Ask the Author: Megan Allen
Answered Questions (19)
Megan Allen
The murder scenes, in all their gruesomeness, are definitely the most exciting to write. It’s similar to watching a thriller at the cinema. Our hearts pound when someone’s life is on the line, when time is running out. It’s as if two parts of our consciousness are working simultaneously—one knows it’s just a fantasy, and remains seated, while the other has all the same physiological responses it would if this was a real-life experience. Palms sweat, hearts race. It’s all very invigorating. Especially when you have chocolate.
Megan Allen
Humans are all messed up in their own way, some more than others. I see every person as a combination of his or her extremely unique set of genetics and life experiences, and when you look at humans this way, free will, our ability to choose our path, is called into question. Our habits and personalities are typically shaped long before we are conscious and informed enough to shape them lovingly. So exploring the dark parts of humans has always been important to me. I want to empathize, I want to feel what it’s like to be you.
Megan Allen
I’d love to explore Lair more extensively. I want to know about his childhood, his parents. I have a feeling there wouldn’t be a whole lot of warmth there. And, who knows, I may be doing that in my next work.
Megan Allen
I think Alabama and the Midwest are the places in the world where I’ve felt the most outrage. There are parts of Morocco and Egypt where I’ve felt the same way, where camels are kicked and whipped as they carry bundles of negligent tourists on their backs, where monkeys are tied up in chains under a blazing sun, but I have much less experience there. The blatant racism against black people and minorities in the South is horrifying. Factory farms and the extensive ranches that exist in the Midwest are horrifying. I guess I like to expose those parts of the world and reflect on them. It happens in every corner of the earth, really, but to experience it in plain sight is a type of agony that makes my blood boil and my pen race for the page.
Megan Allen
My mother died when I was young and of course our personal experiences leak into the works of fiction we create. However, I have a great relationship with my dad which isn’t at all cold or complicated like the one presented in The Meat Hunter (though he may disagree when I come to his house to lounge on the couch for weeks at a time, demanding food). The fiction I write is all just fantasy, with a lot of me infused into it.
Megan Allen
I have many strong women in my life. But when it comes to American farms and hogs, men are typically at the forefront.
Megan Allen
Of Mice and Men, Native Son, Enigma Variations and nonfiction like The Selfish Gene and anything by Christopher Hitchens. Steinbeck is probably my all-time favorite author. He had this way of injecting beauty into ordinary, mundane life. Sometimes he goes on and on about something that’s not even relevant to his main story but it’s so gorgeously written that I’m still right there in it.
Megan Allen
Usually it involves copious amounts of chocolate (as a prize after I complete each paragraph, obviously) and a lot of intense feelings. I go to some dark places and have morbid thoughts. I become each character in my mind as I write them, so I feel what they feel, hate as they hate. It can be a wonderful practice in empathy, which is why I think reading and writing are so important. It also amazes me how the story is just kind of there, inside…as if I’m watching it unfold before me like a film as I type. Speaking is similar. Do you sit there crafting each sentence until it’s finished and then say it aloud? No, it’s just there waiting for you, thoughts come and go, in an out—they’re not chosen to the extent we sometimes think they are. I also find it exciting that a story can never be rewritten in precisely the same way because our experience, mood and consciousness change on a minute to minute basis. When I come up with something I like, I feel like I’m capturing it, and I have to be quick because it will never again be the same. I could go on and on about how thrilling this process is to me but I can already feel the yawning and eye rolling of the one person who made it to the end of this paragraph.
Megan Allen
Not much research was necessary when I sat down to write as I’ve been exploring this topic for a long time just out of passion and interest. I’ve interacted with many people who raise livestock for food over the years. Usually when I’m bribing them to give me their animals. And I always ask what it was like when they first sent away an animal for slaughter. Their answers are always reliably the same. They were very young and their parents had given them a pig or cow to raise until it was time. They’ll say things like “it was hard the first time, but then you realize that’s just the way things are.” They become desensitized, hardened, and the little child who would have once been absolutely horrified at the execution of an animal has been pushed aside and forgotten. Humans are dangerously expert at adapting to whatever role society places them in.
Megan Allen
I like that. I think I’ll have it embroidered on a t-shirt.
