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This interview with Michael Standaert, author of “The
Adventures of the Pisco Kid”, was first published in January 2007.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Silvis, Illinois and raised in Rock
Island, Illinois, about three hours drive west of Chicago, along the
Mississippi River.
What was it that first got you into writing and when
did you start writing?
I tried to write a novel when I was about 10 or 11,
but that quickly fizzled out. It wasn't really until I was about 22 that I
started writing, mainly short stories. Before that though I'd wanted to 'be' a
writer for as long as I can recall, but little did I know the amount of work
that actually takes. I started to
get more serious about my writing in my mid-20s.
Which writers have influenced you the most?
Lately Murakami. Early on, Hemingway was a big
influence. Bukowski, Celine, Hunter S. Thompson, Henry Miller, William T.
Vollmann. Over the past few years I've been seeking out more foreign writers
and there is a collection of Dutch speaking writers from the past century,
decadent and surreal writers, that has particularly influenced me. I like
dreamlike, surreal, satirical and fantastic writing, though all grounded in
everyday reality (which is quite surreal anyway).
Where do you stand on the nature v. nurture debate?
Were you born a writer, or were there factors in your environment that enabled
you to become a writer?
I think there are some inherent gifts that most
writers have. Mostly it is a way of seeing. That can't be taught but it can be
learned, mostly from your self or by looking at the way others, writers,
painters, artists, see. But as far as nurture and learning to write, I think
there is a great benefit from going through writing programs and workshops,
once again, to teach you how to see. How to see your own work, how to see other
writers works, and how to step outside your own work. That can all sometimes be
a bit daunting as well, or freezing. At times I think a writer, especially a
novelist, needs to just push forward without trying to see too much what he is
doing. That can come later in the editing. Even then it is sometimes hard to
see what you've done.
There are a lot of courses teaching creative writing
nowadays, but do you think that good writing can be taught?
Like I said above, I think there is a benefit these
programs can give. Mainly time to concentrate, contacts and a network of peers,
people to bounce ideas off of, and being able to scrutinize your own work. As
for the writing part of it, a lot of that is self-taught or observational, and
a good writing program can accelerate that process as well as possibly end it
if you come to find that the vocation is not for you. The only thing I don't
really like about these writing programs is that there sometimes is, not
consciously I don't believe, a sameness in the way of looking at writing that
develops, or a kind of school that forms in a place where people fall into the
trap of thinking 'This is what writing is and should be' when it can actually
be many things outside those erected structures. False structures that snuff
out daring.
Have you entered writing competitions? If so, have
you won any prizes?
Not many. I did win a short story prize once and got
$500 for it, which was very nice. I placed third in a competition for a poetry
manuscript. But I haven't entered anything for a few years.
Do you have any short stories or poems published
online? (If so, please provide the URLs):
It's best just to Google "Michael
Standaert" and you should come up with a few things.
What kind of things do you write?
I started with short stories, moved to poems, and
then to novels. I've sort of been in a blank period the last couple of years
after finishing my novel “The Adventures of the Pisco Kid”, but feel ready to
get back into all these forms.
What, for you, is the best piece of prose that you
have ever written?
Wow, that's a tough one. I like a long poem I'm
working on, but I don't know if it will ever be finished. I've been working on
it for a couple of years now.
What are you working on now?
I'm in the process of sketching, outlining and
planning a novel with the working title “Lonely Atoms”, or “The Exiles”. I
don't really want to say much other than that. I'm still in the dreaming phase.
What is your writing day like?
I don't have a normal writing schedule at the
moment. It's been different for each project. I'm actually trying to find
something that works if anyone has suggestions! The problem is right now my
wife and I both work from home, she's a freelance interpreter/translator, and I
work as a freelance writer/journalist for my day job. So it's been tough to
carve out solitude lately. I've done a bit of cafe writing and might have to
start doing that more as it seemed to work better recently.
Where would you like to be in 10 years time?
I'd like to publish a book every couple of years if I
can, either fiction or non-fiction. I'd also like to get back into writing
short stories and poems, which has been abandoned the past couple of years.
What’s the most exciting thing about writing for
you?
Sometimes I get in a zone where everything else
disappears. It's sort of like a dream where nothing else matters except what
I'm working on.
What’s the most frustrating thing about writing for
you?
Starting something new after either not writing for
a while or having just come off something else. Like I said, I've been in that
limbo for a couple years of refilling the well. Other than that is despair,
self-doubt, or the critical bone telling you everything you write is shit. Some
days it looks like it and others it looks a little bit better. Maybe it is
shit.
What’s the best piece of feedback that you’ve had
from your audience?
Early on when I started trying to write poetry
someone gave me a really harsh critique and it helped me basically throw off
the bullshit of what I'd been trying to do and instead embark in a new
direction.
Do you write for a particular audience, or is your
first priority to satisfy your own creativity?
I don't really have an audience in mind while
writing fiction, other than to tell a story that at least one other person would
want to hear. I'd rather have ten fellow travelers than 100 strangers read what
I write.
Do you
have a homepage? If so, what’s the URL?
I do have a Myspace page and am starting to build
something for my novel The Adventures of the Pisco Kid, which will be out in
March.
http://www.myspace.com/michaelstandaert and http://www.piscokid.com
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