PageOneLit.com: Why do you write?
TB: This may sound very selfish, but I
learned a long time ago that nothing
really feels as satisfying to me as
putting down my pen or stepping away
from the keyboard with the feeling that
I really captured something good, even
if it's only one line of dialogue or a
certain description somewhere within
several thousands words. That's not to
say that I don't take satisfaction from
a great many other things in life, or
that I regularly feel like I knock it
out of the park, but the hunt for that
particular satisfaction is a large part
of why I write, even when the words
aren't coming easily. When I get that
feeling it can linger for days or weeks,
and when I go back through an old
notebook or story and find something
that really rings true to me, I get to
relive that feeling once again.
Beyond that, I just think communication
is important. It's a real need, a human
thirst, to create and share ideas, and
it has been ever since the first stories
were thought up and shared around a
fire. And writing fiction is a great
way to communicate. It lets you project
yourself as a writer into a different
consciousness and try to puzzle things
out from a different viewpoint, through
a different pair of eyes. Sometimes it
works, sometimes it doesn't, but the
attempt is the thing.
PageOneLit.com: In your new book,
"Everyone Drives", you have written and
outstanding collection of stories -
Please explain the common theme that
runs thru this collection.
TB: All of the characters in these
stories are people in transition.
They're people that have found
themselves at a particular place in
their lives, in some cases one that they
actively worked to reach, and wondering
if they're really where they want to be,
and where they'll go from there, and how
they'll get there. So I looked at the
act of driving as not just getting into
a car and turning on the ignition and
pulling into the street and physically
moving from point A to point B to
accomplish some errand - you can do
that, sure, but you can also
drive yourself to someplace new
spiritually, in your mind - to a new
outlook, a new idea, a new
understanding, any of those things and
more. Wanderlust has been a part of the
American consciousness for a long time,
and the road novel has been around for a
long time, not just in America. Of
course, this isn't a road novel, but I
wanted that spirit of restlessness
and questing and discovery to run
through these stories - sometimes in a
really flawed way, because some of these
characters are pretty deluded about
themselves. I tried not to judge them,
though - I just tried to let them be
themselves and see where that took the
story.
PageOneLit.com: What is it about the
short story genre you enjoy?
I really got into short stories because
I wanted to write novels, but I didn't
think I was ready. In addition to that
horror novel I mentioned earlier, I
wrote about three drafts of another
book, but it just wasn't coming out
right. Like a lot of inexperienced
writers, I was in a huge hurry, and what
I was writing had no depth. I decided
that I needed to understand the
construction of short story before I
could venture into the wilderness of a
novel and come out with anything good
and my sanity and self-esteem anything
close to intact. So at first it was a
stepping stone kind of thing. But as I
wrote more and more stories, and read
more and more - a lot of Hemingway,
Raymond Carver, and people like Thom
Jones, Judy Budnitz, Robert Bingham,
Stuart Dybek, and Annie Proulx - I
really began to appreciate the short
story on its own terms. My wife's
mother is a reader, but she says she
doesn't care for short stories because
she always feel like they end too soon,
right when she's made an emotional
investment in the characters, and she
finds that frustrating. But I often
enjoy short stories for that very same
reason - being the fan of ambiguity that
I am, I love the idea of a small window
that you get to look into for a time and
then move on, taking away your
interpretation of events, wondering what
goes on in there after you've left.
PageOneLit.com: Explain your title
"Everyone Drives" as it relates to the
collection.
The title is something my brother said
about stock car racing and why it
appeals to such a large audience: so
many can relate to it because almost
everyone drives. I liked that, so I
stole it and had a character in one of
the stories say it, the first story,
which happens to have the most actual
driving in it. I changed it around a
little bit, but it basically came from
him. Not everyone, of course, because
so many more in the world don't drive
than do, actually - but in a city like
Atlanta, where I live, at rush hour, it
sure does feel like everyone does
drive. And as I started thinking about
it, I started thinking about how the
simple act of driving links so many
people on a daily basis. And from there
I got the idea of driving as a metaphor
- the title could just as easily be
"Everyone Changes," or maybe better yet,
"Everyone Wants to Change." Everyone is
trying to get somewhere.
PageOneLit.com: Lets take one story from
"Everyone Drives" - 'THE COLONEL' -
Explain this story from your point of
view. Have you ever been in the
military? This story is dedicated to
Dennis Patrick and JB - explain. Where
did this story come from?
I was in the Army for about five years,
and Dennis Patrick was a guy that I
served with. "The Colonel" partially
evolved from something he said once,
about how in the south, every old
veteran gets called "Colonel" even if
they were only a cook. He was joking,
of course, but that just sort of hung
around in the back of my mind until I
was out of the Army and in corporate
America, where I met my friend JB. One
afternoon, he told about something a
mutual acquaintance had done - this
person had been in the Army as well, and
they'd claimed to have marched three
hundred miles from behind
enemy lines, hiding out in farmhouses
and moving under the cover of darkness.
It just sounded like a lie, because this
person didn't look like the type who
could make a three mile march, much less
three hundred miles, and it just didn't
ring true for a lot of other reasons.
There's something about the
macho overdrive in the military culture
that often inspires people to exaggerate
their prowess and accomplishments. I've
certainly encountered it before, and I
guess in a roomful of white-collar
workers this guy felt safer stretching
the truth. So that turned into the
Colonel in the story.
PageOneLit.com: Do you have a personal
favorite story from "Everyone Drives"?
I think the first one, "I Don't Know
Anyone at this Party," is the story that
I'm proudest of overall. It sort of
leapt into my head almost fully formed,
and I really enjoyed the experience of
writing it. Not to get too mystical,
but it really started to feel like I was
channeling something, that the story was
moving from somewhere else and through
me, that another voice was trying to
tell me something. Of course, some of
what I was trying to channel may have
gotten lost in translation, but any of
that would be my fault.
PageOneLit.com: What did you learn from
writing "Everyone Drives "?
I learned a new respect for the craft
and discipline of writing. I learned
how elusive an idea can sometimes be,
and also how easily an idea can come if
you let it. Sometimes a story can sort
of fall out of the sky if you're ready
to catch it, and some of these did.
Other times, you have to be patient and
willing to dig a little bit.
PageOneLit.com: What's next?
I'm still writing stories - some of them
were ideas left over from "Everyone
Drives," some are older, some I've just
come up with in the last few weeks. And
then there are the novel ideas that I've
had for a few years, which I'd really
like to explore at some point. I just
have some additional stories I want to
get out first.
PageOneLit.com: What was the last book
you read?
"The Road," by Cormac McCarthy. It's a
masterpiece, everything that's been said
and more.
PageOneLit.com: Do you have any
hobbies? What are they? How do they
enhance your writing?
My wife and
I just bought a house this year that
needs some fixing up, and our first
child is due next year, so there isn't a
lot of time for hobbies. But aside from
writing, I play guitar - I have this
Gibson Les Paul that I love, and I'm
not that good, but I know a little.
That's another creative outlet that
takes dedication and that you have to
respect it if you ever want to get
anywhere. In a lot of ways, writing a
story is like learning to play a song -
you just have to keep after it, a little
bit at time, until it sounds right.
