Entries Tagged 'Interviews' ↓

Every summer my friends and I venture down to Chicago for the Wizard World Comic Con to gorge ourselves on all the pop culture we can find. Without fail every year a good amount of time gets spent checking out the DIY projects of many of the creators in Artist Alley.

The talent pool is wide and the projects are varied. Being short on disposable income this year, my typically bleeding heart had to be more discerning. Through the mass of fanboys and Storm Troopers, a book titled The Homeless Channel warranted a second glance and a near audible “huh?”
Why at the time, the concept of a 24 hour cable network focusing on the homeless seemed more preposterous than desperate pleas of the creator that I encountered earlier, whose comic had a superhero with magic dreadlocks that help him battle evil still baffles me. Paging through the book, The Homeless Channel’s creator Matt Silady likened his book to Sports Night, a show he dearly missed and wanted to resuscitate the spirit in his book.

He had me at Sports Night.

The Homeless Channel is really, really good and not just for a DIY comic. Darcy Shaw, Silady’s superhero does all her heavy lifting without the benefit of a cape and the conflicts eating at her would give Superman migraines. After a few pages I found myself wondering how a first time writer/artist had put together a book this polished and well thought out.

Thankfully, Matt found some time to discuss how a junior high teacher learns the ins and outs of producing reality t.v. and how to put a comic book together without taking years of art classes.

Your bio states that your background is in education and that you taught eighth grade. At what point did you start drawing and thinking of yourself as being creatively motivated?

I guess my first serious attempts at writing go back to a couple fiction workshops I took as an undergrad. But once I was teaching, writing was strictly a summertime activity. I did manage to knock out two novel manuscripts in the first couple years. During the breaks, I’d ended up writing every day for a couple months solid. I’d do little weirdo things to keep me on schedule. For example, I pretended like I was getting paid to write. I had my teeny-tiny teacher’s salary spread out over the entire year. So, every two weeks a check would arrive in the mail and I’d convince myself that I could only deposit it if I’d stuck to my schedule. Seems a lot of people get artistically inspired. The ones I’ve always looked up to have had a bit of discipline to go along with their creativity. So, I lied to myself for awhile. Whatever it takes, I suppose.

As far as drawing goes, the last art class I’d taken was back in eighth grade. I wish I’d had time to pursue drawing in high school and college. For what it’s worth, that class back in middle school was great and the teacher, Mr. Mayer, really convinced me I could do whatever I wanted to do if I put my mind to it. But after that, I pretty much put art aside until I decided to draw The Homeless Channel myself.

What comics and/or creators got you interested in creating a book of your own?

Well, I know I’m not the only one out there that’s gotten a good kick in the pants from reading Larry Young’s True Facts. And there’s a whole bunch of creators that I love that have inspired me artistically. But in terms of actually convincing me that I could make a comic book all on my own, I still need to tip my hat to Rob Osborne (1000 Steps to World Domination) and Josh Cotter (Skyscrapers of the Midwest) who convinced me to get something together for the Isotope Award for Mini-Comics.
Josh had just won and Rob was sure I could pull something off. He might have been a little drunk when he said that. But so was I, so I listened to him anyway.

What was the genesis of The Homeless Channel? Once you had the nugget for it did you write a full script for it or construct it as you developed each chapter?

The Homeless Channel was a merging of a bunch of things that had been brewing in the back of my head for awhile. The idea for the cable network pretty much came out of nowhere. But the ideas explored in the story were things I’d been struggling with on a daily basis. The weirdness of the media. The liberal versus conservative approaches to solving social problems. The book became a productive way for me to think about these things.

And the feel of the book really just reflects my fondness for Aaron Sorkin’s stylized dialogue and Tony Harris’ grounded, yet expressive, artwork.

During the entire creation of the book, I relied on an outline and thumbnail sketches of the pages to keep the story straight. It was kind of a loose process by design. It allowed for happy accidents to occur during the photo shoots. As much as I knew what I wanted out of the actors, they always managed to bring a bit of themselves to the mix. I took their suggestions and creative impulses very seriously. That left the final scripting of the dialogue to be done while I was actually lettering the book.

The scenes within the studio and with the cable network heads have a real feel of authenticity. Did you research extensively or was it more of a case of pop culture osmosis?

Yeah, I hate to say it, but I was playing the odds a bit when it came to the behind-the-scenes stuff. I have heard from a couple friends in the television industry that I didn’t do to badly though. The entire book has enough of a satirical edge that I wasn’t really worried about it.
I couldn’t imagine a pitch meeting could be any more ridiculous than a couple school board meetings I managed to sit through back when I was teaching.

By the way, I sure like your phrase, “pop culture osmosis.” I’m stealing that, okay?

The characters, the idealistic conflicts, and without a doubt the dialogue have a definite Sorkin influence, which I really dug. Over the course of creating a book that looks at homelessness, even through the lens of a reality t.v. show what were your own creative battles with characters attempting to solve a social problem?

More than anything, I didn’t want the book to come off as preachy. I certainly don’t have the solution to homelessness in America. And when the idea for the book first popped in my head, it simply amused me more than anything. I ended up developing the story a bit and then it sat in a file for awhile until I moved to California. As I started to work on the book in earnest, however, I was confronted with homelessness on a day-to-day basis in a way that I hadn’t really been before. That isn’t to say there isn’t a serious homeless problem back in the Midwest. The shelters there can’t keep up with the demand for beds and services either. But out here, especially in Berkeley, it’s an issue that was confronted with every time I walked out the door. The book served as a way for me to wrestle with my thoughts on the subject as much as it was simply an effort to tell a good story. Each of the individual characters tackled different parts of my feelings about the issue.

In the book, Darcy and Grady have different ideas of which should be applied first when making a sandwich—, peanut butter or jelly. Provided someone doesn’’t have a peanut allergy, which should go first and how often have you had this argument?

It’s so funny how often I get asked about this! Personally, I’ve never had the argument exactly as presented in the book. But I’ve had a million arguments just like it. I really wanted to create a scene where two people were debating over something that appears on the surface to be trivial. For Darcy though, it’s really all about control.

