Q: What did you do for money after your fellowship ran out.
A: We moved to Penland. I was a potter's helper. We lived with Jack Neff
and Karol. John Neff was a baby. Brenda was pregnant.
I earned my keep.
We had a place to stay and food to eat. But we needed an income.
I had
a truck payment to make, automobile insurance, the doctor and the hospital wanted
their money in advance, since we didn't have health insurance.
I took a job
as laborer in a feldspar mine.
It was unpleasant. Dangerous. Tiring.
Grunt work.
I worked as a laborer for four years. Brenda stayed at home
and nursed Owen, then Balder. She ran the household. So I didn't have to do that.
We moved to Winston-Salem. Then we moved out in the country, across the Yadkin River.
I worked as an electrician's helper, carpenter's helper, press brake operator trainee,
and janitor in a department store.
Head porter.
Q: How long did you do this?
A: Four years. Then we moved back to Florida, I got a job as a technical writer, and Brenda went back to work as an archeologist. After we moved to Tallahassee.
Q: How did you write and work both?
A: I wrote in my head at work and typed it up when I got home.
Q: Did this affect the form of your work?
A: Yes. I wrote shorter pieces. Novellas instead of novels. I also wrote poems and prose vignettes, which I included in the books. So the form of the books opened up.
Q: Give me an example.
A: The book RACE, SEX, AND LIBEL was Playing Hurt, Trailer Park Tramp,
and The Books in My Life.
I didn't publish The Books in My Life,
but I published Playing Hurt and Trailer Park Tramp as chapbooks.
I ran Trailer Park Tramp off on the xerox machine at work.
Q: How long did you do this.
A: Just the four years. After I had a job with a desk and a typewriter I wrote at work.
Q: Before your last contract writing job you worked as a custodian at a
mental health center and a handyman at a folk life center, or museum. You were a
glorified janitor there, too.
Did you write in your head there?
A: No, I couldn't do that anymore.
I wrote in longhand. Typed
it up at home.
Also, I wrote at home. Before and after work.
Q: What are your work habits now?
A: Now?
Well, let's see.