When did you start writing the book?
I started while I was still in graduate school, but the stories really came together during the two years I was out of classes. I was teaching high school, and it made me budget my time mercilessly. Also, I had a better idea of what I wanted to write about. For me, being in an MFA was great for improving my craft, for trying new ideas, new styles. For meeting writers whose work was highly inspiring. It helped me figure out what mattered to me as a writer, who I was. Once I was out, though, the stories began to really materialize.
How long did it take to finish the first draft?
It actually took me a really long time. Around the time I finished the initial manuscript, just before we went out with it, I went through a really difficult period. It lasted about six months. There were a lot of stresses right then that probably brought it on: my wife had started medical school and was gone a lot of the time. We’d just moved to the suburbs, into a pretty faceless condo in a lousy neighborhood. To make matters worse, I didn’t have a car. The only places close enough to walk to were a 7/11, a massive Bingo parlor, and a furniture liquidator. Anyway, I got pretty depressed, and when I came out of it, a couple months after I sold the book, I looked back at the stories and found that they seemed too flippant and comical to me. I felt like the collection was almost what I wanted, but not quite; it was safer and zanier than I felt comfortable with. Luckily, my publisher at Dial, Susan Kamil, is about the best editor anyone could hope for, and she was very generous about giving me a full nine months extra to re-do parts of the book. I ended up taking out about 4 stories and adding 3 (some of my favorites). I also did some work to bring out common themes. I wanted the book to be coherent, and more than this, I wanted it to hurt a little more.
How many revisions did you write?
Too many to count. Really, each story must have gone through eight or nine drafts at least.
Who read your drafts?
The early drafts were all read by friends. Some of them are college buddies who want to write, too – guys I’ve just stuck with over the years, whose writing I love. Also, a couple good friends from grad school. Again, writers I greatly admire like Owen King, Kelly Braffet and Karen Russell.
How did you decide which comments were important and which you didn't need to heed?
Well the writers I gave the stories to are all people I’ve come to trust over the years, so I took pretty much everything they said to heart. In workshop, though - in college and grad school- that was a very hard lesson, learning how to filter comments. I think the key is trying to feel out who understood what you were going for the in piece. Whoever got the core. Because if they understand the story’s basic intentions, their suggestions are coming from the right place and are usually on point.
Did you use an agent?/How long did it take to find a publisher?
I did use an agent. Finding a publisher through her was a relatively painless process. I was very lucky.
Where were you when you received the offer for the book to be published?
I was at my little sister’s apartment. We were having lunch and my agent called and told me that there’d been some offers. I was through the roof.
Who was the first person you told about the book deal?
My wife. I left her a message first, which she still has. My voice is all shaky; it’s pretty funny to hear.
Has your philosophy on getting published changed?
Overall, it honestly hasn’t. I’ll be the first to admit it - the gods of writing have been extremely kind to me. Not that there haven’t been some really depressing, confusing, frustrating moments along the way, of course: workshops where people hated my work. Teachers who hated my work. Magazines that seemed to hate my work. (Here’s a story for LROD’ers: I once sent a story out to a journal – I won’t say which one – and quickly got my SASE back in the mail with a form rejection inside. Which was fine, except that about two weeks later, I got another envelope in the mail, this time one the magazine’s own envelopes, with their own postage, my address hand-written on the cover. And inside was another form rejection for the same story. Which had me wondering, was the story that bad? You had to reject it twice? On your own dime? And then, about three weeks later, I got another letter from the same magazine, rejecting the story again! In one of their own envelopes, own postage, etc. So they actually paid to reject me twice more than necessary. They hated the story that much! Now fast forward to about six months later. I’m doing a small reading with some school friends. I have one friend who runs a small art gallery in Brooklyn (South First – it’s a great place) and she asked if some of us wanted to read there to promote an upcoming show that had a literary theme. I was thrilled to do it. I hadn’t really done many readings at all. So at the reading I read the story that had gotten rejected 3 times. And afterwards someone comes up to me who happens to be an editor at that same magazine that rejected the story so many times and asks if I’ll show it to them. A couple months later, a tuned up version of the story is published in that same magazine.)
Again, though, overall I haven’t had a very bumpy ride, save a lean year or two. I’ve been fortunate, but I also got an early start. This is something I’ve loved doing in one form or another since I was a kid (I wanted to be a comic book writer and illustrator through my teenage years), and I’ve never really tried much else. So my path has been pretty traditional. I took some classes in college. I took some time off afterwards and worked odd jobs (I worked at Disney World for a bit as a janitor and then as a character) and wrote as much as I could. I applied to grad school and was lucky enough to get in. Later, just as I was finishing, I sent a few stories out and one, “Blue Yodel” got picked up off the slush by a young editor named Michael Ray at Zoetrope (he’s now senior editor there). He worked on it with me extensively and eventually published it. From there I was able to find agents interested in my work. I placed stories in some other magazines I loved, like One-Story and Tin House. And the magazine track record made it much easier for my agent to sell the book once I was finished. Once the book was out, I was able to apply for college teaching jobs. So I teach part time and write part time. Dial also bought my next book, a novel, so I’m under contract to finish it now. Again, Elvis was smiling down on me somewhere along the way.
One thing though: the writing itself is still always really, really hard. It never seems to get easier.
What words of advice would you give to a writer on the journey toward publication?
Without a doubt, try to be your own favorite writer: try to write the story that you would want to open up a magazine and read more than any other story in the world.