But to get to your question, here’s how it works: if you are lazy like me, you’re using one knife to apply both the peanut butter and the jelly to the sandwich. If you are using two knives, you’re in the clear. If you’re a one-knife kinda person though, you have to apply the jelly first. By applying the jelly before the peanut butter, you are guaranteeing that a clean, uncontaminated knife goes into the jelly jar. If you reverse the order, bits of peanut butter end up in the jelly before you stick the container back in the fridge and that’s not good. When a person with an allergy goes to put a little jelly on some toast the next morning, they might headed for a pretty crappy day. Turns out, with some extra care, it can all be avoided. So, it’s jelly first every time.

One of the most striking things (especially since it’s your first book) about The Homeless Channel is just how strong overall it is from the cover design, the layouts, to the visual storytelling. Considering that you come from more of a writing background what did you do to prepare yourself for the undertaking of creating all of the visual elements that would comprise the book?

I think writing fiction has always been my semi-secret circuitous route to getting into comics. I’ve spent at least as much time deconstructing comic books as I’ve spent studying fiction. Probably a lot more, in all honesty. I figure, when you look at a comic – you can examine the way the art works on the page, the way the words work, and the way they work in relation to each other. It’s the latter where I believe real comic book “writing” takes place and I had been doing that in my head for years and years before I ever tried to draw the first page of The Homeless Channel.

When I first started reading comics, there was nothing better than sitting back and cracking open an issue of The X-Men. But once I started noticing how comic books functioned in terms of pacing, panel construction, and the dance between the words and the art – I fell in love with them all over again. That’s also about the time I started considering creating stories of my own. Now, I love fiction. I enjoy writing prose. But I’m definitely more comfortable with the language of comic books.

Writing fiction is often an uphill battle. Arranging words and pictures on a page to tell a story just feels so much more natural to me. I really revel in the challenges unique to the comic book medium.

AiT/Planet Lar was very supportive in terms of my creative vision for the book too. The cover, which you mentioned, was designed to emulate something you’d find in the fiction market. That’s certainly an echo of my time spent in the writing program. Larry would also make small suggestions here and there to help with the clarity of the storytelling. But overall, they gave me complete freedom to tell the story the way I had imagined it in my head.

From the initial outline through photo shoots and laying out and scripting the book how long did it take for you to finish?

It took a couple years. But that’s a deceptive number. An entire year passed during the creation of chapter one and another year flew by while I worked on chapter two. Of course, during that time I was teaching, writing a novel for my thesis, and completing the coursework for my degree. If, at the end of the day, I was able to draw a single panel after I finished grading papers and before I went to bed, I was happy. I just made sure to get each of the first two chapters to the copy shop in time for the Alternative Press Expo and the Isotope Mini-Comics Award deadline. Things got easier after that. AiT made the offer to collect the series when I was halfway done. So, chapters three and four were finished much more quickly. I was able to work on the second half of the book non-stop until the day I dropped the final files off to Larry.

Although using Photoshop and other applications to breakdown, manipulate, and layout images have become commonplace in the comics industry, have you ever gotten any flack for not having more traditionally penciled art?

Oh, sure. But I completely ignore most of it. When you spend much time in fiction workshops, it’s usually not too long until you figure out which criticism is worth taking to heart and which criticism just completely misses the point. A lot of the criticism I’ve received concerning the use of photography tends to be the latter.

Some of the criticism is quite useful though. I guess most of the feedback I’ve gotten on the art really falls into three categories: someone loves the art, someone thinks it’s a cool technique that can be improved, or someone dismisses it as not really drawing. The first kind of feedback is, of course, fun and rewarding. The second kind of feedback is fantastic too because it leads to me going back into the studio with new ideas on how to improve the process. That last kind of feedback is just a bunch of crap.

What was one of the best lessons you learned from creating The Homeless Channel?

I learned that this is what I want to be doing!

Believe it or not, that’s actually a huge relief. I’d imagined this as my dream job for so much of my life that one of my big fears was getting here and then realizing I didn’t actually enjoy it. But it’s even better than I’d imagined. I plan on doing everything I can to keep making comic books for a long, long time.

Just attending comic and small press conventions can be a marketing lesson in and of its self. You’ve attended a number of conventions over the last few years. What tips do you have for selling yourself and your work?

I totally agree. There’s nothing better than going to a good indy show and just soaking it all in. Sure, I’d been going to big superhero conventions for years and they were fun and overwhelming and I got to see all of my favorite creators. But when I seriously started thinking about creating and publishing a book of my own, the first thing I did was scope out the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco. You can really get a good idea of what works and what doesn’t work just by walking around an observing the different table set-ups and the way that each artist interacts with the attendees. There’s no one right way to do it. The best thing to do is to find some of the techniques that seem to lead to interest and sales and see if you can incorporate them into your own personality.

The next thing to do is ask a lot of questions. I found the creators at the smaller shows to be really encouraging and full of smart tips for printing, marketing, getting a table, and looking out for potential pitfalls. Sometimes the advice was a simple as, “don’t show up at a convention without a screwdriver, duck tape, and a more change than you think you’ll possibly need.” That sort of practical advice is really invaluable. From Staple to SPX to Stumptown and APE, there are so many great indy shows these days that beginning creators owe it to themselves to get out there and get a feel for the industry first-hand.

What have been the biggest mistakes you’ve seen your peers make?

It would probably be the same mistake that I made initially: underselling myself. Even when I was proud of what I was doing, I would act like making comics was just a hobby and that I wasn’t a “real” comic book creator. That’s like saying that what I’d brought to sell at the convention wasn’t a “real” comic book either. Keep in mind, I certainly don’t think that walking around with a big ego is going to help anyone’s situation at all. But somewhere between “I suck” and “I’m the best ever” is a place where it seems a healthy attitude can exist.

I think attempting to maintain a humble confidence is the way to go. Like it or not, you are selling yourself as much as you are selling your work.

