicken coop, getting your cardio in. The trick is to develop a regimen where you do your writing when you’re most creative and alive. For most people that’s early morning. For me, it’s after I’ve taken a long, sweaty walk.

10. What do you do when you're not writing? Can you tell us about BridgePoint Creative?

I started BridgePoint Creative with one of my best friends, Laura McCulloch. It was a sort of Rhoda spin-off of the Mary Tyler Moore Show in that Laura and I got our start in communications working for Laura’s East Coast sister Cynthia for several years. We decided to open our own shop because we wanted to concentrate on West Coast businesses, and focus on nonprofit and lifestyle clients.

At the end of 2011, I made the very difficult decision to leave BridgePoint in order to focus on writing and writing-related projects. I still do a bit of freelance copywriting work for BridgePoint and other agencies, under my own DBA, Words in a Hurry. I do the love the expansive element of agency-client work, but I’ve cut way back on it in order to focus on writing.

11. You were a writer-in-residence at Fishtrap about 10 years ago, what was that like? Would you do something like that again?

Was it really 10 years ago? I guess it was! My life was a chaotic mess then. I was struggling to leave a marriage, raise my three kids (one of whom was then a toddler), and go to grad school. Oh yeah, and make enough money to pay for health insurance. Which I needed, because my kids came down with every illness imaginable in those years. In fact, the three months I was out in Joseph doing Fishtrap, they were sicker than ever. We’re talking ambulance rides down icy lanes, and major pharmies—it was a bit like Little House on the Prairie: blizzards, plagues, locusts, though nobody, thank goodness, went blind.

Sick kids aside, the experience was magical. I got to teach in all the various Wallowa County schools—including two one-room schoolhouses, and I met genuine, fantastic, unjaded, kind people. A farmer set me up with root vegetables, another made sure I got an invitation to all the community gatherings; I learned how to make tamales; I skied and ice-skated and built fires from massive chunks of aged oak.

Yes, I would do it again. Once my youngest child graduates high school, I’d love to take my husband (not the one I finally left—the new one) out there and hole up in that riverside cabin, write, snowshoe, teach. It would be heavenly.

12. You have two books on your website, currently, what genre would you categorize your writing?

Why, love stories, goat, you know that! Not romance, exactly, not straight YA, not chic-lit, not quite literary—I suppose that’s my trouble. I’m not an easy one to categorize. Which is a big no-no in branding, isn’t it. What I can say is that my core audience, for both books I’ve written, is most likely 15 – 60-yr-old women. I think that voice-driven YA and NA (New Adult—newish term), which I believe is my sweet spot, definitely has a crossover audience. My EMPRESS CHRONICLES book could easily be described as typical YA, age-wise. The protagonist is 14 at the beginning of the book and 16 at the end. However, I would LOVE to write at least a trilogy with that character. Sisi was a real historic figure who led a fascinating life during a memorable time in recent history. I would relish the opportunity to take my fantastical version of her life story as far as they’d let me.

13. The blog that you have written from the viewpoint of your character Princess Sisi is something I haven't seen, what made you start doing that?

It was a fun, sort of scavenger-hunt way into the research, at first. But the bigger draw for me ties into my background. I’ve lived in a lot of places, especially early on in life. I got good at appropriating accents and colloquialisms. Blogging in-persona is an outgrowth of my compensatory habit of character assumption. And, you know, I’m a Gemini, so there you have it.

14. You've been up in Portland since 2008. It seems to be the art capitol of the West Coast, what's the draw?

Actually, Goat, I’ve lived in Portland since 1989. I came here on a lark, fell in love with that big beautiful mountain that you can see from any clear hilltop, and I’ll never leave.

I know there’s this ongoing Portland/Brooklyn spar for über hipdom (and I have to be careful here, because my agent lives in Brooklyn), but Portland is the least derivative place I’ve ever been. The folks here do what they do in defiance of norm or trend. The spirit of authenticity in Portland is as contagious as a February flu.

15. You did NANOWRIMO back in 2008,what was the biggest thing you learned from it?

Not to do it again.

16. It says on your Google+ page that you went to Antioch University for your MFA, what do you think about the teaching of creative writing?

My Google+ page, eh? So that’s what it’s good for! The MFA program at Antioch Los Angeles was, is, amazing. I made life-long friendships, worked with brilliant people, and was able to fit it into my working mom life because it was a non-residency program. Plus, I got to leave Portland’s rather gloomy Decembers three times, for ten days a pop and stroll amid orange trees.

