Editor’s Note: This is the twentieth in a series of interviews and story excerpts spotlighting some of the most innovative fiction writers at the recently-launched new media publishing platform Liberty Island. The first nineteen can be read in this collection here. Find out more about Liberty Island’s new writing contest here, running through the end of April. An index of 8 newly-released stories can be found here. Please check out this interview Sarah Hoyt conducted with CEO Adam Bellow here to learn more: “It also has a unique mission: to serve as the platform and gathering-place for the new right-of-center counterculture.”
Michael Sheldon is the author of The Violet Crow, the first in a series of novels featuring Bruno X, a psychic detective who uses Mad magazine Yiddish and recycled borsht belt routines to outwit the forces of evil in the Philly suburbs.
1. Who are some of your favorite writers, books, movies, and intellectual influences?
I tend to like magical realism, but then all fiction is—or should be—magic. Favorite conjurers in different genres include Miguel Cervantes, Lawrence Sterne, William Blake, Henry Miller, Harvey Kurtzman, P.G. Wodehouse, Donald Westlake, Stephen Hunter, Julius Erving, Bruce Willis, Federico Fellini, Aretha Franklin, Jamey Johnson, Lucinda Williams, and Ray Wylie Hubbard.
2. How do you describe yourself ideologically?
Libertarian, economically conservative, anti-bureaucratic, and anti-academic. I think Liberty Island is in the process of forming a “Gargantuan” school of writing. This, of course, is a nod to the earthy exuberance of Rabelais’ 16th century giant. It also puts us in direct opposition to minimalist writing—exemplified by the precious, carefully shaped excretions published in The New Yorker and Harpers.
3. Which thinkers/commentators have influenced you?
Robert Bartley (and his editorial team) on the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal. His clear explanations of market economics, incentives, human nature and the nature of risk started my transformation from impudent snob into the fun-loving redneck I am today. I like commentators who mix politics with humor—Mark Steyn, Steven Hayward, David Burge, Rush Limbaugh and our own, Frank J. Fleming. But I stand in awe of Michelle Malkin and Oriana Fallaci for their ferocity and nobility.
4. Where are you from/currently reside?
As readers of my blog posts know, I am being driven crazy in Seattle.
5. What are your writing goals?
If Everyman’s a king, I want to be the court jester.
6. Where can people find/follow you online?
Currently, I am blogging at Liberty Island, trying to post every Saturday morning. I’m also sending out a weekly email; people can opt-in at [email protected]. I’m looking for an animator/developer to collaborate in a graffiti site. We would start with an image of political significance, such as the annoying statue of Lenin in Seattle. People could type in their graffiti, click send, and it would show up as if spray-painted on the statue.
7. What’s your craziest hobby/pastime/interest?
I like to take images from the Hubble Space Telescope and combine them in Photoshop with pictures of my dogs.
An excerpt from Michael Sheldon’s “Better Than Fresh Apricots“
He rarely bothered about intruders anymore, there were so many of them these days. But what he saw that hot July afternoon made him pause. He peered cautiously through the thick cover of wild rose, waiting for a clearer view.
Two slender figures were approaching, each with a heavy canvas bundle–half her size and weight–strapped to her back. They were young, beautiful. The kind you expect to find shopping Fifth Avenue, not out here, alone, fishing in Grizzly Canyon.
An unworthy prejudice, for the truth of the matter is this: Both Marianne and Peggy were accomplished flyfishers. Given a relatively windless day either of them could present a number 16 mayfly to the desired spot without getting hung up too often. And they could float that mayfly–mostly without drag–over the hiding places where cutthroat, rainbows, or browns are known to reside.
It was their husbands who had taught them how to fish. But Steve and Perry never gave their wives full credit for all they had accomplished. A doctor, a lawyer, each the owner of at least a half-dozen different rods whose different uses they understood perfectly, Steve and Perry fished on an altogether different level than Marianne and Peggy. They were masters of the art, and they knew it. And even though they never meant any harm, sometimes they could not refrain from cracking a joke or two when Marianne or Peggy came back to the car bragging about the day’s results or cursing a bit of bad luck. It was part of Steve and Perry’s nature to make jokes.
One night Marianne and Peggy realized they were tired of these jokes, and together they decided to lay down the law. Unequivocally, they informed Steve and Perry that the annual husbands’ fishing retreat had been canceled, and this year the wives were going to take their place.
Steve and Perry bitched and complained. They tried to argue. They spoke of the long hours they worked, the dollars they earned… But Marianne and Peggy were adamant. “What we do is just as important,” they informed their spouses.
“But what if there are problems,” wondered Perry. “What if you don’t catch fish?”
“We’ll catch ’em,” said Peggy. “You won’t have to worry any more about us than you would about yourselves.”
But still the men were not convinced, and that made Marianne lose her temper. “What’s the name of those stupid stories you guys like so much, with that macho guy who’s your hero–you know, the sarcastic one? He’s ultra-famous and I can’t believe I can’t remember his name!” she sputtered. “Well, I say that Peggy and I can do anything he ever did, no problem.”
Did she really know what she was saying? Her syllables filled the air like a cloud pregnant with destiny. And though it went against their better judgment, Steve and Perry couldn’t possibly back away from such a direct challenge.
The idea was for Marianne and Peggy to follow Nick Adams’ program as laid out in the story called “Big Two-Hearted River, Part I + Part II.” But right away Steve and Perry suggested some modifications.
Continue reading at Liberty Island…
****
image via shutterstock / Ragnarock
Join the conversation as a VIP Member