About “Times At the Drive-In”

1. What was your motivation for writing “Times At the Drive-In”?

What happens at the end of the story, unwittingly coming upon the drive-in screen in Greenville, really happened. I had an immediate, visceral sadness. I tried to trace why I had that feeling and connected the dots back to my experiences at drive-ins from childhood on.

2. What challenges—if any—did you have writing your story?

It’s so intensely personal and evokes some truly painful moments from my past. But like most art, it brings things to light to be healed.

3. What is your favourite line—if any—in “Times At the Drive-In”?

“He laughs at the memory, using the one useful tool the three of us share against the vagaries of life. I laugh along, because to face the guilt I feel would immobilize me like an ancient insect frozen in amber.”

4. What do you want people to walk away with after reading “Times At the Drive-In”?

I suppose the communication of grief, and the sometimes winding way it takes on the road to uneasy resolution.

5. Is there anything else you would like to talk about regarding “Times At the Drive-In” that hasn’t been asked?

How gratified I am that it is being shared.  

Reading

1. What are you currently reading?

I just finished George Saunders’ latest novel, “Vigil”.

2. Do you have a favourite book? If so, what is it?

Too many! Saunders’ “Lincoln at the Bardo,” James Joyce’s “Dubliners,” Tom Stoppard’s play, “Arcadia,” Conor McPherson’s plays “The Weir” and “Seafarer” leap to mind.

3. What is your favourite poet or author, if any?

Along with the authors mentioned above, John Keats, Tracy Letts, Jaz Butterworth.

4. Do you gravitate towards reading genres outside the ones you write?

I am primarily a playwright, so yes, in addition to plays, I read novels and short stories.

Writing

1. Why do you write?

I feel I owe it to myself to push myself to create in this way. I’m not a musician, or a painter, or a dancer–what I do is write, and if I wish to express myself, it is the tool I wield with the most authority.

2. What do you love about being a writer?

I can’t remember who answered that question with, “I love having written,” but that’s a brilliant answer. Writing, and editing, and rewriting are not easy endeavors, and shaping a work to what I feel it should be is a reach that frequently exceeds my grasp.

3. What time of the day do you write, and do you have a writing routine?

I participate in playwriting challenges, in which I write in response to prompts each day for a month. The gun pressed against my temple is my best motivation.

4. Where do you get your ideas from?

It can be life, like this piece. Family history. A chance encounter. A news story I read. Anything that nudges me and sets me off down a path.

5. How long does it take you to write your projects?

For plays, my normal answer is six months, but it can be much less or much more. “Drive-In” came quickly, as I had the shape of it in mind from the start.

6. What advice would you give to other authors/writers/poets?

Write without self-judgment. Editing can come later, but following a thread gives you material, and material gives you a place to start. It doesn’t have to be perfect at first, but it needs to exist to eventually become what you want it to become.

7. What project(s) are you currently working on?

I’m in the revision process of a full-length play (“Breathe”) about a 30-year-old autistic woman who, after a mystical encounter at a county fair, wakes up the next day without autism. It is based in part on my sister Ann. I’m also doing a playwriting challenge through February that has already resulted in a short comedy called “Haunting Kathy,” where Kathy tries to navigate her nightmarish visitors, including a clown, her second-grade bully, a creep who tried to pick her up hitchhiking, and her dead Mom.