Self Q&A (Patreon)

Just for fun.

What’s your ideal writing situation?

Seated by myself in a comfortable chair at a desk in a quiet room. Preferably with a joint and without distractions. This has rarely taken place. 

What’s the last book you read?

I finished Leonard Cohen’s Book of Longing less than… thirty minutes ago? Before that, I read Andrea Long Chu’s Females. Now to finish Reza Aslan’s No god but God, a strong popular history of Islam, and then finally start Chris O’Leary’s Ashes to Ashes after too many months of putting it off. 

Name twenty favorite writers.

William Shakespeare, James Baldwin, Alan Moore, Douglas Adams, Steven Moffat, Iain Banks, Elizabeth Sandifer, N. K. Jemisin, John Berger, Charlie Jane Anders, Mark Fisher, Guy Debord, Andrea Long Chu, Jack Graham, Chris O’Leary, Tom Stoppard, Warren Ellis, Kieron Gillen, Lewis Carroll, and Bertolt Brecht.

What’s the best thing you’ve written in the past year?

My blog post on Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” is pretty straightforwardly the best thing I’ve ever written. I’m also very proud of my Bohemian Rhapsody hit-piece. 

Do you listen to music while you’re writing?

Too often. My big problem is that I’ll get distracted from making music criticism by listening to songs other than the ones I’m writing about. I find classical music and the work of Brian Eno are conducive to a stable working environment: calm but stable.

How often do you achieve your ideal writing conditions?

Fucking never.