Q: In one sentence, tell me something that describes you as a person?
Self-possessed, charismatic, driven, and playful.
Q: How many books have you written? How many of those are published?
I have written two novels, Broken Land, a Brooklyn Tale, and Raking the Dust (which was released on March 10th), and a collection of stories, Freeze Tag. All three have been published.
Q: If you could “create” your own genre of what you write, what would you call your books?
I’m going to steal this term from a friend of mine, who once referred to my work as “tender psycho-surrealism.”
Q: Without quoting your back cover synopsis, tell me about the last book you published.
Well, it’s a novel that I liked to think of as an odyssey of internal consciousness. The journeys we take inside ourselves and how those are often reflected back to us in the external world. In this case, the reflections are distorted, fragmented, schizoid, and jigsaw-puzzle-piece-like, in that trauma and addiction and disillusionment color and inform the “reflections.” Also, it’s a slanted love story, and a story about the pursuit of passions and dreams. About the nature of creative process and self-invention.
Q: Tell me something about yourself that is separate from writing.
I’m in love with the amber glow of lamplights. And lamp-lighted windows. That is, being on the outside, looking in. It gives me this sense of home, from a near distance.
Q: Who is your favorite Author?
Wow, to pick only one is tough. I’ll give two, one contemporary, one classic: Haruki Murakami (contemporary), Henry Miller (classic).
Q: What is the last book that you read? (Not counting anything you wrote)
Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson.
Q: When writing, do you have a system or something you plan, or do you just write?
Depends on what it is I’m working on. For my last novel, which was my most ambitious literary project to date, I had a sort of architectural plan, or blueprint. Of course those blueprints are mutable, and change according to the organic structure that arises. I also had written a bunch of notes and sketches pertaining to the characters and their backgrounds. Also, notes pertaining to settings and themes. I almost always have key refrains, which are kind of like my meditative anchor-points.
Q: Why do you write?
It has been my heart and soul since I was a kid penning super-hero and crime serials for a pretend audience. I am compelled to explore the inner world, the worlds that live inside us. The characters and voices that live inside us. Who knows from where stories come, and why certain ones need to pass through us. For me, it is a matter of dropping in, listening, and bringing them out into “reality.” Of honoring what is an ancient tradition and craft.
Q: Any final thoughts that you want to give to your fans or even future authors?
Dream actively, not passively. Dream-consciousness, myth-consciousness is an exceptional fuel which will power amazing and profound voyages. Divine audacity (to steal my girlfriend’s term) is the ultimate mover-and-shaker. Or so I believe.
