Ask the Author: Jason Makansi

“Ask me a question.” Jason Makansi

Answered Questions (9)

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What books are on your summer reading list this year?

Jason Makansi Far more than I can read but the night table stack includes Roxanne Gay's An Untamed State, Bandi's The Accusation, Omar El Akkad's An American War, and Nabokov's An Invitation to a Beheading

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What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?

Jason Makansi If I revealed that, it would no longer be a mystery. But my life is very open source.

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Who is your favorite fictional couple, and why?

Jason Makansi Ignatius and Myrna in A Confederacy of Dunces. I mean, they aren't really a "couple" but they are a couple of great characters. Generally, my favorite couples in fiction are best friends, adversaries, or otherwise not in a "traditional" relationship like a marriage, boss-employee, teacher-student, etc.

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What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Jason Makansi Read more than you write. Write more than you sell.

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What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Jason Makansi Imagining someone wandering through a library or bookstore or digital outlet, picking up your title, checking it out, and deciding they will get a unique or valuable experience from reading or studying your work, someone who chanced upon your work rather than had to be "sold" on it by some means, and then was changed for the better because of it.

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Jason Makansi The novel arose from several short stories I wrote with a common protagonist, a character readers (and my various writer group members) seemed to really love. But the germ of the idea is one of two I think I have in me to anchor a long-form work. What I mean by that are ideas which exhibit the breadth and scale necessary for the long form, and which have not been explored at all or adequately in other work.

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How do you get inspired to write?

Jason Makansi I consider writing more perspiration than inspiration. I know that sounds trite but I don't see it as getting inspired, but more as the long slog from concept to a final "product"

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