How have your techniques evolved from when you first were attempting to generate attention for the first few chapters of The Homeless Channel?

Well, I don’t think the book has quite hit the “tipping point” yet. But marketing-wise, there’s a lot going on out there now that I don’t really have much do with anymore. AiT did a great job getting the word out when the book first launched and I did round after round of web interviews. But ever since the Entertainment Weekly review, there’s been series of high profile articles and reviews that seem to just pop up out of nowhere. It’s really starting to take on a life of its own. We got a great review on Boing Boing. And then the New York Times just did a piece mentioning the book in their Sunday Arts section. I’d like to think we put in enough hard work at the beginning to lay the marketing foundation for the coverage it’s starting to get on the national level. Beyond that though, I’m still hand selling at conventions, spreading the word when good press hits the streets, and doing my best to work on new material.

Outside of comics, are you reading much? If so who?

I’m strong believer that good comics come from creators who read a healthy balance of both sequential art and prose. In terms of fiction, I have a few favorites that I return to over and over. I love reading Raymond Carver short stories and Tim O’Brien’s earlier work. On the other hand, one of my very favorite places to spend time these days is Builders Booksource over in Berkeley. Non-fiction books have become a real fount of inspiration. From graphic design to architecture, sculpture, industrial design, font and color theory, and fashion, I’m finding I’m really fascinated by the lengths we go to aesthetically shape the physical world around us. I’m also really enjoying the connections I see between these other disciplines and comics. Seems to me, Chris Ware could have been a brilliant architect in another life.

You professed your love of superhero books. Are there any trends in mainstream hero comics right now that you don’t love?

I know there’s a lot of talk these days about “event fatigue.” For me, it’s really format fatigue. I mean, seriously, I read superhero books FOR the big events! But it’s the labyrinth of monthlies, mini-series, one-shot tie-ins, etc. that I just don’t have the patience for anymore.

What I did like was how Marvel collected all the various pieces of the recent Annihilation saga in those nice big, fat, reasonably priced hardcovers. Now, that’s something I can get behind. If I’m reading a great novel, I don’t want to have to stop in the middle of it in order to go back to the bookstore to buy the missing chapter. I know the monthlies are still the ticket for most retailers and it’s the only sure-fire way to get the customer in the shop week after week. But, man, do I love it when I can sit down and just read the whole dang story. So, it takes a lot to get me to buy uncollected monthlies anymore. That said, you can always find me walking home with a rolled up copy of the new All-Star Superman in my back pocket the day it comes out.

Do you hope to continue working solely on projects where you can write and do the art or are you hoping to explore other types of collaboration?

Oh, I fully intend on doing both.

Back when I was teaching, one of the things I really enjoyed about the job was the control I had over what I taught and how I taught it. For the most part, it was really a one-man show. I did, however, work at a middle school that practiced full inclusion, team planning, and co-teaching. So, for one hour a day, I co-taught a class with a very talented special education instructor. We planned each lesson together and often took turns leading the class. As much confidence I had in my own lesson plans, there was always something special about what we were able to come up with by combining our strengths and relying on each other’s expertise. I guess this is a pretty long-winded way to say, yes, I really look forward to working with another artist.

What future projects can we look forward to seeing?

Let’s see… first and foremost, work on my next book is underway. It’s a big project and I’m giving myself a lot of time and space to work on it. I’ll let you know as soon as I have enough of it done to start talking specifics. I’m definitely juggling a couple other things at the moment too. I’m having a ball writing a script for a fun 1950’s thriller for an amazing artist. I’m a bit behind on that one though. So, the first thing you’ll probably see are couple of mini’s that should debut in the spring at APE. They’re both experimental non-fiction pieces that involve some unusual collaborations. Until then, stop by and see me at Stumptown or SPX and check out a copy of The Homeless Channel!

A lost world, forgery, Norse mythology, ninjas, a celebration and a murder mystery are all apart of Dustin Long’s first novel Icelander, which was published by McSweeneys earlier this year. It has been aptly called “A Nabokovian goof on Agatha Christie; a madcap mystery in the deceptive tradition of The Crying of Lot 49; The Third Policeman meets The Da Vinci Code and it recently climbed on to the Los Angles Times Bestseller List. Dustin graciously took some time away to answer a few question about his new book.

Every writer dreams of the day that their novel gets published, how did you react when you got the news Icelander was going to be published? What was it like seeing your work in print for the first time, let alone having it appear on a bestseller list?

Well, it happened in steps. First I found out that McSweeney’s was “maybe interested,” and it wasn’t for another nine months that I got a definitive “yes, we’ll publish it.” My general reaction to each step towards publication was “Yes! Please let this be true!” followed by a nice dinner out somewhere with me wife for a mini-celebration. Seeing the actual book was probably most exciting, and consequently it entailed the most expensive dinner. The bestsellers list was a bit unreal. I heard about it via phone call. As happy as I am to have made it, I still don’t know quite how to react.

Having written four novels before Icelander, what do you think you did differently that made it more successful?

Well, the first two especially were just me getting my legs, figuring out what it took to sustain a long narrative. The next two were better, but I think I was worried about the wrong things. I started off with themes, jokes, and set-pieces that I wanted to work in rather than starting with character or plot. Also, those two were more “ambitious” (pretentious) than Icelander, so I think scaling back and trying to do a small book as well as I could definitely helped in creating a book that was worth reading. And I think the lessons I learned writing Icelander have made me ready to stretch again and try something bigger.

Icelander’s been primarily compared to the work of Pynchon, Nabokov, and Agatha Christie. How do you balance creating a layered puzzle that doesn’t become too tedious and disengaging for the audience with enough character development? Which takes precedence as you construct a story?

