I don’t think that feeling is so uncommon actually. I hope it isn’t.
And now, after much failure, I find writing fiction as being fun. After you go through all the crap about finding something to write about, and you are in the middle of something that seems to be working, it’s fun.
When I read Harry Potter for the first time my reaction was, how great it would have been to write this, what great fun to have been able to “live” in the writing of this school, this forest, this story.
And, I think a good novel is what is needed to bring down George W. Bush, or to bring down fascist or hometown National Guard hero America. I think a good novel would be better than a non-fiction book. And by the way there are so many great non-fiction books out today. They do not need me, that’s for sure.
Do you remember Grapes of Wrath or a non-fiction article from a national magazine from that time?
Of course, writing Grapes of Wrath, that’s the trick, but that’s the goal.
I see I did not answer the question.
Well, I think my fiction represents our nation pretty close to accurately."
5. I understand that you, Andre Vltchek, and Tony Christini founded Mainstay Press as a publishing company “dedicated to social change”. Please tell us more about Mainstay, your partners, and your mission.
"Well, actually I’m not with Mainstay anymore. My newest book, “The American Dream”, is with CWG Press(c).
But Mainstay(d) was founded in the hope of bringing out some anti-war fiction in America. Books by Andre, Tony and me are available on the website.
We got into a disagreement and I got kicked out of the band. But my book "Terror Nation"(e) is available with Mainstay through June, then it will be cut loose, floating in space."
6. You are in the process of embarking upon a cross-country tour to, in your words, “read from my books, and try to fight the Bush government.” What do you hope to accomplish?
"It’s a way to tell people about my books, for one thing. I'll be quitting my job, losing my health insurance, trying to nurse a '90 Honda around 50 states, trying to learn how to read a map. Marketing the Unknown Novelist 101.
Maybe I’m obsessive, but I just can’t give up on these books because I think they have merit, value. And it’s almost impossible for a small-time writer of anti-American fiction to make millions of dollars these days.
I’ll also be sending in a crossed-out tax form and letter to the IRS before I leave, as a protest against Bush.
Jason Miller is a recovering US American middle class suburbanite who strives to remain intellectually free. He is Cyrano's Journal Online's associate editor (http://www.bestcyrano.org/) and publishes Thomas Paine's Corner within Cyrano's at http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/.
