A million thanks to the generous and addictive Best American Poetry Blog for accommodating this entry in the web-project The Next Big Thing, and many thanks to Sharon Dolin for inviting my participation. You can find her entry at: http://www.sharondolin.com/the-next-big-thing/ . I made the grueling decision to make this the stub of one of the Thing’s tentacles, once I learned what you, the reader, were in for. Apologies to those whose wont it is still to play.
Q: What is your working title of your book?
A: Monte Green’s Place.
Q: Where did the idea come from for the book?
A: Monte Green’s words are so familiar – and haunting – to any hearing-enabled person (and so little has been done with his odd vernacular, which cobbles together many strains, the dominant ones being Anglo-Saxon and Latin), that it seemed a rich diction to plunder.
Q: What genre does your book fall under?
A: It’s a hybrid translation.
Q: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
A: Monte? Jackie Gleason, if he was still with us. Since not, Paul Dano. He would also play the misunderstood love interest, Paulette Noh.
Q: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A: Language as object fails us; there is no greater illustration than Green’s life story.
Q: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
A: Neither – it’s under contract, sans agent.
Q: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
A: Given that this is the Next Big Thing and not the Last, I am still in first draft so no telling.
Q: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
A: Peter Reading’s Marred Fan. David Ives’ Haul in the Tithing.
Q: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
A: Wasn’t this your first question?
Q: What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
A: It exposes the underbelly and the tragedy of the flim-flam known as the “telephone game.”
(Ed note: Susan Wheeler's most recent book of poetry is Meme (University of Iowa Press, October 2012). You can find out more about Susan here. -- sdh)
