I’m curious about Death Don’t Have No Mercy. Had those stories been accumulating over a long period of time, or did you mostly write them after Gravesend? Do you still write short stories, or do your short stories mostly evolve into novels at this stage in your career?
What were you doing while waiting for someone to snap up Gravesend? Did getting that book published allow you to quit your day job and focus on writing, and if not, at which point did you feel you could make that leap?
My wife Katie reads all of my rough drafts–she’s a great reader and has a really good sense of when things are off or still need to be developed. My friend Alex Andriesse–a translator and poet–has read drafts of several of my books and offered invaluable input. Beyond that, I know it can be a big burden to ask people to read drafts, so I don’t ever ask other writer pals.
The stories in that collection–there are eight of them–are from the years 2006-2014. I had started out publishing them in little online and print crime magazines in the mid-aughts and then wrote a couple of them for MFA workshops. The first six stories in the collection predate Gravesend but the last two were written after I’d finished it.
I do still write stories, mostly for anthologies. A couple of years ago I published a story called “New York Blues Redux” in this anthology inspired by the work of Cornell Woolrich and edited by Maxim Jakubowski.
That story was reprinted in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023, edited by Lisa Unger and Steph Cha.
This year, I have a story called “Just Like Fire Would” in anthology edited by Nick Mamatas called 120 Murders: Dark Fiction Inspired by the Alternative Era and a story in a forthcoming anthology of crime fiction inspired by Alfred Hitchcock.
One of the stories I’m proudest of is called “Shoveling Out”–it was published in Memphis Magazine in 2014 and is available online.
I prefer writing novels–I’m more suited to it–but I do enjoy writing stories now and again, especially for themed anthologies.
Gravesend, as I said, was my MFA thesis. After I graduated, I was revising it and sending it out and trying to get an agent. I was in my mid-thirties at that point. I’d been teaching as a grad instructor and/or adjunct for a decade already–I’d also taught high school for a year, done a couple of terms of Americorps, been a substitute teacher, and worked as a housepainter and in a liquor store. By 2012, I was adjuncting full-time–I needed to for health insurance for me and my family. I was prioritizing writing, spending every spare minute I had working on Gravesend revisions and new stuff in progress. Desperation fueled my process. My wife and I had our son, born the last year I was in the MFA program (and our second child was on the way). Gravesend came out with a very small press and most certainly didn’t allow me to quit my day job(s). When it got published in France a few years later–I still didn’t have an agent at that point–that was the first time I ever received an advance. And that was really the first year that I made any money whatsoever as a writer. My motto has always been to keep my head down and do the work and keep thinking about the next thing. I have built a career as a writer, but I don’t make enough off my writing to survive on so I still teach. I adjuncted for a decade or so–some semesters I was teaching five or six classes–and I also spent about seven or eight years during that stretch working at my pal’s record store. I still teach, though now I’ve been promoted to full-time instructor. I don’t foresee a situation where I’ll be able to quit and write full-time. Anyhow, I like teaching. And, as my wife always reminds me, I work better as a writer the busier I am. Give me nothing but free time and I’ll probably struggle. But if I have that brief window in the morning before I have to go to campus, there’s desperation involved and I get things done. Most of my writing is done in the morning from five am to nine am before other stuff intrudes. Desperation has been the key ingredient in everything I’ve ever published–I think you can feel it in the stories and characters. Whatever my situation, I’m always prioritizing writing. Writing isn’t just about sitting down and typing words on a screen. I’m thinking about projects as I walk, drive, between classes, in classes, as I talk to folks–the work is inspired and influenced by so many things I see, hear, and read. I teach a true crime class every semester and I always use Leah Carroll’s excellent memoir Down City–that book has inspired me so much.
My gosh, that sounds intense! I’m truly impressed with how dedicated you are to your craft, and it’s astounding to me that you’ve published as much as you have to-date. Does it ever feel like a chore, or is it so much a part of you that you have to write?
(Not to mention the additional challenges presented by having two teenagers to manage!)