That’s the trick, isn’t it? I think I can only answer this very vaguely. I’m not a fan of Theodor Adorno; I want to be an entertaining writer. But I also want to be a serious writer. I don’t think these desires are incompatible. I hope I managed not to be tedious in the more literary aspects and not to fall into egocentric navel-gazing in the more “personal drama” based portions of the story, but whatever success I had was largely instinctual. It can be hard to read your own work, especially after a couple years of working on the same thing, but I just tried to get a sense of rhythm that seemed natural to me. I wanted Our Heroine and Blaise, at least, to be “real,” and some of the other characters helped me work out some of the more “literary” impulses. I’d say that writing engaging characters takes precedence. That’s the thing that stops puzzles from being tedious, in my mind.

There are a few spots within conversation where “…” is used to indicate a pause or stop in the dialogue. Do you consider this to be dialogue or an abbreviated pause?

I interpret it as a response of silence. Each ellipsis is definitely attributed to a specific “speaker.” It was a way to have a character pointedly say nothing. So I suppose I’d call it dialogue.

Do you think visually when you write?

To an extent. I see the important details. The most evocative aspects. But I don’t stop to envision every physical detail of every setting. Sometimes as I’m writing I start acting out what the characters are doing, though. Usually without getting up. One hand will be typing while the other gesticulates or something.

Do you have a set approach to writing a story? Do you start with outline or you just allow the work to take you wherever it may?

It’s evolved over the course of my writing “career.” I’m tending to outline quite a bit these days, but I also tend to deviate from the outline according to the needs of the story. The outline rarely tells me where, in fact, I’m going to end up. My fourth novel was heavily outlined, and I didn’t deviate at all. It was pretty bad. But so was my third novel, which had no outline whatsoever. I think I’ve reached a happy compromise.

How would you define a good editor?

Short answer: Eli Horowitz. Longer answer: someone who figures out what the novel is trying to accomplish, identifies spots where it fails to meet its goals, and is supportive in thinking up remedies for those failures. I think a good editor questions rather than declares.

How do you handle writer’s block if or when the beast may strike?

With me, writer’s block has always been self-imposed. It happens when I think too long about how to proceed with a scene rather than just writing the scene. I’ve found that a sure fire way to overcome writer’s block is to just sit down and write. It doesn’t matter how bad or aimless I think it’s going to be. And usually, in writing, however bad or aimless it is to begin with, I arrive at the solution to whatever has been blocking me. That said, I still occasionally let myself be blocked against my better judgment.

You’re bio indicates that you’ve worked in construction, at a used bookstore among others jobs, has having a diversity of jobs helped or hindered your writing?

It’s given me a broad range of experiences to draw from. I think my more tendentious works of the past arose out of the fact that I’d never been anything but a student. So I’d say the diversity of jobs has helped. That said, it was hard to get any writing done at all when I was working construction. I was just too exhausted at the end of the day.

How organized and focused a writer are you?

Left to my own devices, I tend to be pretty disciplined. I try to write at least a few pages every day, and though it may take a warming up period of procrastination (browsing the Internet or reading a chapter of whatever I’m currently reading), once I get going I tend to be able to go on indefinitely. It’s definitely “work,” though. I’m motivated largely through the fact that I feel incredibly guilty and unproductive if I DON’T write rather than from any particular pleasure in the act of writing itself.

The foot-notes throughout Icelander have a tone and purpose that reminded me of editor notes that appeared in the earlier days of Marvel and DC comics. How have comic books influenced your work? What/who do you read?

The footnotes are definitely similar to editorial notes in comics to the extent that they orient the reader within the fictional universe, indicating a particular issue or Memoir volume in which the backstory can be found. And yes, comics have been a huge influence on my life as a writer. I didn’t have a lot of books in my house growing up, but my older brother read comic books, and so that was really my first exposure to reading anything at all. I read them from the ages of 5-15 (1982-1992) and then abandoned them completely, though I don’t recall what the exact reason was. In 1999, I shared an apartment with a guy who read comics, and he connived me to start reading them again by showing me the work of Alan Moore (which I’d completely missed in the 80’s, having been a Marvel Zombie) and Kurt Busiek (notably Astro City), both of which showed me just how amazingly sophisticated comics writing had become while I wasn’t looking. I’ve been buying new issues every Wednesday since then.
I’ve become a fan of a lot of black and white independent stuff, like Box Office Poison, Hicksville, and Scott Pilgrim, and my favorite series of all time is Cerebus.
That said, my heart will always have a soft spot for superheroes.

My five favorite writers doing work in that genre at the moment are:

1. Brian K. Vaughan (who writes human beings better than anyone in comics, independent or not, Dave Sim POSSIBLY excepted)


2. Alan Moore (no one besides Dave Sim can compete with him in terms of innovation)


3. Grant Morrison (he’s a little kooky, but he has a great sense of what makes comics fun)


4. Dan Slott (he’s just funny)


5. Warren Ellis (when he’s on, he’s on)
   honorable mention: Mark Millar, Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Joe Casey, and Brian Michael Bendis.

Icelander essentially is a murder mystery, and while writing it were there any genre cop-outs that you wanted to avoid? What ones bother you the most?

I didn’t want the solution to come out of nowhere. I wanted readers to be able to reread the book and see how the details really do add up to the ending.

With the way in which the publishing industry has continued to embrace the memoir craze, have you experienced more challenges continuing to get more literary fiction published?

Well, this has been my only publishing endeavor. But yes, there does seem to be a divide between the people who want more memoir-based work and people who are open to things that might be a little different. I’d like to see those two camps resolve their differences and just worry about finding good prose. We’ll see what challenges I face in the future.

What tips would you give to aspiring writers?

This has been true for me, at least: If you want to write novels, write novels. By this I mean two things.

1. Don’t concentrate on writing short stories, thinking you’ll build up to a novel. They’re completely different animals. I still can’t write short stories very well, and I don’t feel that writing one has ever taught me much about the craft of writing a novel.




