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| 10 Questions with |
| Amy Wallen |
| 1) Are you really as Southern as your book is? I say “y’all.” Is that Southun’ enuf fer ya? 2) What is your writing schedule? Schedule? When does a writer NOT write? I’m writing even now. Oh, wait, I really am writing. Good, now I can say I wrote today and I don’t have to feel guilty. 3) Since your first imaginings about the character Loralva, how long did it take for MoonPies and Movie Stars to get to the printing press? Nine quatrillion years. I might be exaggerating by about a quatrillion years, but it seemed like it. February 3, 1998 to January 2, 2007. Is that OCD enough for you? I have a journal entry of 2/3/98 next to my first MoonPies scene, so I remember exactly when, what and where. |
| Author of MOONPIES AND MOVIE STARS |
| 5) Are book tours more trouble than they're worth? My ONE book tour was not only fun, but definitely worth it. I credit it for the LA Times Bestseller List position. There is something very manic/depressive about them, though. For instance, you spend all day getting amped up for the reading that night. Then you go to the reading, and read. After which, you answer many questions, like, “Are you really Southern?” and then you sign books and people wait in line to tell you their own interesting personal stories, and you make mental notes so that you can use them in your next book, then it’s over. The book store people say, “Thanks, we made a bit of money off of you. You can go now.” Then you head back to the hotel, and it’s only 8 p.m., and you wait twenty-three hours for the next reading, where the same thing happens. 6) What has been your most memorable book tour stop so far? The Pulpwood Queen Festival in Marshall, Texas (www.beautyandthebook.com). Wow – this is America’s largest book club, with chapters in almost every state. But that’s not the best part. The club members are all required to don tiaras and leopard skin. In addition, it appears that they receive a broach for every book they’ve read because I’ve not seen so much rhinestone since my grandmother died and the granddaughters got to divvy up her jewelry box. 7) What do you get out of teaching creative writing, and leading writing groups? It’s all very selfish. I learned a long time ago that I’m too stubborn to learn from my own work, so I learn the most from other folks’ writing. As I grade papers and read other writings to critique, I am seeing how the best writing works in its most raw form. It also keeps me from spending all my time alone, and it forces me to shower at least twice a week. 8) What inspired the bowling alley as the setting of your novel? My grandmother owned a honky tonk in Brackettville, Texas on Hwy 90—the Wheel Inn Café. When I was ten, I got hustled at pool by a 12-year-old girl in the back room. I loved that place. The best tall tales floating on the cigarette smoke, sliding across the plastic tablecloths, and flitting through the live country music. 9) What’s your top bowling score? 138 – while wearing the tacky red and green rental shoes, eating nacho cheese fries, guzzling Coors Light, and spitting into an empty Coke cup. 10) You suck. I’ve bowled 185. You've got too much class, James. You probably had your own bowling ball, and didn’t have to rent shoes. |
| 4) What's your weirdest fan story? There’s this really creepy guy who wears what looks to be a gas station attendant shirt with a name patch that reads “JAMES.” He follows me through grocery stores with a microphone pestering me. “What kind of cereal do you eat?” and “How often do you eat chicken salad?” And then he makes me sit in his SUV in the parking lot while he rolls the windows up and down in order to, as he says, “block out the world.” It’s very disturbing. |
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| JAMES R. SPRING is a writer, sort of, living in Southern California. When he's not killing bugs or trying to sell manuscripts that he worked his whole life to create, he does stories for THIS AMERICAN LIFE and other NPR outlets. |
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