It never feels like a chore. Definitely feels like I have to write. It’s the way I make sense of the world, the way I process grief and trauma and anxiety, and it just feels necessary. And I feel the same way about consuming art. I’ve had stretches, mostly when I’m traveling, where I’m out of my routine, not able to write beyond messy note-taking, not able to read as much or watch as many movies or listen to as much music–that’s when I feel most lost. I’m very much a creature of habit and routine, and I can be incredibly disciplined about writing. There’s a certain grace that comes with getting good work done.
What, if anything, has changed about your writing since Gravesend was published in 2013?
How involved do you get in the creation of the audio versions of your novels? Are there any screenplays in the works?
Can you share with us what you’re working on now?
If you stop learning and growing and being curious, that’s death as a writer. So, I think and hope I’m always developing. A lot of that has to do with discovering and being influenced by other writers and artists. It never fails to amaze me how much stuff there is out there to discover! And, of course, getting older plays a part. My perspective on the world is much different in my mid-forties than it was in my late-twenties and early-thirties. Saint of the Narrows Street is a book very much rooted in fears and paranoias surrounding parenthood. I’ve always found some balance between younger characters and older characters in my books, and now–I’d say–it’s much easier to write these older characters shaped by loss and grief and to explore how the yearning of childhood and young adulthood develops into a different kind of yearning as life goes on. I mentioned Jonathan Kaplan’s Over the Edge before–I just rewatched it, and I’d always aligned myself with the rebellious kids, so it’s strange now to feel some empathy and sympathy for the parents.
I’ve had input on choosing the narrator in every case. Carol Monda, who reads Saint of the Narrows Street, blew me away–I knew she was the person to read it as soon as I heard her voice. With Saint of the Narrows Street, I went through the pronunciation of certain names and words thoroughly with them. That was very important to me because I hate to hear things–especially character names and place names–mispronounced. I was glad they went the extra mile to assure that didn’t happen.
I just finished and sold my new novel. I try not to talk too much about things until they’re all-the-way finished and work still needs to be done on this one, but it should be out in early 2027. As I work on revisions of it, I’ve started writing what I hope will be my next book after that.
There has been some interest in adapting my books into movies and shows, but nothing has come of it yet. A couple of scripts have been written–one not very good, the other much better. We’ll see. Hopefully something works out down the road. Definitely a big dream of mine, though I know it’s always a risky proposition.
I have an original script I wrote several years ago that my buddy, the filmmaker George Griffith, was trying to get made, but that hasn’t worked out either. Back in high school, I used to want to write screenplays, but that dream mostly died. Every once in a while, I still have an idea for a movie I think I might follow through on, but I usually develop it into a story or novel instead.
Is there anything you’d like to bring up about your work (or anything else!) that we haven’t touched on? Any questions you wish I’d asked?
Thanks for the great questions! One thing I do like to talk about with my books that we haven’t really touched on is music. What the characters are listening to. What I was listening to as I was writing. In Saint of the Narrows Street, it feels particularly relevant since music is a major part of the lives of all of the characters. Chooch with his hair metal (I really got to have fun with that since that was what I loved as a kid and there was a famous metal club right near my neighborhood). Fab latching onto the music his estranged (well, in his eyes) old man loved–the same stuff as Chooch. Risa with her Joni Mitchell albums and the yearning for a different life that comes with that. Giulia dated a guy in high school who has gone on to become a famous rock star–that’s all fictional but rooted in reality. And then there’s the stuff I was listening to as I worked, mostly instrumental music. A lot of Loren Connors. Here’s a playlist I made for the book. Thanks so much for having me!
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That is so awesome! Thanks for linking to that!
Any idea how things like book club kits come into being? I’ve seen some that get pretty elaborate - discussion questions, recipes, author interviews, and playlists like yours. It seems like Saint of the Narrows Street deserves the full treatment.
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I don’t have a question to ask but wanted to let you know how much I loved Saint of the Narrows Street. You captured the setting so perfectly right down to the skillet in the kitchen and the characters were so beautifully drawn to fit into that setting. I like a novel with intensity and some darkness so this one was a big hit with me. Thanks so much for joining us here and answering questions.
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I don’t really know anything about how stuff like that happens, but I always love when writers/books get that treatment. My pal (and my favorite writer) Willy Vlautin has had that in some of his books (it seems like something Harper Perennial does a lot) and I love it so much.
Thank you! I truly appreciate the kind words. So glad to hear you enjoyed the book.