A Few Questions With Willy Vlautin…
Willy Vlautin grew up in Reno, Nevada USA. He studied writing with the great Nevadan author Randell Reed and has published short stories in magazines such as Story, Sun Dog Review, Cold Drill and Zembla. He is the author of two novels with Faber – The Motel Life and Northline.
He is also the songwriter and vocalist for the internationally acclaimed band, Richmond Fontaine (www.richmondfontaine.com), whose albums include Winnemucca (2002), Post to Wire (2004) and The Fitzgerald. Originally from Reno, he now lives in Portland, Oregon.
At school I was terrible at …
Everything. No kidding.
When I was a child my favourite book was …
My Side of The Mountain by Jean Craighead George. It’s about a kid who runs away and lives in the mountains by himself. For a long time I lived in that novel. I just never had the guts to actually do it. I got close a couple times but in the end I always came home.
I started writing because …
When I was 20 I was unemployed and living with a girl in her parents garage and I stumbled into Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carver and it changed my life. I began writing stories the week after I read it and I never stopped. Raymond Carver was the first writer I’d read that I felt I understood. He wasn’t writing about wars or bullfighting or espionage or politics, he was just writing about hanging on. More than anything I wanted to do the same.
The hardest part of writing a novel is …
Knowing when it’s good enough to let it go.
I work best when …
I’m on the wagon.
I wish I’d written …
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carver, Pick Up by Charles Willeford, Death of Jim Loney by James Welsh, Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor.
The fictional character I most identify with is …
Jim Loney (James Welsh) or Billy Phelan (William Kennedy)
The greatest influence on my writing career has been …
All the mistakes I’ve made in my life, and their consequences.
The most underrated writer/artist is …
James Welsh
My favourite short story is …
‘My Old Man’ by Ernest Hemingway
The most evocative piece of sports writing I’ve ever read is …
Fat City by Leonard Gardner
The most romantic piece of writing I’ve ever read is …
Pick Up by Charles Willeford
My favourite bookshop is …
Sundance Bookstore, Reno, Nevada
My literary five-a-side football team would include …
William Kennedy, Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Conner, Alexandre Dumas and Jim Thompson.
If I listen to music when I write I usually put on …
Ah hell I don’t. I once wrote a whole novel to new age music. I just put on this one CD and wrote the entire thing that way. It was all feedback and forlorn echoes and I listened to it for hundreds of hours. It was by far my worst effort to date. The novel was so horrible that I just threw it away. I really did just get rid of the whole thing. That is a year’s worth of work down the drain and the thing is there wasn’t even any hot women or drinking in the story. It was a straight rough story that took a lot out of me. So it wasn’t even a good time while I was doing it. Now I’ve sworn off all music when I’m writing.
I am kept awake at night by …
From serious things like Iraq and the soldiers stuck there, the US government, the lack of health care, to smaller things like why did I make that bet, and why did I say what I said. Was I nice enough to that old lady waitress with the bent back? Did I remember to thank that guy? Was I nice on the phone with my aunt? Why am I so lazy? Should I get up and try to work harder right now? I should but man I’m tired. You’re tired ‘cause you got drunk last night. Why did you get drunk last night? Once I’m up it’s like that. I’m a wreck.
My guiltiest pleasure is …
Western novels and betting horses.
If I could go back in time I would …
I know this doesn’t sound like much and it’s pretty selfish but I’d go back to Reno, Nevada in the 1930s. It was where all the starlets got divorced. Reno was the first place in the US that people could get an easy divorce, and back then it would have been a lot of fun. I would have kept my act together, moved in with a divorcee and bought a huge ranch.
