From his Q & A with Rhett DeVane at the Southern Literary Review:
SLR: Is there an intended message in If Jack’s in Love that you wish readers to grasp?--Marshal Zeringue
SW: I never write with a message, and If Jack’s in Love doesn’t have one. If I believed a novel with a message could have some salutary impact on the world I’d feel more of a duty to moralize. Writing is a joyful experience. Even when I’m writing about murder and social injustice I’m doing it out of joy. Why did I write If Jack’s in Love? I don’t know, except to reinvent my boyhood, a fun time full of mystery and promise. I wrote the sentence “I think I belonged to the last generation that could play outside,” and took it from there.
SLR: What is your greatest challenge as a newly-minted published author?
SW: I’m a loner, and I’d prefer to write quietly while someone else promotes my work. I don’t want fame or celebrity. I would have enjoyed these when I was in my twenties, but it’s late in the day now, and I go to bed early.
SLR: What would you consider your greatest asset and how do you use this in your work?
SW: I’m improvisational, and I never pay much attention to literary dogma or theories about writing. I enjoy knowing them, but I don’t let them guide me. Each novel I write I approach as an individual task and trial. Every novel, every story, is experimental. There is no such thing as...[read on]