Megan Allen
I’d love for the meat eaters who read the book to take a mental journey into the world of meat and realize by the end of it they no longer wish to be an accomplice. I want people to engage in the reality that their choices at the store are probably more important than their votes on a ballot. How we use our money is really the most powerful vote we have in this world. Despise animal cruelty? Buy a hamburger and you’ve cast your vote for precisely what you despise. I guess at the very least I’d like people to reflect on how easy it is for the human mind to avoid painful thoughts. Sometimes we need pain shoved in our face so that we’re forced to feel accountable. It’s easy to walk down the aisles of a grocery store and select the biggest, juiciest turkey for Thanksgiving. It’s a lot harder to show up to the barn with a hatchet. I used to call this concept cellophane hunting and most of us blindly engage in it every day.
Megan Allen
I’ve never wanted to write purely for the sake of writing. I’ve wanted my work to say something, mean something, have an influence on the way someone thinks. I love challenging social norms, pointing out the flaws and hypocrisies in the way we function as a society. I’ve recently moved to LA and for the first few weeks have been using a cardboard box as a coffee table. And I’ve been eager to replace it with a real coffee table. But the problem is that the box is totally functional, I have another ten lined up in the garage in the event of a spill, and in a different state of mind, it would seem absolutely absurd to spend money on a table to replace a free one that works just fine. We are told that certain things are right and others are wrong, and questioning this training (a gentle word for brainwashing) is important to me. That being said, I have fallen from my high horse and am, as we speak, setting my coffee down on a conspicuously wooden table.
Megan Allen
As much as I’ve felt drawn to writing, I’ve always felt even more drawn to animals and protecting them. I think a lot of that was instilled in me by my dad, who always told me to be gentle with the little creepy crawly things I once played with in the backyard, who took me on road trips every summer through states like Wyoming, Colorado and Montana so I could photograph wildlife. He taught me how to find wolves, track elk, hurriedly snap a picture of two fighting grizzlies before they moved too close and it was time to retreat. Those years really molded how I see the world and our relationship to other animals. I’ve always thought that from a larger perspective, if some alien was peering down at us (undoubtedly mocking our political choices), we’d be thought of as closer to a single entity than individuals.
Megan Allen
I’ve been writing stories since I was about 7 and have always felt naturally drawn toward fiction. I remember feeling fascinated that I could create entire little worlds in my mind. Of course at that age those worlds consisted mainly of puppies and princesses, probably dancing in unison to the Spice Girls. I’m sure it was an exhilarating time for my dad who was fortunate enough to read them all.
Megan Allen
My books are available on my site at www.missmeganallen.com, from my publisher at www.burnhousepublishing.com, on B&N and Amazon. Thank you for your interest!
Megan Allen
Hi Gigi.
Thank you for your questions. I was inspired to write TSP after my time in the south visiting my father. The racism I witness every time I’m there is very blatant and in-your-face. It eerily feels a bit like stepping into the past.
I have always naturally gravitated toward controversial issues, and my writing is very much a product of this. Starting conversations on social problems which require assessment and re-evaluation is an exercise I hold dear and consider extremely important. My next novel will step inside the American meat industry, and I can assure you my visit there will not be a pleasant one.
As to your last question, while stirring up controversy wasn’t exactly intentional in my writing of TSP, I knew it would be controversial considering the subject matter.
Is your class currently reading TSP? Please let me know if I can answer any other thoughtful questions like these.
Best wishes to you and your class. I'm delighted about your interest in TSP!
Megan
Thank you for your questions. I was inspired to write TSP after my time in the south visiting my father. The racism I witness every time I’m there is very blatant and in-your-face. It eerily feels a bit like stepping into the past.
I have always naturally gravitated toward controversial issues, and my writing is very much a product of this. Starting conversations on social problems which require assessment and re-evaluation is an exercise I hold dear and consider extremely important. My next novel will step inside the American meat industry, and I can assure you my visit there will not be a pleasant one.
As to your last question, while stirring up controversy wasn’t exactly intentional in my writing of TSP, I knew it would be controversial considering the subject matter.
Is your class currently reading TSP? Please let me know if I can answer any other thoughtful questions like these.
Best wishes to you and your class. I'm delighted about your interest in TSP!
Megan
Megan Allen
David downed a fifth of Johnnie Walker Red, in desperation, after hours of torturous insomnia, just begging his brain into a comma. Following a few hours of restless sleep, he awoke to the blinding light of a new day and the recollection that his nightmare continued — Donald Trump was still the leader of the "free" world.
Megan Allen
Working in pajamas.
Megan Allen
Each week I give myself some space and time to just do nothing- during which I eat chocolate, watch Netflix, meditate, eat chocolate, etc. And typically, this is when ideas come, even though I'm not actively seeking them. Did I mention chocolate?
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