Ask the Author: Michael Atchison
Answered Questions (7)
Michael Atchison
I'd go to Championship Vinyl, where I'd make small talk with Rob, Barry and Dick about the new Liquorice Comfits compilation and then buy a couple of Blue Note reissues, and probably that Lee Hazlewood record that I've been meaning to get for ages.
Michael Atchison
A book is way more than one idea, but Mellow Submarine was rooted in a desire to explore the relationship with an idealized place in my memory. I lived in a small town in Illinois until I was 13, and I remember it as the happiest place on earth. I lived there at a time when my life was uncomplicated and almost exclusively good. I thought about the displacement I felt when I left, and wondered about what it would be like to return after a few decades of life experience.
Michael Atchison
Often, it's by reading. Sometimes, it's by accident (every once in a while, an idea just appears). But most frequently it's by sitting at the keyboard and trying. There have been many days when I've started with nothing, and the ideas have come while I'm working. It's like the old water pumps on my grandparents' farm. You had to crank and crank the things, but after a while, the water came flowing out.
Michael Atchison
Read, write and persist. Reading good writers will push you to be better. Just as you can't imagine a musician who doesn't listen to music, there's really no way to be a good writer without reading. Then, the more you write, the more you unlock and refine your own abilities (and I include rewriting in this). Writing is like any other skill. The more you do it, the better you get. Finally, you have to keep at it. If you have any aspiration to be more than a hobbyist, you have to keep churning out words.
Michael Atchison
How about two things? First, there's solving the puzzle of your own imagination. Working through hundreds, even thousands of small ideas, and then somehow finding how they all fit into a cohesive story that illuminates and/or entertains is immensely satisfying when it works. Second, there's connecting with readers. I don't have a lot of them, but hearing from someone who was moved to laugh, cry or think by words I strung together is always rewarding. The point is to communicate, and until you hear from a reader, you never know if you've succeeded.
Michael Atchison
Usually, it's by forcing myself into the chair, and then forcing words out of my fingertips. Even if it's not good at first, it can often be salvaged later. Sometimes, it's by going to the gym to get away from it for an hour. Right now, it's by answering questions on Goodreads.
Michael Atchison
I don't have a summer reading list as much as I have a bunch of books lined up on my shelf, staring at me disapprovingly for not getting to them sooner. They include Moonglow by Michael Chabon, Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and my friend Bill Connelly's The 50 Best* College Football Teams of All Time. I'm also looking forward to Steve Rushin's Sting-Ray Afternoons, which is due July 3.
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