The Tattered Page

I’m still here, I swear.

So, it’s been awhile. Okay, it’s been a few long ass months since I updated. It’s been a hectic (and pretty stressful at times) stretch leading up to and including the release of The Mournful Threads. With two jobs, the holidays, new projects and other obligations, I haven’t had as much time or energy for regular check-ins, but I’m going to try and be more consistent with it.

To that end, I thought what better way to quickly bring everyone up to speed than with an interview – with myself?

It’s been a busy stretch. On top of your multiple jobs, you released a new book, The Mournful Threads, and appeared in the new volume of Write Where We Are, the annual WriteOn Joliet anthology that came out in December. How do you juggle it all?

The funny thing is I feel like I wish I produced more. One of the things that always triggers my writers’ envy is seeing people churn out content like it’s nothing. I suppose you could say that I do as well, with a fulltime writing career and all, but when it comes time for my fiction writing, I’m pretty slow. I just don’t always have the time I want to do it, or the creative energy. If I can get 50 words down most days, I’ll take it.

How has The Mournful Threads been recieved?

You know, I really don’t know! (laughs). There was a slight printing snafu I caught a couple days after launch. Most people wouldn’t notice or even care, but my OCD ass sure did. So I had to pull it, fix the glitch, and then re-publish. I think that might have hurt any initial momentum. But I’m not out to sell a shitload of books or make a living off of it. I don’t even think anyone has reviewed it (laughs). But the feedback I have received has been terrific. It’s always nice to hear that someone liked your book, but with all the twists and connections ‘Threads has, it’s rewarding when readers have their “ah-ha!” moments with it and are able to put everything together. I wanted to challenge the reader, (though not as much as I challenged myself), with this book. It’s a collection, but it reads like a linear story. Everything connects throughout, sometimes in obvious ways, other times extremely subtle. But in the end the big spider’s web is apparent and when readers get that, it’s a cool feeling. At the same time, it’s a dark, dreary, depressing, and at times, confusing set of tales. Which is the point.

So, Mr. Busy Pants, what’s a typical day like for you?

Shit. You know, I try hard to keep every day “typical.” I despise a change in routine, no matter how small. So, I get up at 4am and go right to the gym. Come home, take a quick power nap, shower, and go to my regular job. When I get home, I usually am working job number two, and sneaking in some other writing while cooking dinner, unpacking/repacking for the next day, and then trying to read, watch a little TV (now that we’re in baseball season, it’s pretty much that), and then I’m in bed by 9 or 9:30 to do it all over again. Weekends are filled with catch-up, errands, housecleaning, and writing.

Fiction-wise, what are you working on now?

I’m currently working on the first draft of a new novel.

What’s it about? Any idea when to expect it?

I’m a pantser by nature, so I don’t completely know yet. But it’s about a young baseball player who joins a semi-pro team in Illinois in 1914, trying to play his way up to the majors. But as he arrives in town, something is off. His teammates, while pretty normal for the most part, have some major quirks, and he suspects something is going on behind the scenes. The manager is a total asshole. There is a strange old guy who is the team’s mascot, groundskeeper and equipment manager all at once. Everything leads up to this one really important game against a team in a neighboring town, but there is no town there. And everyone seems scared of this other team for some reason. The best and worst parts of being a discovery writer are that I’m not sure how it will all unfold and what’s going to happen until I write that part. But I can say it’s basically a genre mashup with a lot of goofy, hilarious, mysterious and tense shit that happens. Not sure when it’ll be out.

And after that?

I have a few irons in the fire. So, we’ll see. Always something coming.