Q: That’s funny when you say you were cutting back your live performances.
A: Personal appearances.
Q: You still went to Gulf Coast Writers Conference.
A: Yes, but that’s it.
Q: No, in 2011 there was a mail art show at the library, there was Banned Books Week, you covered a show at the Visual Arts Center (VAC), you drove along Highway 30A interviewing local artists, musicians, and craftspeople for a guidebook.
A: I was a fly on the wall.
I looked. I listened.
Crept in and left silently, like I came.
I had the anonymity a writer needs to observe people undetected.
Q: You were the 800 lb gorilla in the room.
A: I was an unnoticed 800 lb gorilla.
Q: You thought you were unnoticed.
You were on TV. When you were on the censorship panel impersonating a county school board member.
Your picture was in the paper.
A: Oh.
Q: I’m reading Pleasures of the High Rhine.
Richard Dobson gives me enough to get the feel of the life of a working musician.
You give me the feel of the life of a working writer.
A: Yes. Richard and Edith are getting older.
Brenda and I are getting older.
Q: You have the entertainments of the elderly.
Watching telelvision.
Conversation.
She has her co-workers to talk about. You see the clerks at the library, the post office, and the grocery store, where you shop every day.
You hear from readers by way of email, or mail.
A: Jodi came over Saturday night and we watched a pro football playoff game.
We fed her a beef stew I had made.
It was good. We had it with French bread and a green salad.
Q: Do you imagine people telling each other about a good book?
A: Yes, I do.
Q: I don’t imagine people reading.
I imagine them working out at a gym, or hooking up at a sports bar for sex. Texting each other.
A: Oh.
I guess I’m in the wrong line of work.
I taught myself to do something nobody wants.
Q: That’s funny.
Kafka’s co-workers used to laugh at his stories.
They would howl.
A: They’re funny stories.
Being a writer in an insurance office is funny.
I spent many years working in offices.
Going to Burrito Day and watching Fox News overhead.
Gas was cheap in