2. Actually write a whole novel. Don’t begin a novel, decide it’s bad, and then begin another one. Finishing a novel, however bad, taught me much more about novel-writing than beginning a novel ever did.

tags technorati : Dustin Long, Icelander, McSweeneys, books, interview

My first encounter with Colby Buzzell was “The Making of the 21st Century Solider”, an exerpt Esquire ran from Buzzell’s popular blog. What started as a few minutes of late night before bed reading turned into eagerly awaiting the next installment each month. Last fall,Colby Buzzell’s book My War: Killing Time In Iraq was published challenging many people’s assumptions about the war, he provided an embedded insight into military life by putting a face on those who serve. Colby’s work has appeared on This American Life, and he has continued to write for Esquire. Recently, I got a chance to interview him via Instant Messenger.

Colby Buzzell: Hey what’s up man?

Tim Hennessy: Not much just finishing up packing. Heading to Seattle tomorrow. You spent sometime in Seattle, know of any great places to hit? I want to check out Hendrix’s grave.

I think Hendrix grave is like a 45-minute drive from Seattle, the cool places to hang in Seattle is an area called (I think) Capital Hill my favorite bar there is called the Cha Cha Lounge.

Okay, cool.

You can find the place if you Google it, its pretty cool. I’m not sure what day of the week it is, but you can buy a 40 oz at the bar. Yea, Cha Cha was where I liked to drink in Seattle, but I really liked to drink in the bars in Olympia, Wash. Oly is pretty cool.

Now that is great! I’ve only stumbled into one place like that here in Wisconsin, which is kinda odd. How long were you stationed in Washington?

I was there for a little over a year. Seattle’s one of my favorite cities, in small ways it reminds me a little of San Francisco.

I’ve never been to San Francisco but really want to check it out. Do you still keep a journal?

Yea, I still keep a journal. I don’t write in it every day though.

Do you find yourself more self-conscious writing in it, after having had some of your journal stuff published?

Not really, I still write the same way as I did before, and that’s with no thoughts at all of it ever being published.

How long did the transformation from blog to book take?

A couple months.

How did the book end up getting published? Did you seek out the opportunity or did it just sort of seek you out?

I just started blogging, and then people started emailing me when I was in Iraq asking me if I was interested in writing a book about the experience some day, and since I didn’t really have any other plans after the Army, I said, “Okay” and one thing led to another, and the next thing I know I had a book published.

How has your family reacted to your book and the experiences you’ve written about? Does the Army still have a favorable opinion of it?

My parents are cool with it. Not sure what the Army thinks about it.

Are there any autobiographies or memoirs that you’re a fan of?

Autobiography of Malcolm X: As told to Alex Haley is one of my favorites. I have a lot of respect for Malcolm X because he was self educated, and he died for what he believed in.

I know you’re also a pretty big Hunter S. Thompson and Bukowski fan, how did reading their stuff influence you?

I just liked reading their stuff, some books I can read, some books I can’t. Those two I can.

That I can totally see, I’ve only sorta starting dabbling in their stuff. What of there stuff would you say is a must read?

All of it. It’s all good stuff.

I’m really enjoying Post Office right now.

Cool.

My first exposure to your work was with the Esquire pieces. How did that opportunity with Esquire come about?

I was one of Esquire magazine’s Best And Brightest 2004, and like after that I wrote some stuff for them.

That’s right, the Bill Murray issue. You were among a few other military blogs and things.

Yea.

What has working with Esquire been like? How receptive have they been to the ideas you’ve pitched them?

I’ve never pitched an idea to Esquire.

So they’ve basically been like “Hey we’ve got this thing we wondered if you’d do?

Basically, its like they call me, and ask me if I want to write a thing for them or something, and I say, “sure”.

Had you ever heard of Banksy prior to being sent to track him down for a profile?

No. Had no idea at all who or what he was.

I really loved that piece.

Thanx.

After I finished it I was like ‘Oh shit, I gotta find out more about this guy.’ And after some Googling and a few months now I’ve got a print.

That’s awesome, I’m actually looking at the Banksy print that I scored out there right now, it’s framed and up on my wall behind my desk.
The Bomb Hugger one?

Yea. It’s I think my favorite print by him.

I really like that one and the one with the girl and the balloon. I ended up getting the one with the soldiers painting a peace sign. Have you stumbled upon any of his work here in the US? I remember reading that there was something he painted in San Francisco.

That’s awesome! The soldiers with the peace sign is great. Yea, there’s a gallery over by where I live, in Echo park that I saw was selling some Banksy Canvases, and I’ve seen like show flyers for punk shows here in LA that has his artwork on it. Now that I know what his stuff looks like, I see it around every now and then.

It really is amazing how his stuff gets around. I even saw something in Madison that was inspired by his stuff. If he’s managed to infiltrate Wisconsin, he’s nearly gotten through to much of the world then.

His stuff is all over. It’ll be interesting to see how big he gets and what direction he goes with his art in the future.

Yeah. Truly. His stuff alone is one of the reasons I want to go Europe to visit some friends.

Will you be doing more stuff with Esquire? I know you were in this last month’s issue—catching up with some of your buddies that you served with. How have they enjoyed seeing themselves represented in your work?

I don’t really know, I guess, I don’t know.

Your last article in Esquire was about your friends have gone on to do other things and some of the small changes since. How have you changed since you left the Army?

Ummm.. I’m not sure how I’ve changed, I guess I’ve changed but I’m not really sure how much, I get asked that question a lot and I’m not sure how to answer it.

Yeah, that somehow seems like the kind of question everyone would ask. With what you’ve seen it’s had to have an impact, was it easy to get back into civilian life once you left?

Yea, I guess. Writing a book definitely helped out a lot.

It would be, being able to put it into a context.

Yea.

Does being in combat ruin watching war movies for you? Which movies have the experience right? Any favorites?

I still watch Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now. Those movies are just great movies and what I think are works of art.

Did you see Jarhead?

No.

Not as good as either Full Metal Jacket or Apocalypse Now.

Jarhead doesn’t even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence.

No it doesn’t. Not a fan of the book either I take it. I still haven’t finished it and who knows if I will.

I read his book, and the whole time I was hoping that he got killed or better yet lost his arms or legs. I was let down that he didn’t get blown to bits in Desert Storm. My boots have seen more combat than him.

