The
ShatterColors
Standard Interview
-- Author Version:
Tom
Sheehan
(Interview
consists of 15
pre-set questions.
Authors have published
at least one novel
or short story/poetry
collection.)
1)
Why did you begin
writing, and how
long have you
been doing so?
It
began so long
ago, yet it’s
not hard to remember.
On our summer
porch at night,
the fireflies
hustling about
in the near fields,
my grandfather
Johnny Igoe read
W. B.Yeats to
me, rocking in
his chair, smoking
his pipe, making
music and rhythm
in his life, and
in mine. I was,
at the first of
Yeats, about six
years old. "Listen,"
he'd say, pointing
his finger up.
"Hear the
music. Know the
sound. Feel the
grab." Johnny
Igoe, spellbinder
remembered. On
that porch on
Main Street, a
mere mile out
of Saugus Center,
he (and Yeats)
holding forth,
his voice would
roll into the
field where fireflies
lived. His words
would mix with
the fireflies
waiting on my
bottle capture
or a sense of
deeper darkness
where they could
further show off
their electric
prowess. The times
were magnetic,
electric. I knew
what attention
was. Oh, I loved
those compelling
nights filled
with Horseman,
ride by; Prayer
for My Daughter
or old marble
heads, captivating
me with a sound
so Irish I was
proud. I will
arise now and
go to Innisfree/
oh, and the deep
heart's core.
The lineage found
me: I didn't find
it, and the echoes
of those nights
ring yet.
2) What does your
writing routine
consist of?
Though
I am a late-bloomer
(hanging around
here for nearly
80 years), I am
an early riser,
perhaps six days
a week at this
machine by 4 AM,
facing a decision—is
it a poetry day,
or a short story,
or a novel at
hand, or an administrative/revision
day. It does declare
itself by the
end of the first
cup of coffee,
usually.
3) Have specific
events ever flung
you into an extended
and productive
period of creativity?
Years
ago it was WW
II newsreels,
and my brother
was out there.
That impact has
never left me.
The dedication
to my memoirs,
A Collection of
Friends, says,
“For those
who have passed
through Saugus,
those comrades
who bravely walked
away from home
and fell elsewhere,
and the frailest
imaginable soldier
of all, frightened
and glassy-eyed
and knowing he
is hapless, one
foot onto the
soil at D-Day
or a statistical
sandy beach of
the South Pacific
and going down,
but not to be
forgotten, not
here.” Not
ever here. And
one of my early
poems, “I
Who Lost a Brother,”
says, “And
nearly lost another/remember
the headlines,
newsreels, songs
of bond-selling,
gas-griping, and
movies too true
to hate. The whole
Earth bent inwards,
imploding bombs,
bullets, blood,
shrieking some
terrible bird
cry in my ears
only sleep could
lose. Near sleep
I could only remember
the nifty bellbottom
blues he wore
in the picture
my mother cleaned
and cleaned and
cleaned on the
altar of her bureau
as if he were
the Christ or
the Buddha, but
he was out there
in the sun and
the sand and the
rain of shells
and sounds I came
to know years
later moving up
from Pusan. I
never really knew
about him until
he came home and
I saw his sea
bag decorated
with his wife’s
picture, …
and a map and
the names Saipan,
Iwo Jima, Kwajalein,
… the war.”
4)
What are common
sources of inspiration?
Single
lines from old
poems of mine
that haunt me
or come back looking
for further resolution,
an image of an
old friend or
comrade or teammate,
inequities we
face in life,
reality standing
on its hind legs.
5) What does a
book need to do
to get you to
read it from beginning
to end?
When
a teammate and
lawyer and hungry
reader passes
a book to me and
says, “Read
it,” I’m
in it for the
long ride. Once
on PBS I heard
a creative writing
teacher say to
his class at NYU,
“All I’ve
ever tried to
teach you about
creative writing
is in the first
page and a half
of Angela’s
Ashes." I
had long ago said
that about Reynolds
Price’s
A Long and Happy
Life.
6) Who are some
of the authors
you most admire?
A
recent critique
all started with
an innocent, off-handed
remark from a
friend who asked
me to tell him,
in a month’s
time, what books
I had read. It
felt like a tricky
literary set-up,
but I was game,
though I knew
it would eat seriously
into my own composition
schedule. As I
go back over it
now, I recall
the hours I was
absolutely knocked
off my feet, brought
to my knees in
a month where
superb writing
left me dizzy
with glee. I lead
off with Wendell
Berry’s
Memories of Old
Jack, Jayber Crow,
Hannah Coulter
and a collection
of five short
stories, Fidelity.
