Frequently Asked Questions

Who or what are your influences?

Authors-

Jim Thompson, James M. Cain, Edgar Allen Poe, Richard Matheson, Italo Calvino, Kobo Abe, Steve Erickson, Mark Danielewski, Kobo Abe, Will Christopher Baer, Seth Morgan, James Ellroy, Michael Hogan, John O'Brien, Michael Ventura, Rupert Thomson

Specific Books-

White Jazz, Homeboy, Shella, Leaving Las Vegas, Stripper Lessons, Man Out of Time, The Postman Always Rings Twice, If On A Winter's Night A Traveler, The Woman in the Dunes, Rubicon Beach, Tours of the Black Clock, House of Leaves, Kiss Me, Judas, Pop. 1280, The Killer Inside Me, The Zoo Where You're Fed to God.

Is your work autobiographical?

No.

Why won't you look at reader submissions?

First, for legal reasons. Writers can't risk having someone sue them for an alleged breach of copyright because that someone sent an unsolicited manuscript to the writer, then decides x years later that the writer stole their idea. I know, you'd never do such a thing but trust me, somebody else would.

Second, be honest with yourself-- are you looking for criticism or approval? If you need criticism (and we all do), there's plenty of resources. If you're looking for approval, then stop writing. No matter how good you are, publication will be followed by at least some negative reviews, nasty mail, and possibly scathing single-stars on Amazon (anonymously posted). Those public floggings are the downside of the job, but still a fact of the writing life. If you need approval and encouragement to keep writing, then those things are going to kill you when you're finally in print.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

Dispensing writing advice makes me uncomfortable, for the simple reason that I'm still learning; making it up as I go. I keep Strunk & White, the Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam-Webster's within arm's length at all times, because the basics continue to elude me. I maintain elaborate checklists for drafts-- adverbs, adjectives, transitional images, degrees of tension and plot points, passive verbs, overused words, subject-verb agreement, that versus which, separate scripts for my dialogue-- and I continue to work that way because I still struggle to remember the basics. But I triple check all of those things because I don't think I'll have the chance to do it again.

I keep a note tacked to my machine that says, This is the last book you will ever write. That's not some motivational carrot on a stick, but something I truly believe with each book. I don't have a career; I have one last novel, so I have to get it right.

So, if I have any advice at all, it's to write every story like it's your last.

What's your process/writing schedule?

Start with a brainload of ideas-- people, settings, situations, 'what ifs'- and shotgun write (keep my fingers moving on the machine for small blocks of time and write without stopping or thinking). Around 20,000 words, a story will coalesce, so I set those 20,000 words aside to start researching and outlining. Most of what's written during this phase will never see the light of day, it's just to get me thinking in the right direction.

I wrote the Handbook in successive, linear drafts; Dermaphoria's been my problem child. I trashed the first draft, and wrote most of a second from scratch, working in a straight line but, I've been re-writing isolated chapters out of order and in different degrees. I'll spend a whole day with the manuscript, reworking single sentences or paragraphs throughout a day of pacing, reading, staring at the walls, and occasionally (more frequently of late) kicking a wastebasket or hurling my notebook.