Below, my answers to the set of self-interview questions going around called "The Next Big Thing." (Although I don't understand, if someone else wrote the questions, how it's a self-interview.) I was happily lured into this project by my long time friend, the poet Patrick Donnelly, whose own very intriguing answers to the same questions can be found here. You should check out his entire blog, and his two books of poetry, The Charge and Nocturnes of the Brothel of Ruin. Below, my answers...
1.) What is your working title of your book?
I am currently in some stage development with a few novels. One is called "Golden Gate." It's only tangentially about California. It takes place almost entirely in New York. What can I say? After 32 years, I'm a New York boy. I want to call the other one "Rearing Joey" -- if the publisher will let me!
2.) Where did the ideas come from for these books?
"Rearing Joey" is based on a story from my collection, My Movie. Golden Gate came out of my fascination with failure and out of my love for New York in the days when Times Square was on the skids.
3.) What genre do your books fall under?
"Rearing Joey" is speculative and satirical. It makes fun of all things gay and all things Manhattan. "Golden Gate" is a straight-ahead narrative about a family held hostage to the dad's dream.
4.) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I don't have any ideas for casting these books. I still wish Geraldine Fitzgerald had lived to be Angela in an adaptation of my first novel, Bob the Book. Now that she's gone, the role would go to Penelope Wilton. She's Isobel Crawley, Matthew's mother, on Downton Abbey.
5.) What would be one-sentence synopses of your books?
Regarding "Rearing Joey" I would say, read my short story, "Calvin Gets Sucked In," and imagine if the character of Joey traveled in the other direction -- and couldn't go back. "Golden Gate" I have already said as much as I want to. It's in an earlier stage.
6.) Will your books be self-published or represented by an agency?
I inherited these interview questions, and I find this one a bit odd. Self-publication and having an agent are not the only possibilities out there. For my first two books I worked directly with a small press, Chelsea Station Editions, so I didn't self-publish. But I have no agent. I have an attorney who reviews my contracts.
7.) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscripts?
"Golden Gate": six or seven weeks; "Rearing Joey" took about seven months. Even though I began with an existing story, a lot of it had to be changed to make it harmonize with the rest.
8.) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I don't know. Again, these questions aren't mine. I think most writers don't like to compare their work or to have it compared to the work of others.
9.) Who or what inspired you to write these books?
Both books talked about here were for fun, though fun of a serious kind. There are multiple tragedies at the heart of Golden Gate; as I suggested, it's a book about failure, though it's entertaining failure, I promise! Judith Halberstam's The Queer Art of Failure got me thinking about the topic generally. It's a fabulous book. SpongeBob is in it!
10.) What else about your books might pique the reader's interest?
Reading them! Stay tuned!
