Shane Wilson Interview

Shane Wilson is a storyteller. No matter the medium, the emphasis of his work is on the magical act of the story, and how the stories we tell immortalize us and give voice to the abstractions of human experience. His first two contemporary fantasy novels, set in his?World of Muses?universe, are currently available.?

Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, Shane is a child of the southeastern United States where he feels simultaneously at home and out of place. He graduated from Valdosta State University in South Georgia with a Masters in English. He taught college English in Georgia for four years before moving to North Carolina in 2013.

Shane plays guitar and writes songs with his two-man band, Sequoia Rising. He writes songs as he writes stories--with an emphasis on the magic of human experience. He tends to chase the day with a whiskey (Wild Turkey 101) and a re-run of?The Office.?

Shane's novels are?A Year Since the Rain?(Snow Leopard Publishing, 2016) and?The Smoke in His Eyes?(GenZ Publishing, 2018). Shane's short story, "The Boy Who Kissed the Rain"?was the?2017 Rilla Askew Short Fiction Prize winner and was nominated?for a 2018 Pushcart Prize.

Shane is currently at work on a new novel.

Shane,?thank you for agreeing to this interview. Outside of the obvious benefits, how has earning your Master’s degree in English aided in your writing career? Were you fortunate enough to fall under the tutelage of any writers in the educational community or acquire unique opportunities?

You know, my first Master’s degree was almost strictly academic. I didn’t have any creative writing courses beyond an undergrad introductory course. So, while all of my professors were published and publishing, it was almost exclusively academic publishing, which is not altogether different from what we do as fiction authors, but the degree didn’t really put me in touch with novelists or fiction writers. My one creative writing professor was a poet, but we can talk about that a bit later.

As for the benefits—I think the most important aspect of the advanced degree was the intensive study of literature. Given, our study was focused on literary analysis and the like, I think all of those conversations about how stories were working—how they were doing what they were doing—were really important to my development as a writer. Discussions about language and plot and aesthetics and philosophy taught me a lot about how stories are told and how to make sure my language is achieving its desired effect.

Your first novel, A Year Since The Rain, touches on the stages of grief and self-discovery in a symbolic and mystical manner. What compelled you to tell this tale?

A Year Since the Rain is such a weird book to talk about because it was largely an accident, I think. I wanted to write a poem about a relationship that hadn’t worked out in my real life. The last day I saw this woman, it was raining outside. I started writing the poem around a year later. I tried writing that poem, and it was so shitty. I still have it, though—pages and pages of shitty poetry in a journal with the title “A Year Since the Rain” scribbled down. It would be another year before I revisited the idea. This time around, I wanted to tell a more complex story, though. It was still all kind of predicated on the same initial act—someone leaving—but I wanted the full human experience that goes along with that. So, I started working on a short story, and 15,000 words later, I realized I was writing a novel.

If the question is “what compelled” me to write the story, the answer is probably as cliché as it possibly can be: my own personal loss, and the other losses in my life that I haven’t experienced yet, but that feels inevitable—the loss of parents, friends, and so forth.

While the genre of magical realism is not known as well as some of the wider branches of literature, it offers something unique to the reader. With its realistic narratives blended with elements of fantasy, I think it pushes the reader to consider how the woven story impacts their life. Were there elements of the story you hoped would resonate with your readers more than others?

Yeah. You know, it’s never really the magic stuff that I hope resonates. The magical aspect of the stories allows me to dial up the humanity of the characters, I think. Magic gives me a chance to really explore the human condition in a more extreme situation. To that end, though, I think it is probably the more human moments at play that I hope will resonate with the reader. A Year Since the Rain, for example, is a story about loss, but it’s also a story about avoiding the transgressions of our parents—the struggle between being our parents’ children and being our own people.

Thematically, it deals with a “sins of the fathers” sort of conflict, and even though Alan spends the narrative trying to move past this girl that dumps him at the beginning, the reader understands that he is really trying to reconcile his unresolved tensions with his father. He is misplacing that pain, though, which is something I think we all do from time to time. We often blame our pain on the wrong people or circumstances.

The Smoke in His Eyes was released last year. Not only did you define this book as magical realism, but also as a music novel. How has music impacted your life? Did you have to do a lot of research to bring these characters and the story to life?

