Shane Wilson
Shane Wilson is a storyteller. No matter the medium, the emphasis of his work is on the magical act of the story, and how the stories we tell immortalize us and give voice to the abstractions of human experience. His first two contemporary fantasy novels as well as a stage play, set in his World of Muses universe, are currently available. Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, Shane is a child of the southeastern United States where he feels simultaneously at-home and out-of-place. He graduated from Valdosta State University in south Georgia with a Masters in English. He taught college English in Georgia for four years before moving to North Carolina in 2013. Shane plays guitar and writes songs with his two-man-band, Sequoia Rising. He writes songs as he writes stories--with an emphasis on the magic of human experience. He tends to chase the day with a whiskey (Wild Turkey 101) and a re-run of The Office. Shane’s novels are A Year Since the Rain (Snow Leopard Publishing, 2016) and The Smoke in His Eyes (GenZ Publishing, 2018). Shane’s short story, “The Boy Who Kissed the Rain”; was the 2017 Rilla Askew Short Fiction Prize winner and was nominated for a 2018 Pushcart Prize. An adaptation of that story for the stage was selected for the Independence Theater Reading Series in Fayetteville, NC. Shane is currently at work on a new novel.
Marina Raydun: You write songs as well as novels. How do the two compare in terms of your creative process?
Shane Wilson: This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about. I’ve always dabbled in different modes and genres. My first publications were in poetry and creative non-fiction, so I’ve always bounced between lyrical writing and prose writing (which can be plenty lyrical, itself). For me, I think the process of writing a song varies in significant ways from writing a story. There are obvious differences (like the whole issue of music composition), but in a holistic way, I think that writing a story tends to happen in a more linear fashion while writing a song tends to play out in a more recursive, circular process. In other words, when I start abook, I tend to mostly write straight through from point A to point B. When I’m working on a song, I might start with the chorus, go to the verses, circle back to the chorus, etc. For me, songwriting tends to jump around a good bit. I think it’s probably because of how songs are put together—with verses and choruses and bridges. Then there is the issue of making sure it all works rhythmically with music and so forth. There is a lot of retreading the same ground when working on a song.
MR: You majored in English and taught English for a number of years. What is the first experience you had when you learned that language had power?
SW: I’m not sure that there is one specific moment in which the power of language was revealed to me. Instead, I think it was the emphasis that my family put on stories. My family was full of storytellers—my father, my mother, my aunt, my grandfather. I was often drawn into the colorful tales they would weave for me—often some combination of the real and the fanciful. It would be years later before I learned how to spin magic from my words like they did, but I think it was growing up listening to those stories that instilled in me that love of language and story.
MR: What does literary success look like to you?
SW: Literary success looks like consistent output and consistent improvement. We would all like to sell a bunch of books every day, but that is less important to me than experiencing the world through writing that strives at a genuine exploration of the human experience. So, as long as I’m still writing and as long as I’m still finding ways to improve my craft, I’m calling that literary success.
MR: Have you read anything that made you feel differently about fiction?
SW: I would point to two books. First, I always tell my creative writing students to read Rainer Marie Rilke’s collection, Letters to a Young Poet. That book changed the way I understood my compulsion to create. Over the course of Rilke’s correspondence with the unnamed young poet, he explores the artist’s compulsion: “A work of art is good if it has grown out of necessity. In this manner of its origin lies its true estimate: there is no other. Therefore, my dear Sir, I could give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore the depths whence your life wells forth; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create.” In other words, art must come out of need. That always meant that if a person could imagine a life without writing, they should abandon the practice. The second book I should mention is Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. No other book has ever spoken to me in the way this book did. In many ways, Rushdie’s work showed me what was possible in fiction. It redrew the boundaries of what fiction could accomplish in a single volume. It masterfully demonstrated how language can redefine what is possible in the world.
MR: What’s your favorite childhood book?
SW: I always loved The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I also spent a whole lot of my childhood and adolescence reading R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps. Those books were killer.
MR: What is your favorite genre to read?
SW: I love literary fiction with elements of science fiction and fantasy thrown in.
MR: What are you currently reading?
SW: I am currently reading Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule—the first in a new series of Star Wars novels—and Hollywood Park by Mikel Jollett—a memoir about his family escaping the Synanon cult when he was just a child.
MR: How did publishing your first book change your writing process?
SW: Publishing the first novel made writing a novel feel more possible than it had ever felt before, and in a way, I suppose it was more possible than it ever had been. Once I could see that seeing a project through to the end was possible and that it could find a home, the next story came easier. Writing is like any muscle: the more you write, the easier it gets. Sometimes I might get bogged down in some research for a new project. Other times I may not be sure if the project I’m working on at the moment will go the distance. One thing is for sure, though: if I have a story that can go the distance, I just need to stick with it long enough to finish. Publishing a first novel makes this really basic concept more concrete. Publishing taught me how to finish.
MR: If you could cast your characters in a Hollywood adaption of your book, who would play your characters?
SW: I’ll answer this question in kind of a general way. As for A Year Since the Rain, I think Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland) would do well as the leading male in either of the novels. I could also see Bill Hader (Barry) or Adam Driver (Marriage Story) in that role. I would like to see someone like Zoe Kravitz cast as Nona. For my second novel, The Smoke in His Eyes, I think of a young, handsome guy for TJ, the music prodigy. He needs to be able to sing, though. Maybe on of those kids from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series—Joshua Bassett maybe, or a Jonas Brother. As for the ladies, Leslie Grace (In the Heights) would be a good choice for Lila, and I would like to see Jenna Dewan (Step Up) in the role of Muna.
MR: Is there a book that cemented you as a writer?
SW: In spite of the fear of being redundant, I think the only book that can cement someone as a writer is the book that person writes. If you’re writing, you’re a writer. It’s the work—not the “success” or the “publication”—that separates the writer from the aspiring writer.
To learn more about Shane, please visit https://www.shanewilsonauthor.com