Side Dishes

The Riverboat Interview

Talking The Current aboard the General Jackson for Nashville Public Television’s, A Word on Words. Sneak Peek pics

“It happened before the first game,” before the old man even got out of his warm-up jacket…shooting around one second, down on the floor the next, all lights all the way out. No pulse, no breath, no anything. One man’s wish come true . . .” Arrive Magazine

“Q: Did you know the direction the story was eventually going to take? A: I was writing about the father and son in the aftermath. I hadn’t written about the girl. I didn’t know if she was alive or not . . . ” Miami Herald Q&A with Connie Ogle

Can You Write A Novel While You Build A House?

“Three years later, with a few published stories, my first literary agent, and my MFA in hand, I left UMass, Amherst, and began hitting things with a hammer . . .” Barnes & Noble

“I could see where I wanted to get  to as a writer and it could not be reached by any slow, organic development, but must be gained in one great heave of effort . . .”  LitHub.com

Talking The Current On Memphis’s WYPL

2019 Interview with Stephen Usery

“Grohl was there to claim Sound City’s original recording console — the very piece of equipment upon which he and Cobain had laid down “Smells Like Teen Spirit” a long two decades ago — and Mark and I were the guys tearing out the old Sound City . . .” Algonquin Books The News

“The book was called THE HUMAN FIGURE, and within it were beautiful drawings of the human form, many of them nudes. Female nudes. I was still a kid, and my mother had given me a book full of female nudes . . . ” BookReporter

“It wasn’t my first book cover designing rodeo, having provided the design idea & imagery for my 2002 YA novel, Never So Green, and so, yeah, I said I’d give it a shot . . .”

Pete Garceau on Designing THE CURRENT Cover

” . . . although I’m pretty good at Photoshop, I couldn’t get it to look as ‘real’ as I wanted. So I printed out some type on a dark blue background, added some tap water and placed it in the freezer overnight . . .”  Spine Magazine

“I knew I was guilty of pulling the alarm, and I knew Mr. H knew I was guilty of pulling the alarm. But all that mattered to me, the lawyer’s son, in that moment, was that the blue ink was not from the fire alarm. It was not proof of my guilt . . .” Criminal Element

“After receiving the news that Sedaris would be recommending my book on his spring U.S. book tour, I had the fateful brainstorm that I must hop in my truck and follow this man around America . . .” Salon.com 

Talking The Sedaris Shadow Tour on NPR

Fiction Writer Follows David Sedaris Around America

“As Flannery O’Connor put it, ‘I am amenable to criticism but only within the sphere of what I’m trying to do.’ The voice the writer needs to learn to trust most is her own, and that just plain takes time . . .”  Algonquin Books The News

“Q: What advice would you give someone who wanted to have a life in writing? A: Do not be in a rush. Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Also, writing is always there. After raising the family & having the other career or whatever, you can always begin writing. Or begin again . . .” JeanTheBookNerd.com Q&A

Talking The Current on Antioch College’s WYSO

2019 Interview with Vick Mickunas

“Q: What do you find most challenging and most rewarding about life as a writer? A: The most challenging thing for me is the non-writing times, when I am between stories or novels . . .”  Chicago Review of Books Q&A w/ Greer Macallister

“Here was a self-made lawyer, a legislator, and a homeowner—and his sons had become the bad kids of the neighborhood. The ones other parents told their kids to stay away from. How embarrassed he must’ve been . . .” The House That Made Me

“At the time, I was in the middle of an extended nonwriting jag, and the last thing I wanted to do was take on a real job that would give me even less time to not write. But finally I realized that not writing might just be a new way of life, and so I loaded up my tools and drove west . . . ” Algonquin Books

“Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify to you? A: On a literal level, the title reflects the importance that the physical river came to play in the novel. On a thematic level, it ties into my idea of the characters’ lives as currents that flow within their own lifespans and also across time . . .”

Talking Descent on Antioch College’s WYSO