Conversations with the Bookless: Kieran Shea

A couple of years ago Jeff Vandermeer ran a series of blog posts called Conversations With the Bookless. The Conversations with the Bookless series was designed to showcase those writers who are up and coming, who don’t yet have a collection or a novel out, who are making their names known writing short stories. With Jeff’s blessing I will be continuing the series here at BSC over the next couple of weeks, but with a focus mostly on mystery/crime fiction.

From the first generation successes of Anthony Neil Smith, Victor Gischler and Sean Doolittle that came out of Plots With Guns to the later success of zine author/founders Sandra Ruttan and Russel McLean to a lot of others the online zines have, over the years, proved to be a fairly successful and fertile ground for emerging talents to launch a career, highlight their own work and showcase the work of others.

These writers are the next generation and it will be interesting in the next couple of years to see which of them will make it and which will stand out.

Nothing else to say really except to end with a quote from the original series.

The fact is, if you don’t have a book out, it’s harder to get attention and it’s harder for reader attention to crystallize around you. I hope these interviews introduce readers to some of the great talent that, in the coming years, will be amazingly and bountifully bookful. — Jeff Vandermeer

Kieran Shea’s crime fiction has appeared in Word Riot, Thuglit, Pulp Pusher, Dogmatika, Demolition and in the transgressive noir bellwether, Plots with Guns. 　In his own words he is a “Writer and self-deprecating débrouillard, I aspire to beat the crime fiction house at their own game…one broken, bloody bone at a time…”

Why do you write?

Cut-rate therapy. No, for me it’s always been about hacking through the lunch meat and crystallizing broader issues for people. Like greed and betrayal and despair. Plus it’s a blast. I’m Irish so I guess storytelling is in my blood. Since I was small I crafted my own worlds to entertain myself and others.

    
What is the value and purpose of short fiction in Mystery/Crime fiction for you for you personally and overall for the form ad genre?

Foremost the short form is an excellent training ground for the craft and for finding your voice. Short fiction also affords experimentation without risking a great deal of time and effort. But, hey, that’s just me. Some people slave over their short stories. I tend to jam out the germ of an idea rather quickly.

Good short stories also provide a great introduction for people who otherwise wouldn’t bother to read a crime or mystery novel. They’re the free salty snacks at the bar that make you order the third round of margaritas. And shots.

    
What issues or ideas about fiction have been foremost in your mind of late

Were you schooled to believe that fiction’s primary purpose is to examine society? I sure was. But more and more I find said members of this society don’t read sweet fuckall. Like the former President. This is distressing. Then there are the boobs who don’t read fiction. Yeah, yeah…that doorstop on Alexander Hamilton is real cheery, but fiction can tell you how the meat tasted back then, how the streets sounded, what a whore really smelled liked. Next witness.

    
Who is the best short story writer that people haven’t gotten hip to yet?

Easy. Kyle Minor. That hombre bleeds battery acid. I was at a Bouchercon event this past Fall and the whole table was gushing over his recent work on PLOTS WITH GUNS. He’s like the bastard child of Scott Phillips and Raymond Carver. I also really dig Greg Bardsley, Patrick Shawn Bagley, Sophie Littlefield, and Patti Abbott.

    
What do you like most about short fiction?

When it’s done right it’s kind of like a bar fight. Have you ever been in one of those? There’s tension, there’s the faceoff, then POWPOWPOWPOW! It’s over and you’re left staggering, like, what the hell just happened and whose wallet is this? Very exciting stuff.

Recently I read an interview with novelist Anthony Neil Smith in CRIMESPREE where he described short stories are like watching a subway performer, like how you need to impress people passing by right now!

    
Where are you, right now, as you’re writing these answers?

Slumped in my Subaru Outback, waiting for my dentist appointment. Drinking a large Red Bull. Grr. I hate my dentist.

    
When did you start writing short fiction and what prompted you to do so?

First story— 4th Grade. But I’ve gone back and forth over the years to blow off steam. I started doing it in earnest three years ago after I closed my business. My wife and I were at a cocktail party and someone asked her what I was doing and she said I was writing a novel. I was like, gee, thanks a lot! But then I figured, well, why not throw some stuff out there and see if it sticks? To my surprise it did. More followed. Then more, and more….

    
Of all of your stories, which is your favorite; the one that showcases best your abilities?

I received attaboys for PROXY 529 on PLOTS WITH GUNS last Fall. Lucky there as that story was one I was about to chuck into the bottom of the drawer for good. Made a well-thought of agent pop me a nice e-mail.

    
Do you have any short story publications forthcoming?

ELLERY QUEEN MYSTERY MAGAZINE has promised to publish a hardboiled piece of mine called “THE LIFEGUARD METHOD” later this year. And recently I’ve been contacted by two groups putting together modern noir anthologies. I guess the usual places online. David Cranmer’s been kind enough to accept another one of mine over at BEAT TO A PULP. I like what David is doing, mixing up genres.

How do you plan to rectify your booklessness?

I am struggling with writing my first novel. I’m about 50K right now and I want to set the whole thing on fire and bury the ashes in my backyard. But, meh, I understand that’s pretty common.

    
_{Kieran Shea blogs at Black Irish Blarney.}