Hahah. That is very true. I actually kept waiting for something anything to happen and it never did, no matter how great a writer you might be you something has to happen.

One of the aspects of My War that I enjoyed was that it wasn’t driven by a political agenda, but by day-to-day events. Do you think that putting a few years between your war experiences would have strengthened the book or weakened it? Why?

It would be like if I wrote a book about high school. If I wrote a book about high school while I was in high school, a lot of those emotions and feelings while I was still in high school would be in that book. If I wrote a book about high school ten years after high school, it would probably be a whole different book.

With the number of military memoirs out, that’s been a criticism of some of them, but I find it hard to believe that time would do anything but cloud those memories.
Lots of people assume that when you volunteer to be in the military you buy into the whole package—-agreement with the mission, respect for the leadership, etc. How did you find yourself able to follow military orders even when you didn’t agree?

Basically, you don’t have to like it, you just have to do it.

You’ve had to sacrifice for this war. With the many forms of media that complain and question why we’re in Iraq, how does it make you feel that they haven’t had to sacrifice anything to have those opinions?

It doesn’t bother me; people are going to think whatever they want to think.

Awhile back, Kurt Vonnegut mentioned how arrogant the US was to occupy a country without knowing how to speak a word of their language and just expected them to “get” democracy. How do you feel the Iraqi people received the US presence?

I don’t know how the Iraqi people felt about the US presence, whenever I asked them about it, they’d always say a bunch of shit in Arabic to me, and I didn’t really understand what they were saying since I don’t speak a word of their language.

It often feels like that for 90% of Americans the war in Iraq is an R-rated Movie edited for network television. What can be done to better convey why America is in Iraq? For that matter, why do you think we’re in Iraq?

$$$.

Ha-ha. Sad, but seems to be true. One of the best parts of traveling is coming home and viewing where you’re from with new eyes. After being in Iraq for a year how do you view America now?

I view America as a bunch of spoiled brats.

Did traveling to other countries help form that opinion?

Yea, like you go somewhere, and then you come back and see how much we’re obsessed with pop culture here. Its actually pretty fucking sad. Like, people care more about Jessica Simpson, and Brittney than they do about the war in Iraq.

Yeah, outside of the US they have reality to deal with in a much bigger way. The US seems to funnel more energy into ignoring things like poverty, violence and ignorance.

Exactly.

Okay, so last question. What’s the most important thing you learned over the course of your military career and through writing the book about it?

I learned that not everything is what it appears to be.

Okay, cool. Thanks a lot for doing this.

No prob man, have fun in Seattle, and definitely check out the area round the Cha Cha Lounge, lots of cool bars and stuff in that area.

I will. With a week of nothing to do, drinking will be on the agenda for sure.

Awesome.

 

tags technorati : Colby Buzzell, My War:Killing Time In Iraq, Esquire, Banksy, Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski, Jarhead

One Sunday wandering through Harry W. Schwartz Bookstore, this caught my eye.

“Davidson…smudges the line between comedy and horror, cruelty and mercy. His remarkable stories are challenging and upsetting… Don’t look for comfort here.” –Chuck Palahniuk

Praise by Palahniuk always gets my attention.

Additional raves by the likes of Bret Easton Ellis, Thom Jones, and Clive Barker made me wonder what the hell I was missing and after reading a few pages of Rust and Bone, I was hooked. The book even turned out to be a signed copy, that much more of a bonus.

At home, browsing the internet I stumbled onto Craig Davidson’s blog. It turns out he was in Milwaukee at that same bookstore to do a reading and nobody turned up. Not one person. Being halfway through the book, it horrified me that a storyteller of Davidson’s caliber made an appearance in my hometown, only for the experience to be on par with a wake. An apologetic email got sent out to Craig, hoping he wouldn’t hold it against my beer-drenched city and I got a jovial response, shrugging off the incident as a funny thing that happens when an a book by an unknown Canadian writer, with no U.S. publications, no reviews begins touring two days after his first book is released.

“I’m appreciative of Norton’s efforts, and Schwartz’s—but yeah, next time I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a better turnout. I’m going to request that Norton send me back into Milwaukee, like a soldier requesting his captain send him back out into the slaughter fields,” Craig wrote back.

While Craig was in the midst of re-editing his new novel The Fighter, he took some time out to discuss via email his writing process, cockfighting, and charitable acts of organ donation even if the recipient is a certain critic who savage his book.

When did you start writing and what kind of things did you write?

I guess I started writing seriously 7 years ago. I started off writing horror stories under a pseudonym. I got a few published, and a novel. I wrote and submitted non-genre stories but never had much success until I lucked into a few sales and got an agent and she — god bless her — got me a book deal for a collection of non-horror stories and a novel.

You’ve written novels and short stories—-do you work from an outline or do steer away from structuring things until the revision process?

That’s changed a bit over the years. I don’t really write stories from outlines, and actually I haven’t written a story in a few years now. Novels I write from notes. My basic deal is I read a whole lot of research related to the book — for The Fighter, I read boxing books and so forth — then I print up all those notes and duct tape them to the walls. So I’ve got notes and maps and I even cut pages out of books and put them up on the wall with highlighted sentences I think are important. Then on top of that I keep a pen in every room of the house — bedroom, bathroom, kitchen — and if an idea pops into my head I write it down wherever I am on whatever I can find. So I’ve got envelopes and old receipts and parking tickets and even a toilet paper roll duct taped to my wall; I’m sure people think it looks like the work of a madman!

When you’re deep in the writing process how much time each day do you spend at it? Do you have any writing rituals or habits? Music or no music? If so, what do you listen to?

