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1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
My first book was very gratifying, but it also made me realize this is a business. You have to work to write something you care about, and then work to get it out to people. Guns Across the River is more polished and has been a terrific experience.
2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
Reading what my parents had around the house. Crime novels, mostly.
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?
Guns Across the River took three or four months for the first draft, about the same for revisions, and then a month of editing.
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 worked both ways, but mostly I set out to write novels.
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 mind doing readings.
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?
The story always comes first.
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?
No idea!
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I love editors. Derek Fairbridge at Harbour has caught some terrific gaffes.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
“You have to start on insufficient knowledge.” It was in a Robert Frost documentary my American Lit prof showed us.
10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
Up at 4:30, at work into the afternoon, walk, teach or tend to business.
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Mostly books, both in my genre or far-flung.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Coffee and tea.
13 - 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?
All those things are interesting.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Ross Macdonald and John D MacDonald are both influences.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Pay off my mortgage.
16 - 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?
Film editor or piano player.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
It’s really fun. And cheap!
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
James Kaplan’s Frank: the Voice and Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. I really liked the new Naked Gun.
19 - What are you currently working on?
Screenplays, film articles, and procrastinating my way towards a new novel.
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
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