I
fell in love with Deirdre Lockwood before I met her, which sounds creepy, and it isn't
entirely true. I fell in love with her writing, specifically, her novel excerpt
she submitted for our Mat Johnson ass-of-badness Tin House Writer's Workshop. On
each of her pages there was that thing that I crave as a reader: the moment
when you have to stop reading and just enjoy the sentence or thought before
moving forward. You can even get a sense of this from her Blog Writing Tour. I’m honored she
invited me to do this.
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| Alone time at the Tinhouse Writer's Workshop (Reed College) |
1) What are you working on?
I've been working on my first novel for a long time. It's
called Only a Few Pictures, and
it's about a19-year-old Hungarian boy who migrates to America in 1992 to pursue
his dream of becoming a big-time movie director, but he's sidetracked by a
posse of shady, traveling magazine salesmen, lascivious co-eds, and a yoga
community whose residents have a penchant for extreme colon cleansing. There's
a healthy dose of misrepresentation, disillusionment, and delusion by everyone
involved—including the author.
2) How does your work differ from others of its genre?
I feel like it's as hopeful as
it is despondent. Just depends on
who’s reading it.
3) Why do you write what you do?
The
most important people in my life are immigrants: my husband (the novel is
inspired by his immigration story), my father, and my closest friends. And at my
job, I'm the ultimate outsider. I've been working at the Korean Consulate as
the speechwriter for much of my adult life. I think the reason I've been able
to stay as long as I have is because it's one of the few places I feel at home,
which is to say, out of place. I'm the foreigner there; it's okay for me not
to fit in. It’s not even expected. That’s a huge relief.
One of my favorite books is American
Pastoral. Page 35 sealed the deal for me.
This part in particular sums up the pathology of wanting to
write (and read) what I do, "That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong.
Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and
just go along for the ride. But if you can do that--well, lucky you."
4) How does your
writing process work?
I am at once guilt fueled and stunted. It goes something like
this: I should be writing; I don’t write enough. Even doing this blog is
bringing on the guilt.
Self-loathing also plays a role: I suck for not writing; maybe
I’m not writing because I suck, or I’m afraid I’ll offend someone, or worse, an
entire nation.
I think a lot, furrow even more, sometimes my fingers don’t even
touch the keyboard. But I’m fantastic at sitting still; that’s important. Music
is too distracting. People are distracting. I will never write in public,
though I may take notes from time to time, mental ones all the time. Not
writing makes me hungry, so does writing. It also makes me want to
listen to music instead of writing. Sometimes I do Pomodoro, but I usually end up extending the break time. The
Freedom program helps the most. But there's
still my dog Watson, accordion, dirty laundry, books to read, and organize. (My
latest obsession/distraction is listing all the movies in order as they appear in the trailer for the NYFF to win Inherent Vice tickets. Done!)
When I actually write, I read everything aloud several times.
And I tweak a lot (not crystal meth, but sentences). My favorite thing
about writing is the tweaking. Which is why I loved this quote from Philip Roth’s
The Ghost Writer:
“I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and
then I turn it around. Then I look at it and turn it around again. Then I have
lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn
the new sentences around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both
around. Then I lie down on my sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out
and start from the beginning. And if I knock off from this routine for as long
as a day, I’m frantic with boredom and a sense of waste.”
Mainly,
I have to reckon with Watson, but if I’m lucky, for the two hours I am writing,
he’ll be under the table, warming my feet, like he is now, instead of doing
this:
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| Relentlessly Restless Watson |
Coming
soon
Monica Carter - She cracked me up before I met her, and now I miss the heck out of her.
Not only is she a gorgeous writer, she is the best reader/reviewer I know, and
she has shared many wonderful books with me--one of my favorites, Your
Republic is Calling You. I'm so happy we officially met on that shuttle
from Reno Airport to the Squaw Valley Writing Workshop two years ago.
Jared Lipof - I hated this guy before I met him (I feel like I'm coming
across as a stalker). Lucky enough to be in the same Tin House
Workshop with him. From the first page of his novel excerpt, I was laughing and
my heart was heavy. I almost emailed him before meeting him to tell him I
wanted to be his friend. Because his writing is that great.
Aline Ohanesian - This dead-ringer for Sophie Marceau has a hauntingly beautiful novel coming out in April
2015—you can pre-order it from Powell’s.
And if you don't read, you can listen to it because it's so wonderful that they
already sold the audio rights. I've got money on it eventually becoming a major
motion picture. Best of all, we shared a bed at the Squaw Valley Writer’s
Workshop in 2012.
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