1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
I think the publication of Ghosts Caught on Film made me switch gears a bit, to the point where I took myself more seriously as a writer. It gave me more confidence, too, with trying out different literary genres, e.g., crime stories, horror pieces, etc.
2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
Fiction was what I read primarily growing up, so it was also my first idea of writing as a genre (as opposed to poetry or CNF or drama). I remember being invited to a Young Authors conference in Arkansas, back in fifth grade, and I'm pretty sure that invitation attached itself to how I identified creatively.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
I'm an exceptionally slow writer. Ideas are plentiful, though, and I've got lots and lots of little, half-started projects saved on my hard drive. The initial writing always comes quickly, but it's only in the extensive revisions and subsequent drafts that I start to figure out what a project should ultimately look like.
4 - Where does a work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
I've completed and shelved a couple of novel drafts already, projects that I'll never try to get published (because I know how bad they are), but I've learned to approach those novel drafts as novels, and my short stories and essays in their own rights, respectively. The idea of trying to put those smaller pieces together into a collection doesn't really come up until I have enough of them that I can stitch together thematically or stylistically, and I think it's important that I keep those distinctions.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I don't seek out public readings, but I'm always happy to join in on them, if I'm invited. In terms of what their relationship is to my creative process, I don't see them as being personally essential, like what open mics are in comedy to being a comedian, but I absolutely respect that a lot of writers see those readings as important to their revision strategies.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
I think it's important that I try out something new with each project I work on. That's my only requirement. If I'm not trying to flex and test out a new muscle, I'm atrophying.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
I don't think I'm smart enough to answer this question.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I think every good writing project lives or dies on having a good editor associated with it. Even if this editor is just someone from the author's writing group or a fellow writer, their revision suggestions are probably going to help the author reframe the trajectory of the work, or at least fine-tune it. Because I know I'm probably the least aware person of how solid my work is, I'd say that having an outside editor is essential to the process.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
The best piece of advice I've encountered concerning writing is probably the old adage from Stephen King, out of his second craft book, On Writing. I'm probably paraphrasing it here, but the gist is: If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write. So while I acknowledge the fact that I'm a slow writer, I'm also an avid reader, and I know that provides the basis of whatever skill set I might have.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (short stories to essays)? What do you see as the appeal?
I like seeing fiction and creative nonfiction as two totally separate vehicles. If I'm ever stuck on a short story, I know I can always go work on an essay or flash CNF piece, or vice-versa. I'm pretty sure the only reason I don't ever have "writer's block" is because I'm able to work in two separate genres.
11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I don't write every day, probably because I'm not disciplined enough, but I am fortunate in that I have a regular writing schedule due to my commute. I live in Massachusetts and work in Boston, and my train to & from work has tables (where I can set up my laptop) and shitty wi-fi, and that combination makes it hard for me to catch up on work emails or grade papers, but it's an excellent, disconnected period each day where I can get some proper writing done.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
I think I mentioned this above, but I don't really get stalled or have "writer's block." This is probably because I'm able to move over from Fiction to Creative Nonfiction, back and forth, depending on what my attention span is capable of that day.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Magnolia
14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
I worked for hospitals and clinics for years, so a lot of my writing is informed by medicine and science. A lot of times, just a random phenomenon in science or medicine serves as the basis for my stories or essays. I'll wind up exploring as much as I can about that phenomenon, and then the story or framework of the CNF piece will bloom out from there.
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
This ties into a previous response, too, but I think it's absolutely essential that I read as much as I can from whichever genre I want to work in at the time. I'm trying my hand right now at a crime novel set in Arkansas, where I'm from, so I've been reading a hell of a lot of southern crime writers. Folks like Kelly J. Ford, S.A. Cosby, Daniel Woodrell, Laura McHugh, Brian Panowich, and the like.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Honestly, I'd love to run a bookstore-bar combination joint someday, but I don't think I'll ever have the money to pull that off. It's nice, though, to dream about owning a place where people can come in, grab a tasty beverage, read for awhile, and then take home a book they've found themselves immersed in for the last couple of cocktails.
17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I don't think of myself as a professional writer. (I'm not good enough at it to pull that off.) Instead, I'm a teacher who happens to work at a university, and I do that labor to support my family and my writing. But if I wasn't involved in education, I would have continued on to medical school, which was the original plan. I would have been a physician who wrote in what little spare time there was, like Ethan Canin or Michael Crichton.
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
There was never any other consideration. Writing has always been a practice that's felt instinctual, not optional.
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
One recent-ish book that most stands out to me in terms of being great, both in scope and ability, is Rita Chang-Eppig's Deep As the Sky, Red as the Sea. Chang-Eppig essentially set out to reclaim the story of the Chinese pirate queen, Shek Yeung, and elevate it from a footnote in history to its rightful place as a legend, and she absolutely pulled it off.
And while I didn't see a lot of movies in 2023, I did get the chance to watch Emma Seligman's Bottoms, which she and Rachel Sennott wrote. If you haven't seen it, it's about two girls (Sennott and Ayo Edebri) who start a fight club at their high school, so they can get close to and attract the girls they're interested in. Their whole scheme fails spectacularly, and the film is ridiculously, ludicrously self-aware.
20 - What are you currently working on?
I'm modifying & switching out some essays from a collection I'm currently shopping around, and I'm also working on my first crime novel, which is set in Arkansas. Fingers crossed.
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
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