Well, lately it’s been pretty much all writing — in retrospect, I would say perhaps too much. I was under contract to write a novel to follow closely on the heels of my collection, Rust and Bone, and I also moved down to Iowa to take part in the writing program here. So between touring for the collection, finishing and editing the novel, re-editing the novel, re-RE-editing the novel (and soon, I’m sure, re-re-RE-editing it), plus starting another novel, plus keeping up with my program obligations, it seems I never leave the computer. I get those twitchy eyeball spasms from staring at the screen so much! But I feel I’m relatively young at 30, one must make hay while the sun shines, and plenty of my friends work long hours at their jobs, so I’m no different.

I’d say lately I’m writing or editing or updating my blog or doing interviews like this 8-9 hours a day. It’s too much, I realize it, and I think I’m wearing myself thin, but I also get the sense it’s something that needs to be done at this point in my life. If not now, maybe never.

Music — yes, I listen to it while writing. I’m an awful LimeWire pirate. I have this rotten tendency to listen to the same song over and over til it sickens me, usually when I’m writing a particular scene.

They say that most creative people have an event in their life that defined them early on, and in their work they revisit it either privately or openly for the rest of their creative lives. Was there an event like that in your life?

You know, I hear that a lot — I know William Vollman is famously motivated by a childhood incident — but if that’s the case with me, I’m unaware of it. Maybe it’s a repressed-memory scenario and someday I’ll be writing a scene and go, “Oh, my god — this actually HAPPENED to me! That Bolivian Tree Spider actually DID crawl out of that crate of bananas and bite me at the supermarket when I was five!” In all seriousness, I, like all writers, am obsessed by certain things, and those things quickly become evident to anyone who reads my stuff. I would say that, in my case, those obsessions have formed over the course of my life, and not as the result of one specific event.

What writers have been the biggest influence on your narrative style?

Oh, so many. I’m sort of a chameleon, which is a tendency I need to curb in myself. Like I’ve been reading a lot of Douglas Coupland recently, and I look at my novel revisions and see some of them — those I made while reading Miss Wymoning — have a very Coupland-ish feel. But since they’re nowhere else in the book, they stick out and I had to go change them. Some of my main influences (say, top-5) are Bret Easton Ellis, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Thom Jones, and David Adams Richards.

You’re currently studying at the Iowa Writers Workshop, which certainly has had its share of talented writers in attendance. What has the experience been like? What is the environment like amongst faculty and students? How valuable do think MFA creative-writing programs are?

Like I said above, I really haven’t had an opportunity to take as much advantage of it as I would like. I think I bit off more than I could chew this year, with moving down here plus everything to do with the collection coming out plus trying to get the novel done plus the nervousness of dealing with reviews and reaction to the collection, plus sales, plus plus plus. But I came down because obviously any new writer needs to understand that his/her success is not something guaranteed to go on in perpetuity and you need to feather your nest and set yourself up for non-writing opportunities down the line; since the Iowa program is well respected, it seemed like a good choice.

But I’m in a weird position and, quite honestly, I don’t know it’s the best thing for me at this point in my life and career. As you allude to in a question below, I’ve gotten a few nasty reviews lately, so the idea of walking into a workshop and getting hammered there makes me feel like I must be a glutton for punishment. I mean, I’ve been in workshops before and I’ve always gotten hammered, but the hammering was localized to the class, 10 or 12 people; now I have to come home from workshop and open a letter from my publisher with a review (they send on reviews, good or bad) and see I’ve been lit into somewhere else.

I hope this doesn’t sound self-pitying and I really do have a thick hide, and furthermore I’m the one who put myself in this situation so the blame stops at me. Anyway, to answer your question, I think the value of workshops, Iowa or anywhere else, is individual to each participant. Personally it’s not as helpful to me as I’d assumed — that’s nothing to do with the program or instructors or the other writers, all of whom are tops, but more with my own situation — but I know some of the writers I’m here with will be greatly aided by it and will go on to publish wonderful writing.

For many aspiring writers, getting published is one of the main goals. Since you first got published how have your goals changed?

Well, things have changed dramatically. The first thing I ever “published” was on this Internet site, I forget the name. No pay, nothing, and the site chose like, 3 stories or poems or whatever A DAY, and it stayed up there a week and was gone. This was 7 years ago. I remember I CALLED MY PARENTS to tell them about it. To think about it now, I’m baffled. But I practically did a cartwheel, I was so happy.

So the progression went from there. I “sold” stories for a copy of the magazine it appeared in, or for five dollars, or for 1/4 of a cent per word, or for exposure. Then I sold them for 3 cents a word, or 20-30 dollars a page; then 5-7 cents a word, or 10 cents, and won a few contests. Never a really “big” story sale, the New Yorker or Harper’s or anything; maybe never.

Anyway, then I sold a few novellas that were published for copies and royalties and then my horror novel on into my current state. And in between many sleepless nights, dark nights of the soul, antsy trips to the mailbox, pillowcases full of rejection slips, etc, etc. I don’t think my progression is typical, as I think everyone’s progression is different, but I certainly never worry about having not paid my dues.

Now my only goal is to keep publishing. That’s it. Singular. I’ve been lucky to make my living as a writer for a few years now — well, the years before I came to Iowa — and the most I can hope is to keep that ball rolling. Not an easy task. Later, if I ever get a real foothold, I’m sure my objectives will change again. But for now, it’s simply to stay in the game.

The stories in Rust and Bone have a diverse group of characters. From bare-knuckle boxers to a repo man, to a whale trainer, to a married couple involved in the world of dog fighting. Each story has very well drawn, detailed worlds– how did you go about constructing these worlds?

Well, I think it’s a matter of—please excuse the tired rationale—putting yourself in your characters’ shoes. I think I am a character writer; everything starts from the point of a character I can identify with, more so than a plot or setting POV. I guess the one rule I have is that I need to feel that, were I myself put into any of my characters’ lives, had to walk around in their skin, that I would act as they act and do as they do. And I mean me personally—would I, Craig Davidson, do the things my characters do given their circumstances? If the answer is yes, then I write that story. Which may seem odd or chilling when you look at what my characters do. So I’m often a little…dispirited is perhaps the right word, puzzled, when interviewers or critics or readers say the book is populated with dirty and disreputable and unpleasant characters. I’m not sure how to take this: either (a) that I believe myself capable of what others see as acts of deep and abiding awfulness, while still clinging to the idea of my own fundamental goodness as a human being, or (b) some people are unable or unwilling to plumb their own depths and frankly consider what they may or may not be capable of, good or bad, were their backs ever put to the wall.

