Conversations with the (not) Bookless: John Weagly

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

I decided to wind down the Conversations with the Bookless series with three writers who aren’t bookless but are still trying to break through to that elusive wider audience. Three writers worth your attention.

John Weagly’s collection, The Undertow of Small Town Dreams, was published in 2003. Locus gave it a favorable review calling Weagly a “writer to watch” and noting that the small town setting of the collection is “located somewhere on the edges of Twain’s Territories, just downstream from Bradbury country, a touch east of, oh, that distinctive Nina Kiriki Hoffman map.”

    
Why do you write?

In 1992, I was writing short plays and had my first production (It was a rip-off of The Maltese Falcon). It was a great experience and I kept writing and kept writing. Now, all these years later, writing is something I can’t imagine not doing.

So, I guess it’s a bad habit I picked up in the early nineties.

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

The proliferation of self-publishing. I think when an author self-publishes a book, it hurts all writers.

I have a theater background. Theater is a near-dead art form, and I think some of that has to do with community theater. Community theater dilutes the theatrical pool the same way self-publishing dilutes the literary pool.

People do community theater. Most of them aren’t that good at it and, since it’s community theater, they have no real reason to get better. But they do shows and they force their friends and neighbors to come see them. This is the only taste of theater that most of these people get. They never go to anything else, they never even consider going to anything else, because the community theater production was so unprofessional. It leaves a bad taste in their mouths.

Authors that self-publish are doing the same thing with fiction. A lot of people already hate reading because of books they were forced to read in high school. Then a friend or neighbor comes along with their self-published book. The poor victim buys the book, tries reading it and never wants to crack open a book again.

It seems like I hear about more and more self-published books every day and more and more excuses on why self-publishing is the way to go. It’s all delusional claptrap. I firmly believe that if someone’s ready to be published, they will be published – in the traditional way.

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

Martin Mundt. Mainly a horror writer, Marty writes dark, funny, twisted stuff and I don’t think I’ve ever read a less-than-stellar story by him. He has two collections out, The Crawling Abbatoir and The Dark Underbelly of Hymns, and can be found in a few anthologies here and there. Incredible stuff!!!

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

Sitting at my desk in my office, which is also our second bedroom. I’m surrounded by books and movie posters and, as I type this, I have a
large black and white cat trying to curl up on my keyboard.

    
What do you like most about short fiction?

As far as reading, sometimes I like to be able to get the whole story in one sitting. Short stories are also a good way to sample new authors without investing the time it takes to read a novel.

As far as writing, I tend to write with a touch of OCD, once I start a project I become obsessive about it. With short stories, that nagging, compulsive, constantly-thinking-about-the-story behavior only lasts for a couple days. If I ever feel like writing a novel, I have a feeling that behavior will control my life for a couple months.

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

I’d been writing short plays for a few years, mainly to entertain myself. I didn’t even refer to them as “plays,” I called them “exercises in self-amusement.”

In early 1997 I was reading a lot of short fiction. I read an awful short story (I don’t remember what it was) and said to myself, “This is horrible! I could come up with something at least this good.” A little while later, I read Dashiell Hammett’s short story “The Scorched Face” and said to myself “This is incredible! I could never come up with something this good, but I’d love to try.”

So I tried and made a lot of mistakes. I finally managed to get one published in the Summer of 1999 in a magazine called PIRATE WRITINGS.

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

All of my stories have a special place in my heart, but if I have to pick one, I’ll go with “Shark Infested Pudding.”

I wrote it in 1998 and was quite pleased with the final result. It was the first time that I felt the finished story came close to the initial idea I had bouncing around in my head. I liked the characters, I liked the setting and I thought it showcased my ability to write dialogue. For four years it met with rejection after rejection after rejection. Finally in 2002, it was published in a now-defunct web-zine called JUDAS. It was subsequently nominated for a Derringer Award.

    
Do you have any short story publications forthcoming?

My story “The Long Hole” is going to be in an anthology called CHICAGO OVERCOAT and my story “Saucer–Men of the Second City” is going to be in an anthology called THINGS AREN’T WHAT THEY SEEM. There are also a few others, but the anthologies seem to be in limbo.

    
How do you plan to rectify your booklessness?

By continuing to write, continuing to submit. My understanding is that short story collections are the hardest things to get published. I was lucky to have one, The Undertow of Small Town Dreams, come out from a small publisher in 2003. I plan to keep chugging away and see if I can get lightning to strike twice.

    
_{For more information about John Weagly and links to some of his stories check out his website.}