Tony DuShane will appear Oct. 13 as part of “Religious Renegades”— a panel discussion on faith. He is author of Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk, a dark coming-of-age comedy that goes behind closed doors of the world of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He hosts the radio show Drinks with Tony.
1. What is your favorite book?
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
2. Who is your favorite writer?
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
3. If the answers to 1 & 2 are different, why?
Hunger touched me on a visceral level in a few different ways. My mother is from Norway and I grew up with all of these stubborn, funny talking, no-fun relatives. I hated them. And, it drives me absolutely nuts that I act like them and have the same genes running through half of my body.
Hunger is the book that told me I was a writer. I am as stubborn as the character. I put on the same act as the character, pretending things are okay when they’re not, and I’m self-loathing.
When I told Grandpa Tor that I read Knut Hamsun, I thought we’d have something in common to finally talk about. He only replied, “That Nazi.”
Grandpa Tor was in occupied Norway during WWII, so he saw a larger picture, and I only saw the work of a genius from 1890.
Celine hits me every time I read him. He’s awful and funny at the same time. From Journey to the End of the Night to Conversations with Professor Y, I cower and laugh and drop my jaw in awe of his genius…and how in many of his writings, they could be plunked down in 2011 and the commentary would still hold ground in our current world.
4. How old were you when you were first published?
Twenty-two, it was a poem in a literary zine. I can’t remember the name and I haven’t written poetry in a decade.
5. What writing style do you most abhor?
Anything not written in honestly, especially in fiction.
6. What is your favorite writing cliché?
Foreshadowing.
7. What is your favorite word?
Moist.
8. When and how do you write? (typewriter, Mac, in a café, for four hours each morning, etc?)
I always carry a small notebook on me and write in that all day and night with more ideas. I hand write my first drafts on yellow legal pads with a précis v7 pen, they flow very quickly and almost keep up with my hand and thoughts. Then I transcribe the work into my computer, usually at home on my desk in my kitchen. That feels like a second draft. After that I continue working on edits at cafes and usually keep the computer at home. I’m fond of paper and seeing and touching the documents as they’re shaping up. I write eight to ten hours a day, that includes journalism, articles, my next book, etc.
When I’m on a book, I work on it every day and never miss a day, just like it’s yoga. If I miss a day, then it feels like a week when I get back to it. I rev up the work, so early drafts take two or three hours of my day and by the time I’m on the fourth draft, then I’m dedicating eight hours a day to the book. I wrote most of my first novel in a busy Laundromat that looked out onto Mission St. with Spanish soap operas on the TV full blast. The chaotic noise actually felt like silence, especially since I don’t understand Spanish. I couldn’t do that if I had an expensive laptop with me, that’s another reason to stay mobile with paper and a pen.
9. What is your greatest fear when you first turn in a manuscript?
Dying before the book tour.
10. In what era do you wish you’d been born?
Born in 1910 so I could move to Paris in 1927.
11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Leggy. And chemical hug. That’s what rewrites are for.
12. Which talent would you most like to have?
To be a singer/songwriter.
13. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My delusional sense of who I am.
14. Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Leo Percepied
15. How would you like to die?
In an autoerotic asphyxiation mishap in 2065.