Oh, man—this book was so much fun to write from a research perspective. First, the genesis of this story was the publication of the first. I came down with a healthy bit of imposter syndrome after A Year Since the Rain was released. “Who am I? What do I really have to say of value?” The whole thing. So, I started to think about the creative impulse. What is it inside of us that drives us to create? And then, what is it that makes some of us want to share those creations with the world?

So, I got the idea to create two musicians who make music together for a while, but who eventually go their separate ways to pursue their individual goals. One is interested in art for art’s sake and the other is interested in financial success. Both of these ends are treated equally in the novel because they are both admirable in their own ways.

The problem with the writing was this: I had never played a musical instrument. So, I bought a guitar (my characters played guitar and bass) and taught myself how to play. I didn’t want to sound like a jackass, you know? The guy writing about playing guitar has clearly never played guitar. I wanted to know what the strings felt like. I wanted to know what my fingers felt like making certain chords, so I spent a ton of time practicing guitar the first year I was writing the novel.

Eventually, I put four chords together and I started making songs. Now, three years after I picked up a guitar for research purposes, I have a little two-man band (Sequoia Rising) that plays live shows around town, and I write original songs, including “Before We Fade Away,” a song based on The Smoke in His Eyes.

This novel also delves into the human psyche, specifically touching on the impact of trauma on a child and how it can manifest into adulthood. How does your character, TJ, use music to respond to his trauma and heal/cope with the hallucinations related to the event in the story?

As a child, TJ is exposed to some pretty traumatic stuff, for sure. Music becomes his escape early on. When things are going poorly at home, he locks himself in his room with his guitar. He essentially uses his music as a distraction throughout childhood and into college. He becomes incredibly, technically proficient at the guitar. In college, he meets Lila and Muna—two women who challenge him to push beyond his technical proficiency and to begin to actually express himself. So, they empower him and teach him to take music, which was his hiding place, and turn it into his calling card. It’s almost like he’s taking his security blanket and turning it into a cape.

Some of your readers may be unaware that you also have written short fiction and poetry, including a handful of publications found on your website. Where did your love for poetry begin? Do you have a favorite, perhaps a poem you keep close at hand for inspiration?

I still have such an affinity for poetry. I love the economy of language at play in poetry. I try to incorporate poetic language into my fiction, especially in emotionally important moments.

My love of poetry goes back to college. As I mentioned earlier, the only creative writing course I took was an undergrad “Introduction to Creative Writing” course. It was taught by Dr. Marty Williams, who is a very good poet and a really great teacher. You don’t study with someone like that without it rubbing off on you a little.

The poem that I always go to when people ask about my favorite poetry is called “Whither Thou Goest” by Bob Hicok. There is a section near the beginning that I like to recite. It goes:

?“All along I've wanted

the good days to be the good days and not

good like drilling your teeth is good

when it stops but good like moonlight

on my wife's hip with the sheets

pulled back and her hair riotous

and misconstrued. That's one thing

and not another. That's the best use?

of a bed and two bodies working out

the most inclusive form of redemption

known in the universe this side

of black holes, which is where I want

to be…”

I just think that language is so beautiful. The poem is lengthy and in free verse, but it ends with a really great crescendo of language.

What can we expect from you in the future?

I am in the final stages of edits on a stage play script set in my World of Muses. It’s a prequel of sorts to A Year Since the Rain called The Boy Who Kissed the Rain. It’s an adaptation of a short story I wrote a while back by the same name. The publisher is waiting on it, so it should absolutely be out this year sometime. Hopefully, I can stage a production as well. I have also had some contact with school theater groups who are interested in looking at the script. I have wanted to write a script for some time, and the short story just seemed ideal for adaptation.

There is also a sort of top secret spoke word album coming soon. It is a collaborative effort with a composer who is setting musical arrangements to several of my short stories and poems. We aren’t quite ready to say much else about that project yet, but we are looking to release the first track in the next few weeks (hopefully). That will be on Spotify and Apple Music once it’s released.

Otherwise, I have a third novel drafted and ready for revisions, so hopefully, I can get that finished and submitted to the publisher for release. We will see, though.

It has been a pleasure, Shane! Please tell us where fans can find you online or in the upcoming year at events.

I am all over the Internet. My website is www.shanewilsonauthor.com. I am also on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram under @ThatShaneWilson. My two-man music venture, Sequoia Rising, is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sequoiarising.?