Q&A with Brian Krans discussion

I moved this to its own post. C. asked, "On the back of ACS, it says "Part-memoir,part-fiction." Could you give an example of each - a part that's true and a part that's fiction? "

All of my writing is a mix of fact and fiction. To boil it down to its simplest, I steal from my own life, but start making things up to make it more interesting.

In A Constant Suicide, I pulled directly from my own college experience. The scene where Ethan and Chris met is how I met one of my best friends at college, although he did know the girl he was helping move in. She's now his wife.

I had a roommate in college, but his nickname was STD Keith. He's the one that told us the story of the Subway bag.

I killed a whole bunch of koi fish in college. That, too, was an accident.

I lived in "the Attic house."

I didn't have a friend in college who killed himself, but I attempted suicide in college.

The most important part of the book that's fact are Ethan's journal entries. Many of them are my own from college. It was very cathartic to take all those feelings of pain and turmoil to see them in print. It helped a lot.

Hope that answers the question. Thanks for asking, C.!

It does answer the question, and I completely understand the idea of "stealing" from your own life, because I do the same thing when I write. Even if I've never found myself in the situations that my characters have, their actions are my own reactions.

It's also a cathartic way of being able to do things that you wouldn't normally do in real life. You can make your characters make extremely poor decisions or put them in situations you don't see yourself getting into on your own. It gives you a kind of god-like presence, which is kind of weird in and of itself.

Indeed. It also keeps my ass out of trouble when I say things that people wouldn't appreciate!