Through out the course of your career writing for smaller press and for a major publisher, how have the editorial processes differed? How closely are you working with your editor on your new book and how much input does your editor have in shaping the book?

I think it is quite different. The small presses I’ve worked with are largely 1 or 2 man operations; most small genre presses are. So that one guy buys the book, edits, designs the covers and illustrations or contracts for them, works out distribution, etc. In big presses, of course those areas are all separate. My editor at Penguin, Norton, wherever, are mainly JUST editors. So yes, they give a lot of input, and since I trust my editor implicitly, I take her suggestions to heart. Also my agent’s. In the end, of course, the choice is mine which direction I go with things, but I’ve seen too many writers disregard their editor’s opinions, with disastrous results, to ever do it myself. That’s not to say my novel may not end up a disaster; it’s just it won’t be for lack of me taking my editor’s suggestions.

You’ve also written under a pseudonym, what benefits have you found from doing that?

Not any at all, really. The only reason I did so was because I was staying at my folks’ place years ago an my Mom read part of a story I’d left on my computer and she was like, “You shall NOT drag the good Davidson name though the muck with tales such as that!” And I was eating their food and drinking my Pop’s beer at the time so I thought what the hell, I’ll go with a pen name for my horror stuff.

How much do you pay attention to reviews of your work? While your work has gotten pretty decent reviews by in large, do brutal thrashings like Lizzie Skurnick’s in the New York Times stick with you or have you developed thick skin to criticism?

Yes, Missus Skurnick. I still hold true to my vow that I would give her one of my kidneys if she was dying of renal failure and I was the only suitable donor on earth, but man, that was not all that nice. But whatever — I’m up where the big boys and girls play, so I need to put on my big boy face and not run away and hide when someone kicks sand in my face. And I’ve got the sort of temperament that thrives on being disrespected, taken for granted, told I suck serious ass (which is good, because I’ve been told I suck ass a fair bit), so reviews like that only harden my resolve. I mean, yes, there’s a certain point where if enough people say I stink and don’t buy my books, no amount of resolve will do any good, but until then I just keep plugging away with the feeling that good things are bound to happen.

You’ve received high praise from the likes of Chuck Palahniuk, Bret Easton Ellis, Thom Jones, and Clive Barker to a name a few. Are you big fans of their work and have you had any chance to interact with any of them?

Huge fans of all their work, and obviously heartened by their kind words. Had quite a few emails with Thom Jones, and received a phone call from Clive Barker at my home in Calgary. Met Chuck Palahniuk at a book signing, but never crossed paths with Bret Ellis. Would love to, though.

This last fall you toured to promote Rust and Bone. What was the experience like overall? To my complete horror and embarrassment your blog details your experience in Milwaukee (which will not happen the next time), but did you enjoy touring and the additional PR stuff that goes with promoting your book?

Yes, Milwaukee. And Minneapolis, where the only people who showed were 5 or 6 very enthusiastic students from the local university whose assignment was to go to a book reading — ANY book reading — and report their findings, and mine was the only one going on that night. But I’m sure every writer has stories like that, and they certainly have the potential to be funny later on — providing, of course, I meet with a certain level of success that I can look fondly upon those early experiences.

But yes, overall, it is a fun experience. It’s something that I guess you dream of as an aspiring writer — going on tour, getting a media guide to show you around town, reading to an audience, signing books, getting drunk in a foreign city and finding yourself at an illegal cockfight at 4 am … okay, so not that last bit. My publishers were great with promoting me and sending me about, and I’ll always appreciate their efforts regardless of the end results.

You’re a Canadian, other than the challenges of buying beer without an ID and the lack of hockey in Iowa what are your impressions of the Midwest?

I enjoy the Midwest. As I said, I’ve been too housebound to enjoy it properly, perhaps, but I’m glad I came and the people are wonderful and let Canadians get away with murder! I went down to Austin recently and thought that was a great town, too. I enjoyed Milwaukee and Minneapolis, too, though I wasn’t in either place too long.

You recently sat on a panel “Are We There Yet? Arriving at the End in Postmodern Short Stories”, how did that go? What can you tell us about the End and the Postmodern Short Story?

I can tell you that I know very little about post modernism, as it turns out, much to the disappointment of the 60 or so people who showed up to the panel. Thankfully my fellow panelists DID know their asses from a hole in the ground, so all was not lost!

What’s the last good book you’ve read?

I read House of Leaves, which blew me away. If He Hollars Let Him Go, by Chester Himes, was also a killer.

Craig, you’ve been selected to be one of the judges of a pretty esteemed panel for ChiZine’s 12th annual story contest. What do you look for in great fiction? What qualities get you excited about a story?

I think it comes in many different forms. I would say I like fiction with a bite, that’s edgy and troublesome and toothy. I’m sure there will be plenty of great stories to choose from in that contest.

With what you’ve learned and experienced thus far what would be your advice to struggling writers?

I guess I would say, treat it as a job. As soon as you’re able to, set yourself to a discipline, a schedule, and stick to it. No need to make it a huge thing, either. 100 words a day, or 2-300 if you can. Or an hour a day, or 2 or 3. It builds and grows and, just by constant application, you will see results. I met Joe R. Lansdale down in Austin, a wonderful — and prolific — writer, and he only writes 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. He’s written, like, 30 books! So if you can weather that, plus the existential dread and angst and Lizzie Skurnick’s of this world, you’ll do just fine.

tags technorati : Craig Davidson, Rust and Bone, The Fighter, writing, The Iowa Writers Workshop, Chuck Palahniuk, Bret Easton Ellis,Douglas Coupland, Thom Jones, Clive Barker, Joe R. Landsdale, dogfighting