1: What is the most productive
time of the day for you to write?
My friend, the author Joe
Lansdale, gets up early every morning and writes. I've tried to do that, and it
just doesn't work well for me. I do my best writing late at night. I have a
couple of theories to explain it, and I think each has some truth to it. First,
especially with the DUTCH CURRIDGE novel, I am dealing with a protagonist who
is decidedly a night person, who hangs out in the jazz clubs and bars of early
1950s Fort Worth and sees very little use in an early morning. So, I think, to
get into his mindset, I do better in keeping those late night hours when most
normal people are home in bed.
The other factor that probably
plays into it is the fact that I, myself, am a musician, and over years of
playing places from New Orleans to Texas, I conditioned my own creativity
toward those late night hours. Even when I am not playing gigs now, my body
clock seems to lean that way. One thing that Dutch and I have in common: our
days seem to serve best as lead-ups to the nights.
2: Do you start your projects
writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?
I still use paper and pen to
write down ideas, to organize thoughts and get things started. But once I sit
down and start grinding it out, it's all on the computer. Having said that, I
find that the computer gets every bit as unorganized as having various
notebooks, loose bits and pieces of paper ever did. The computer makes it so
easy to experiment, to cut and paste and do and redo, that I end up with a
dozen different files in half a dozen locations, all telling the same story in
different ways. So I'm not yet convinced that the computer simplifies anything
except for the research side of things.
3: What do you draw inspiration
from?
The people around me and the
stories they tell. I am very much a southern storyteller. More specifically, a Texas
storyteller. DUTCH CURRIDGE could not be set anywhere else. And even though I
don't live in Fort Worth, that certain, peculiar Texas mindset holds. I know
the characters because I see people like them every day. I grew up with them.
They're family, in lots of instances.
And I know the feel and the smell
and the way everything is built before I know the characters and the way they
think. When I was getting my degree in Creative Writing, my professor, Dr. John
McDermott, always pushed the idea of "writing what you know." And I
took that to heart and never forgot it. I may not be just like Dutch.
Hopefully, I'm not. But I certainly know and understand the guy well enough.
4: Do you set goals for yourself
when you sit down to write such as word count?
I try to never let word count
enter my mind when I'm writing. If I do, the story becomes too conscious of
itself. My goal, when I sit down to write, is to write a scene. I think in
terms of scenes, and I don't like to stop before I've completed what I sat down
with. I don't always know exactly where the scene is going, in fact I seldom
do, so it leaves me enough freedom to get lost in the story for awhile. In a
way, it's like fighting a really long heavyweight boxing match. You go in and
take it one round at a time. You know when that particular round is over, you
get up and take a break, get ready for the bell to ring again. Don't think
about winning the match. Take each round as it comes, and then everything falls
into line.
5: Are you a published or a self
published author and how do you come up with your cover art?
I'm self-published. I was
conditioned as a musician to that punk ethos of doing it yourself and not
relying on other people to make you what you want to be. Maybe that's the
William Blake ethos. But I think people talk a lot about self-actualization and
sometimes do very little with it. Again, because of my background in music, I've
seen what happened in the recording industry, with the big companies losing
power to newer models that put more power in the hands of the musicians as well
as the listeners. And the record labels panicked and they are still fighting
tooth and nail, but they're on the wrong side of history. And I truly think the
publishing world is following suit.
As far as the cover art goes, I
had a great situation, because my wife Leela is an excellent photographer, and
I knew she could deliver something uniquely appropriate. I didn't want a
clichéd cover. You know, the dark rainy alleyway with the neon sign. We went
with a contemporary, color photograph depicting Dutch's childhood home, which
is a house he obsesses over in the book. And, of course, it's set at an angle
to represent his somewhat off-kilter view of things.
6: What drives you to choose the
career of being a writer?
I was a writer when I was eight
years old. I didn't know about careers then, and I still don't consciously
think of it in those terms. I just write and then hope there is somebody out
there who will enjoy reading it. I've written songs for almost forty years. I
guess it took longer than it should have to get this first novel cranked out.
7: Do you own an ebook reading
device?
No, but I will. I'm convinced
that it's the future. And, as much as I love to write about the past, I'm not
stuck there.
8: Who are some of your favorite
authors and What are you reading now?
The authors who made the greatest
impression on me were Mark Twain and Flannery O'Connor. I will never reach the
level of pure poetry that those two did. They set me on the path early. Amongst
contemporary writers, I like Stuart O'Nan, Denis Johnson. And my friend Joe R.
Lansdale. I think he's a great model, someone who has been writing for years
and who is still getting better.
As far as current reading goes,
I'm actually reading a collection of sestinas written by Christine
Butterworth-McDermott titled Tales On Tales. I love sestinas. I find that
reading and writing other forms like that helps to tune me up for writing
things like DUTCH. Something about the restrictive form brings out great
creativity. I want to write a collection of stomping gutbucket blues sestinas
someday.
9: What do you think of book
trailers and do you have any plans to have any?
I guess they have their place.
We've become such a visually-oriented society. Anything that brings attention
to written works has to be good. But I'm not a fan of the ones that recreate
scenes from the books. I've seen a few that were extremely well done, but I
hate being told, or even suggested, what I should be visualizing before I pick
up the book. To me, that is part of the author's job.
I have no plans to do anything
like that, although I can see the draw it could have for authors, to see their
characters come to life. I mean, it's as close as most of us would ever get to
having our stories on the silver screen.
10: How did you come up with the
title of your latest book?
It is named after the
first-person protagonist, a real larger-than-life character that I've lived
with for several years now. I briefly considered other titles, but this one
just chose itself and wouldn't let go. It was so obviously the right title that
I could make no argument.
11: What are you working on now
that you can talk about?
DUTCH CURRIDGE is the first in a
planned three-part series, so I am working on the second installment now. I
find that the second one starts at an elevated place and continues upward,
because of the foundation already being laid. I think the first book ends on a
slightly unsettled note, which opens up the story to go in some very unexpected
directions. Even I am excited to see where we wind up.