As far as “teaching” creative writing, there certainly is craft to be learned, but the main reason to do an MFA or take any workshop or class in creative writing is to formalize the decision to write. Many people need that permission and encouragement, and in some cases, it provides a catalyst to embrace their more real selves.

17. What's your draw to 1800's fashion/lifestyle/etc.?

The first six years of my life was spent scurrying along behind my mother on the streets of Vienna. If you believe the stuff about the way a brain develops and how early impressions shape later aesthetics, I suppose that’s what draws me to all of that fancy stuff.

I’ve become obsessed with the art and fashion of historic mainstream production, however. I think my cells rearrange when I gawk at the stylish Mad Men scenes or, lately, Downtown Abbey. The outfits and fabrics and style, they are my porn.

Truly, though, most days I shove my hair into pigtails, pull on my yoga pants and that’s it—my daily ensemble. Though I did just drop a pretty penny on a couple of mid-century chairs.

18. I saw that you sent your work in progress to your kindle, last year, for your own review. How do you think e-readers are going to change literature?

You can “see” stuff like that? Really? Jesus. Yes, I wanted to get a feel for what an e-book version of my book would look like. Really, with historically-based fiction, the possibilities of linking to “value add” info and pictures would be limitless! In fact, I’d love to see THE EMPRESS CHRONICLES ultimately as a multi-media e-book—it would be another way to repurpose all those Empress Sisi blog posts and Pinterest boards!

When e-readers accomplish the full spectrum of their worthiness, I see them becoming the link that keeps literature from dying the death of the stone tablet. Millions of kids are growing up in front of screens, my son included. I think electronic devices will replace paperbound books in the classroom completely within the next 15 – 20 years.

19. What's your writing process like? Do you outline, write straight through, what's it look like?

My writing process, like my mind, is a complete mess. Nobody should take notes from me on process! I use an outline just so I can rebel against something. So I can say, “Fuck you, I’m not doing that.”

Really, what’s most sacred to me about the process is the magic that happens when you follow a depth of inquiry. Picture walking down a dark hallway with your candelabra, and seeing something half-formed; fleshing it out. You stumble upon the reveal, and then construct the search party that led you there. A real daisy-stitch.

20. January 2nd, 2009, you wrote an awesome post on your blog, about publishing goals and a little story about the author of Fight Club, what are your big goals for this year?

Three years ago I was preaching aim high! Go for it! Do it! Today, I’m about finishing things. Being thorough. I have resolved to dig deeper in my work, nurture, nest and, finally, to celebrate the success of rereading something I wrote and being satisfied, at long last. In concrete terms, I want to sell both of my novels to editors who get down on their knees and promise to love, honor and cherish. The size of the rock doesn’t matter. Lofty, eh?

Thank you!
Goat

#41 Shya Scanlon

2012-07-01T00:00:00.001-04:00

20 Questions with Mourning Goats

INTERVIEW FORTY ONE

Shya Scanlon

Shya is awesome. He's written poetry, fiction, and just had his novel, Forcast, come out, again. We'll get to that. It's my pleasure to introduce you to someone that wears a lot of hats at a lot of different organizations, and an all around great guy.

1. What comes to mind when you hear, "Mourning Goats?"

Those goats that fall over when scared. Or are they sheep? I don’t remember the species, exactly, but have you seen those crazy videos? I think it’s fainting. Fainting goats. Though I don’t think they’re actually fainting, they’re just pretending, so maybe they should be called feinting goats instead. Hell, maybe they are called feinting goats. Or swooning. Swooning is similar to mourning. At least we’re in the same vowel-sound ballpark. But which one is more literal?

2. When I first came to you, last year, you said that you would like to wait for the interview, when your book was coming out again. How did that come in to play?

Well, first of all, thank you very much for humoring me. I asked for the extension for a couple of reasons. When you contacted me, it was just after another interview had gone live, and I figured no one would be interested in hearing me blather on again so soon. But also I felt like there needed to be an occasion. Call me old fashioned. Honestly, it seems strange to speak about myself as a writer, despite the fact that I’ve spent the last couple years working on a new novel. I’ve been pretty reclusive lately, going to very few readings, not visiting the go-to online literary communities like HTMLGiant, Big Other, The Nervous Breakdown (except to publish other people’s reviews), etc. I’m a naturally gregarious person, but I find that participation in those venues leads me to be more self-conscious, and is a detriment to my work. Perhaps I’ll dip my toes back in a bit once I’ve finished my book, but answering these questions is exercising a rather atrophied muscle.

3. You have some pretty heavy hitters blurbing your first book, including Peter Straub and Brian Evenson, how did that happen?

