TSR:
What
does the word "story"
mean to you?
EC: Tales. Jokes. Dramatizations of events based on true life or coming from
the imagination. Reminds me of the play True West, written by Sam
Shepard, when the character Lee asks the show-biz agent, and I'm
paraphrasing here, "You don't really know
have to write do you, to tell stories. I mean lots of guys have
stories."
TSR:
Do you have a reader in mind when you write stories?
EC: I actually don't. I'm actually too busy thinking of the writing. To do so, it seems, would make it even more complicated.
TSR: Is
there
anything you'd like to ask someone who has read your collection, anything at all?
EC: Ask them if they were ever confused about something, did it all make sense, and what were their favorite parts.
TSR: How does
it feel knowing that people are buying your book?
EC: I try not to think about it. I try to stay down to earth. But it does
create a good feeling when you see a review in the Irish Times or some
other far-flung place. (I'm in the American Midwest, at the University
of Iowa.) Then I see on the Internet where they have two copies of my
book on hand at St. Mark's Bookshop on 31 Third Avenue in New York
City's Manhattan, and kind of go, "Wow." Just picturing my book there.
But you block that out of your mind eventually.
TSR:
What are you working on now?
EC: I've got a couple things going. Working on that short story some more I
mentioned earlier concerning a great Native American athlete; and I have a
project in mind that might become a novel. I'm trying to weave a bunch
of my interests or previous story ideas into one book.