In a quick follow-up,
knowing I’d
be back to Berry
in a shot, I was
buried in J. M.
Coetzee’s
Life and Times
of Michael K,
Foe, Disgrace,
and Slow Man.
I finished my
month with Cormac
McCarthy’s
The Road. I don’t
know how many
times I was mesmerized,
but I will go
back over a most
significant path
of personal pleasure,
starting back
with Wendell Berry
where one man
touches perfection.
And I will read
James Lee Burke,
Elmore
Leonard,
and read again
Night Soldiers
by Alan Furst.
7)
How familiar are
you with the literary
canon?
The
previous response
serves in part
here, and at an
early age I read
Thomas Wolfe from
end to end, days
on end, now and
then under threat
under flashlight
under bed covers.
8) What's your
take on politics
and literary endeavor?
Like
a Zippo lighter,
on and off and
blowing in the
wind.
9) What are your
feelings about
formal vs. free
verse?
I
love anything
that takes me
by the hand and
runs around with
me in tow.
10) Do you feel
"flash"
fiction (300 words
or less) is a
viable form, or
nothing more than
a writing exercise?
Anytime
you can get two
words together
you’ve never
seen together
before, take it.
11) When not writing,
what do you do
for amusement?
I
was at World Series
Game 2 at Fenway
Park most recently
with my grandson
Travis whom I
have been pitching
to for two years.
He’s five
years old now.
I never miss a
Saugus High hockey
game (I was on
the first team
we ever had back
in 1946, two sons
have been captain
there, and we
all played football
and baseball for
Saugus High.)
We’ve had
three state championships
in hockey in the
last seven years
and were into
11 minutes of
overtime at the
Fleet Center when
we lost a bid
for a third straight
state title. I
have near hyperventilated
at some games.
I didn’t
miss a home game
for the first
nine years of
the Patriots,
but now hone in
via TV.
12) What's one
of the most annoying
things you can
think of?
Neighbors
that don’t
recycle goods.
I recycle every
piece of paper
that comes into
the house, every
can, bottle, container
of any sort. I
will pitch to
Travis, for his
athletic future,
and try to save
the good green
fields for him
and his playmates
at the same time.
13) Briefly describe
what you consider
to be one of your
standout childhood
pranks.
We
used to go potato
knocking: Hang
a potato on a
wire coat hanger
and hook it on
someone’s
storm door, and
imbed the front
end of a long
string in the
potato. We would
hide across the
street and pull
on the string
so the “near
invisible”
potato knocked
on the door. Often
we were chased
down the street
by an irate neighbor
after a half dozen
“raps”
on the door.
14) What are your
upcoming projects/works
in progress?
One
novel is at a
publisher now,
after they asked
for it on top
of reading the
first 50 pages.
I’ve got
three or four
others all done
and looking for
publication. My
next collection
of short stories,
after Epic Cures,
is Brief Cases,
Short Spans. It
should come out
in 2008, and From
the Quickening
is also completed.
A few years ago,
here in Saugus,
we borrowed $60,000
from the bank
to print a book
that was not yet
written, A Gathering
of Memories, Saugus
1900-2000. We
sold 400 copies
the day of release,
and paid the loan
off in 5 months.
We sold all 2500
copies at $42
each, with all
proceeds going
to the John Burns
Millennium Book
Associates scholarships
for Saugus High
graduates. John
Burns, 92, is
one of our co-editors,
after 63 years
in the Saugus
High English department.
We have sold 1000
copies of a sequel,
Of Time and the
River, Saugus
1900-2005. We
are not sure yet
if there is to
be a third book.
We co-editors
meet again soon
for a lunch/gab
session, the ROMEOs,
Retired Old Men
Eating Out (92,
79, 78, 77). I
can hardly wait.
My pals will each
have one martini,
I’ll have
three beers, the
waitress will
shine on us, and
we’ll talk
about book 3.
15)
Care to conclude
with a sweeping
philosophical
statement?
I’m
just an old farmer
who loves to tell
tales, spin a
yarn or two, live
in a line of poetry
every once in
a while, finding
the music now
and then, like
the semaphore
in sunlight flew
(sf sl fl), which
became a poem.
I’ll watch
my wife Beth’s
and my children
progress as men
and women, and
our grandchildren
carry promise
with them wherever
they go.
_______________
The
ShatterColors
Standard Interview
-- Author Version
©
2006 by Robert
Scott Leyse
Tom
Sheehan
Responses
© 2007 by
Tom
Sheehan
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