Okay. I was tagged by the inimitable Bhanu Kapil, and must carry on this chain letter tradition to avoid dying sad and poor. Or something. Please note: almost everything I write is for performance. So. It’s not really stuff that’s being published. This also means: I’m tagging other performance people so I don’t feel as awkward and alone.

 
“The Next Big Thing! as you may know is a multi-branching dna strand of poets twisting and tagging each other in the cybersphere about their digital and actual words as books  or chaps, perhaps bound projects. It was spawned by Carol Mirakove.”

The Next Big Thing questions:

What is the working title of the book? Tornado Season

Where did the idea come from for the book? What it means to leave home, and what it means to return.

What genre does your book fall under? I wrote it originally as an autobiographical solo show that was produced in 2009. So…I guess memoir/anti-memoir. Did I grow up with you? Look out.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition? In the solo show I played all of the characters, to either acceptable or disastrous effect, depending on who you ask. If I could choose actors, though, I would choose Giovanni Ribisi to play all of the male roles – mostly my brother and the kid who grew up down the street from us and became a meth head and burned down his garage. Beyond that: I would really have to do some thinking.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book? Where the Bible Belt meets Tornado Alley, where fires meet floods: cowboys, debutantes, crystal meth, America (see original production postcard below!).

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? It took me almost four years to write the solo show, off and on between various and sundry other projects.

Who or what inspired you to write this book? America.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? I don’t know, really. It’s largely about growing up in small town America in the 80s and watching people and things fall apart right before your very eyes. Decay. It’s also funny sometimes! Yea!

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? What? I don’t know. As I am not a “writer” in the “finding an agent sort of way” I would guess that it could become a chapbook. When it’s finished, it will be about chapbook size, actually. Who want to print my chapbook??? Anyone? Anyone?

Okay.  I tag: Michelle Ellsworth, Neal Medlyn, Kelsie Huff, Brenda Withers, & Christopher James Weddle

postcard design by James Harrison; photo by Bob Cadloff