Matt Bell: The earliest stories in How the Broken Lead the Blind were written in 2006, and the latest written at the very end of 2008. Curiously, none of them were written in 2007, so there is a sort of gap in between the early pieces (the title story, The Present, Player Piano) and the late ones (Ten Scenes from a Movie Called Mercy, Her Ennead.) I don’t know how visible that is in the actual collection, but I hope they hang together well as a small body of work.

MB: I definitely didn’t have a collection in mind when I was writing them—I know some people work that way, but I don’t think I have up to now, or that I necessarily could if I wanted to. I don’t really have “ideas,” and hardly ever know what a story is going to be before I start. Sometimes I’ve hit the third or fourth draft before I’ve really got a handle on what it’s going to be when I’m done, so trying to write stories that purposely fit together would be nearly impossible for me.

MB: I was actually surprised when I started trying to organize the chapbook manuscript that I had as many short-shorts that went together as I did. I was trying to select ten out of the twenty or thirty I had published or felt were publishable, and I mostly wanted to find stories that resonated with each other in close proximity, and that had some crossover thematically without repeating each other exactly. I don’t know how much more I want to say about what those thematic grounds might be, but not because I want to be evasive—From other people’s reactions, I think I’ve realized that here are multiple valid ways to read or interact with some of these stories, and I’d rather not put my own explicit reading on the book as a whole.

TSR: What does the word "story" mean to you?

MB:  For me, stories are always about entertaining people first, with "entertainment" being very broadly defined—I think there’s just as much joy in structure and form or well-crafted wordplay as there is in a finely crafted plot or a good joke or a tear-jerker ending. I want stories to be fun and welcoming, and only once I get readers sucked into the story itself do I feel I can try and work on all those other loftier goals we all have as writers. But entertainment first, at least as a goal.

TSR: Do you have a "reader" in mind when you write stories?

MB:  I don’t think so—Maybe much later, when I’m revising, but certainly not on first drafts. First drafts are all about telling myself stories I like, and about surprising myself as much as possible. When I can’t surprise myself, the story tends to fall apart before I can get it finished, at least in part because if I can’t keep myself surprised and engaged, then I don’t really expect other people to be.

TSR: Is there anything you'd like to ask someone who has read your collection, anything at all?

MB: I’m always curious to hear what people enjoyed or didn’t enjoy, but that’s probably as much ego as anything else, right? We like to talk about ourselves, even when we pretend we don’t. In all honesty though, I’d be just as happy if people who read the book just e-mailed or Facebooked or whatever and introduced themselves, and told me who they are, about their own work or other things they were reading—I’m much more interested in hearing about other people’s work, and being led to new stories and writers and friends that I haven’t found on my own yet.

TSR: How does it feel knowing that people are buying your book?

MB: It’s both amazing and humbling, and I’m very grateful to everyone who bought this book—It was a limited edition chapbook, and it sold out in pre-orders, which was really surprising. I’m so thankful to every single reader for taking the chance on the book, and for then being such kind and gracious readers of it. It’s more than I deserve.

TSR: What are you working on now?

MB: I just "finished" a full-length story collection and am starting the next draft of my novel, which should keep me busy for a while.

TSR: What are the three most recent short story collections you've read?