Brian was my thesis advisor at Brown, so he read an earlier version of the book and helped me make it better. I met Peter through my friendship with his daughter, the very kind and talented Emma Straub, whose first published book was a novella put out by Flatmancrooked. Strangely, I’d originally become aware of Peter because Brian had brought him in to read at Brown, and I quickly discovered that he was a supporter of the kind of literature people alternately call “slipstream,” or “cross-genre,” or, more broadly, “speculative,” and had edited an issue of the fantastic journal Conjunctions dedicated to “The New Fabulists.” I had a hunch that he’d enjoy Forecast, so I put it in his hands. I couldn’t have been happier, or more surprised, with his superlative comments about the book.

4. What did the John Hawkes Prize mean to your career?

Very little. John Hawkes is probably one of the most under-read literary titans of the second half of the 20^th century. Most people probably assume that it’s associated with the actor from Deadwood. That said, it was nice to get the award.

5. Originally, Forecast was serialized across multiple sites, is it still available online or was it taken off once it was published?

Well, most of it is still available (http://shyascanlon.com/forecast/), but some of the sites have since been taken down. It’s been a while since I went through and checked, but last I did I believe all chapters but two or three are still available. It’s an interesting archive—the book changed considerably since that serialization. A big press would probably have asked me to take it down, but both the presses I’ve worked with so far haven’t even questioned its digital life—I think there’s a tacit acknowledgment among the small press community that what was born online should remain there, at least in the form it was first given.

6. You had a lot of contact with your agent before she accepted you on, what happened?

I met Erin Hosier socially, though I didn’t know her very well, and she actually passed on Forecast. She ended up taking on another book, called Uno Che at the time (it has since been renamed Border Run), but couldn’t sell it. We received the usual talented-writer-unsellable-book crap from maybe a dozen people, then decided to shelf the project. I felt it might need some more work, anyway… (For a continued discussion of this topic, see question #20.)

7. What was it like writing a dystopian novel, is it scary to see that kind of future?

Well, is it scary to look around yourself at our world? Yes and no. Some of the issues we face are indeed terrifying to consider or logically extend, but you can’t live your life in a state of panic. At least, not your sheltered, middle class life. And that’s what most of the people in Forecast live. Honestly, I’m discovering that this is really “my subject”—something I return to in book after book. The question of how people live with large scale atrocity or imminent cataclysm in the background, but with rather banal, interpersonal and/or internal issues to deal with in the meantime. I try to push these things into relief more than they are in reality, but it’s an attempt to establish something that should be familiar. At least, it’s familiar to me.

8. Your undergraduate degree is in Germanic Studies from Earlham College, what did you originally want to do with that degree?

Read Nietzsche. Honestly, getting a German degree was just my way of returning to college, which I dropped out of after the first semester. I just couldn’t think of a good reason to go, but I’d always enjoyed German thinkers and writers, and I thought learning a language and travelling to Germany could do the trick. I spent six months over there, and actually picked up the language pretty well. Though I didn’t end up reading any Nietzsche, I did read some wonderful work in the original, including books by Kafka. Anyway, by the time I got back from the study-abroad program my only option was to major in German if I wanted to graduate without taking additional coursework, so I did. Barely. Actually, I’m quite certain I should have failed, had my professors judged me by the books. I think they felt sorry for me. I was a lousy student, and very depressed throughout those years. Thanks for bringing that up!

9. An MFA from Brown in 2008, what do you think of MFA's? Are they necessary for a budding author?

Certainly not necessary. Brown is free. You get a living stipend. They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

10. Do you think serializing the novel got you to write it differently? Do you think it would have been the same novel if you went at it in a more traditional way?

Actually, I didn’t write the thing while it was being serialized. That would have been quite a feat! No, I’d spent nearly seven years writing the book by the time I decided to give it away. I’d frankly had quite traditional aspirations for it throughout much of that time, as I mistakenly considered it quite mainstream. Of course by the time of the serialization the eyes of my eyes, as cummings wrote, were open.

11. Who’s your first reader? Why?

Literally, my first reader is myself. Once I finish something I put it down for a while—as long as I can stand—then read it again with as much objectivity as possible. (Which is to say: none. But I try.) Of course, you’re probably asking about someone other than myself. And for that I’d have to say my wife Erin Flaherty. She’s got a great ear, but as importantly, she knows exactly what kind of feedback I need at the moment.

12. What are you scared of seeing happen in the future?

This is one of those questions that can only be answered by picking something at random. There are innumerable things I’m scared of, and most of them could happen in the future. But rather than site something specific, I’ll answer generally: the deepest tragedy I can think of would be for humans to lose our humanity, and then forget that we’d ever possessed it.

