Thank you, Chris McGinley for interviewing me, and for endowing me with such a grand title. I am not naturally self-aggrandizing and would prefer to defer to humility, but as we head toward publication of The Waters, it’s not the time to question extravagant claims or monikers! After all, I’m self-promoting! I’ve even been a part of writing all manner of catalog copy, advertising copy, book jacket copy (where I’m a “Master of Rural Noir,” no less) filled with claims that I am worth reading.
It’s always a challenge to find ways to talk about a book in its early days. I will say confidently that we don’t know what a book is or how good it is for a while after publication. So as writers and editors and publishers and publicists, it is our job to put all our positive energy and hope toward the possibility that the book is, in fact, very good. It’s a weird frame of mind to be in, and ultimately it is not up to us to decide what is really good: it is up to reviewers and readers and academics to decide.
I’d probably be more comfortable if I could create a work and then let it go and move to the next one, keeping alive the hope that people will like what I have just made; but then I would, meanwhile, be getting on with (completely absorbed in) the next project and so wouldn’t be so invested in the book’s success or so focused on that past work. That’s how I imagine my role model #JoyceCarolOates does it. Instead, I seem to be in the business of convincing people they must give the book a try.
And maybe it will become clear within a year whether a book is pretty good. Maybe. But we won’t know for twenty or even fifty years whether a book is really good, whether it is important, whether it is simply of its time or whether it will be of interest for the long term. Even a very good book may fall by the wayside. That is why, though we promote books with as much energy as we can muster, we can’t take ourselves too seriously.
Meanwhile, if we are fortunate, we get the opportunity to talk about our books with good-hearted, generous, keen readers like Chris McGinley, who happens to be an impressive writer in his own right. I was super happy to have the book appear on CrimeReads, a wildly popular literary site. Why does my book (not a mystery, not a detective book) qualify as a “crime read?” Read the article and find out.
Click here to read the interview.
And please check out Chris McGinley’s new novel, Once in These Hills, from Shotgun Honey press. Click here for info. I did not know until this interview that he was by Once Upon a River to write his novel Or, if you prefer short stories, dive into Coal Black click here. He is the real Appalachian deal and will set you reeling. I want to applaud Chris McGinley for being such an important part of the literary community as writer and interviewer, reviewer, and all around cheerleader for rural stories, all while working full time teaching middle school English and social sciences in Kentucky. I was going to use the word “tireless,” but I imagine that by the end of some days, he might well be exhausted. Bless you, Chris.
I kind of randomly clicked on your publisher’s site the other day and your book came up on the landing page. I pre-ordered it instantly. That jacket copy must be goooooood to have me impulse buying so quickly! (It’s not like me). Looking forward to reading it, and congrats.
Love it...Grit Lit! And rural noir 😁 You’re doing it all so well... this countdown and peeks behind the scenes, Bonnie! Readers have favorites genres...but more importantly, favorite authors! This is going to be a best seller, I can tell! 😊