I had decided to retire the literary Would You Rather series, but didn't want to stop interviews on the site all together. Instead, I've pulled together 40ish questions - some bookish, some silly - and have asked authors to limit themselves to answering only 10 of them. That way, it keeps the interviews fresh and connectable for all of us!
Joining us today is Dave O'Leary. Dave is a writer and musician in
Seattle. He's published two novels and has had work featured in, among others,
the Daily Drunk, Door is a Jar Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Reflex
Fiction. His collection of poetry and short prose—I Hear Your Music Playing
Night and Day—was published in May 2021 by Cajun Mutt Press.
What made you start writing?
I‘m
not a good speaker. Never have been. When I tell a story I start and stop and remember
something I left out and so then I have to go back and start again and so on.
I’ve always loved to read and so I thought the only way to tell the stories I
want to tell is to write them down. A couple years ago I went to a live taping
of The Moth story hour and signed up but was told no notes were allowed. I
considered briefly going up on stage to wing it, but in the end I just had a
couple beers and left. The story I was going to tell that night will end up in
written form sometime, just not improvised from the stage.
What do you do when you’re not
writing?
I
play guitar and bass and have been in bands of one sort or another for much of
my adult life. I’m currently in two bands, one a cover band and one writing
original music. We’re recording now actually and hope to have music available
in the late spring. Beyond that I read books, of course, and there’s our
regular pub where my wife and I watch Arsenal in the Premier League. Oh, cats
too. The cats are a big focus of our free time.
What are you currently reading?
The 1619 Project, The Office of Historical
Corrections (Danielle Evans is awesome), and Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s The Ones
Who Don’t Say they Love You. My reading these days is mostly focused on short
stories as I’m working on a collection of them.
What’s something that’s true
about you but no one believes?
Despite my name and the way I
look, I have a greater percentage of Mexican heritage (50%) than Irish (25%). People
do generally believe me when I tell them but on forms and applications and such
I always just check Caucasian/White since I was essentially raised that way and
it never felt quite right selecting Hispanic. It always felt like I might be
taking opportunities from others.
If you could cast your
characters in a movie, which actors would play them and why?
For
the lead in The Music Book, I would select Joseph Gordon-Levitt because I like
a lot of the things he’s done and he can actually play guitar. He was in
Seattle for an event a number of years ago and he played Lithium by Nirvana
because he couldn’t come to Seattle and not play oa Nirvana song. It seems he
would understand a character trying to determine what music really means to us
and how it affects the course of our lives. Here he is in Seattle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCfcX8UN5KE
If you could spend the day with
another author, who would you choose and why?
Haruki
Murakami. I love his work and he seems like he’d be up for a beer and a good
talk about music. I’ve made references to his writing in The Music Book and a
couple short stories and even borrowed a few lines of his for a poem which came
out last year in Sledgehammer Lit. https://www.sledgehammerlit.com/post/glaxo-by-dave-o-leary
If you could go back and
rewrite one of your books or stories, which would it be and why?
My
first novel Horse Bite just because I’m a better writer now and I’d do some
things a little differently. Not sure, though, if I’d ever want to rewrite one
of my books because in the end they are the only books I could write at that
time and thus they came out the way they did. The only way to make it
differently would have been to shelve the manuscript for a year or so before
publication and then come back to it with a different perspective. Maybe I’ll
try that with the next one.
What songs would be on the
soundtrack of your life?
The
Music Book had an accompanying CD (https://themusicbook.bandcamp.com/album/the-music-book-a-benefit-for-the-wishlist-foundation)
and since that book was based around the music of real bands here in Seattle
that I had written about it was essentially the soundtrack of my life at that
time. All that music deserves to be
heard too. It’s great stuff and shold be more well known. These days, as ever, the music varies. I’m
listening to a lot of Beatles and Pink Floyd since we bought a record player
for ourselves for Christmas and I can finally play the old records I’ve been
carting around for years.
What is your favorite book from
childhood?
Rascal
by Sterling North. It was the first book that I didn’t want to end, the first
book with an ending that stuck with me far beyond the page. It was
heartbreaking and yet it made sense and I hadn’t realized until then that
stories could do that, that they really could stick with us so much that
something changes, tjhat a light will click and you’ll say, “I get it.” After
that I read Old Yeller and then The Hobbit and ever since reading and writing
have been a huge part of my life.
What is under your bed?
The cats
(Nigel and Eleanor) and/or an assortment of their toys. There’s also a baseball
bat which is essentially our home security system but also a Cat Toy Retrieval
Tool.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What does music mean? Can it be more than the sum of its notes and melodies? Can it truly change you? Rob, a musician turned reluctant music critic, poses these questions as everything important in his life appears to be fading—memories of lost love, songs from his old bands, even his hearing. He delves into the music of others to find solace and purpose, and discovers that the chords and repeated phrases echo themes that have emerged in his own life. The music sustains him, but can it revive him?
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Music-Book-Dave-OLeary/dp/1937634051
Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-music-book-dave-oleary/1120420210
The
Music Book CD:
Bandcamp – https://themusicbook.bandcamp.com/album/the-music-book-a-benefit-for-the-wishlist-foundation
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