TSR:
What
does the word "story"
mean to you?
RBG: When talking about The Legend of Zelda, genius Japanese game
designer Shigeru Miyamoto said he wanted to take the idea of a
game world even further, giving players a "miniature garden that they
can put inside their drawer." This is how I see stories, as a little
world inside a drawer. I feel the definition of a story is very open,
pretty much any clump of words, but I view the experience of reading one
much like how Miyamoto describes exploring the new world of a video
game.
TSR:
Do you have a reader in mind when you write stories?
RBG: I occasionally write with my friends in mind. I sometimes remind myself
of Jane Bowles or James Purdy or John Cassavetes as encouragement to
push my work further. But more often then not, I am writing the story for
the story, I'm trying to let the story realize and see itself. I feel
affection for the bud of the story, and the challenge is to get the
story to a place were it is stable in its existence.
TSR: Is
there
anything you'd like to ask someone who has read your collection, anything at all?
RBG: I enjoy hearing which stories readers like the most/least, and hearing their theories about the stories.
TSR: How does
it feel knowing that people are buying your book?
RBG: It feels great! I like thinking of the books scattering around, ending
up in people's bookshelves and under their beds. Its amazing how much
mind-space a book takes up, but the world of the stories folds up into a
little block. It is a relief to have the stories in a form that is
easy to share.
TSR:
What are you working on now?
RBG: I'm working on a lot of projects. I've been writing a poem a day for
the last 55 days (along with the poet Christopher Cheney). I'm adapting
one of my stories into a screenplay, reviving an old collaborative
screenplay (with the writer Noah Gershman), writing a collaborative
story with the writer John Maradik, and working on a new collection of
stories.