13. What's it like working for The Nervous Breakdown?

TNB is a very tightly knit community of hundreds of people. Paradoxical as that may sound, one has the singular sense, being part of it, that one’s in the company of both a closely connected crew, and a vast swarm. It’s gone through some pretty dramatic changes during the time I’ve been involved—each time growing more professional—but it’s always been an interesting project. And of course with the tireless Brad Listi at the helm, how could it be otherwise? I started as one of the fiction editors, but then my interests (and the fact that I was already a fiction editor with Monkeybicycle) led me to splinter off and form an official Book Reviews section, which Brad has let me run and develop fairly autonomously. Being a reviews editor has been enormously gratifying—not only do I get to provide coverage for books I find deserving, but I get to work with a varied stable of smart people who read voraciously. The free galleys don’t hurt either.

14. Do you write every day? It seems as though that's important to most.

I try to. Right now I’m in the midst of revising a novel I finished at the end of the year, and I spend a couple hours on it every morning before work. On the weekends, I’ve been renovating a cabin in Woodstock, so I haven’t been able to devote as much time as I normally would to it, but actually, I’m writing this now from the porch of that very cabin, which, aside from a couple small details, is finally finished. I’m taking this coming week off work to “catch up” with where I should be, revision-wise.

15. I feel like those who were poets first choose their words wiser than the rest of us, what do you think about that? Do you agree?

What I can tell you is that my own experience with poetry has actually been something I’ve had to consciously overcome in order to write the kind of fiction I’d like to write. An over-emphasis on words led me to write far too much prose with underdeveloped characters, settings, scenes, and story.

16. In 2010 you got engaged, published your first poetry book, published your first novel, and bought a house, how could you beat that year?

I’m going to answer this seriously. I hope that I’m always learning how to be a better human—a more conscientious spouse, a more responsible citizen, a better friend, a kick-ass-er writer. But I’m also chronically self-critical. You seem to be paraphrasing a Facebook post in which I may have rattled these accomplishments off in some attempt to remind myself that I’m doing okay. Mostly that’s not the way I feel. This is one of the things I’m trying to improve.

17. I see that your book is on Kindle, what do you think of the e-book revolution?

I don’t have strong feelings about it one way or another. I think if people spent half as much time writing and reading as they do quibbling about the relative merits of text delivery systems, we’d all be better off.

18. What's it been like working with different presses, do you notice a lot of big differences?

There have been small differences, sure. And at root, republishing something is probably a different animal than publishing it for the first time—though of course it was never for the first time with Forecast, because it had already debuted online. But generally, all people who volunteer their time, attention, and paycheck to make sure books with inherently small audiences are nonetheless available have more in common than not. And God bless them.

19. Before you leave, tell us about MonkeyBicycle.

MB has been around long enough to weather different literary fads, yet has remained true to its voice. Ultimately, it’s Steven Seighman’s baby. He does it with much love, he does it with devotion, and he does it at his own speed. I think of each issue of Monkeybicycle as an event—one I’m happy to play a role in. In fact, issue 9 just dropped, and is extremely good. The best way to learn more about it than that is to check out the website (updated twice weekly), and buy a copy.

20. What's next for Shya Scanlon?

(con’t from #6) A couple months ago, a writer and editor named Zack Wentz solicited work from me for his online journal of speculative fiction called New Dead Families. Instead of sending him a story, I sent him a short novel called Border Run. Despite needed a little work, I thought it would be great fun to post the entire thing, and to offer it as a free downloadable ebook. He wasn’t quite certain it would be a good idea until he read the book, and in the intervening weeks has helped me fix much of what was wrong with the manuscript, such that I’m finally really quite happy with it. I think it will go live early this month (July), and I couldn’t be more pleased. I’m including a synopsis below, but I encourage anyone reading this to go to www.newdeadfamilies.com and download a copy (available in both .mobi and .pdf formats). It’s free! Free fiction! And I’ve been told it’s “maybe brilliant.”

UNO CHE is a dystopian story of love, loss and redemption set on border of Arizona and Mexico. Jack Lightning is the proprietor of a theme park about illegal border crossing. While trying to keep his business running smoothly and preparing, despite the suspiciously gathering Native American protesters across the street, for an annual fair on the grounds of his park, Jack’s ex-girlfriend Jo shows up, accompanied by a stranger who asks to use Jack's land as a cover for smuggling area illegal alien into the country--the clone of Che Guevara. As long-held secrets are revealed on the day of the festival, both Jack and Jo’s allegiances will be tried, and they will face difficult decisions about their family, and the future.

Thank you!

Goat