Chatting with author T.C. Boyle

Administrator: Welcome to the chat!

seantgla: What has been the most challenging work of your career?

T.C. Boyle: Hauling bundles of clothes out of the stockroom for Nathan Fish’s Men’s and Boys’ Wear in Peekskill, New York, when I was sixteen. As it happened, I was fired, which I richly deserved.

Administrator: Tell us about your new book “Talk, Talk?”

LAreader: I was thinking more literally -- your fiction career.

Administrator: We’ve heard that your presentation last year at this festival included nudity and cannibalism? Is this true?

T.C. Boyle: Well, Talk Talk is my latest title, as you’ve divined. It’s coming out in paper in a month or so. It’s about identity and identity theft. And it is a real thrilling read, a grab-you-by-the-nose sort of thing. But my new-new book is called The Women, a fat historical novel, part of my egomaniacs of the twentieh century series. I’m about two months away from completing it.

Administrator: You wrote a short story I read years ago about a woman alone who had to watch for fires in a national park. it was amazing and i can’t find it because i don’t know the title. can you help?

Blue: At what point in writing Talk Talk, and now with The Women, did/do you know how everything would end in your story?

T.C. Boyle: Yes, indeed. It was a sad spectacle. It began with people in the front row (I’m sorry, women, that is) throwing their underwear onstage. At first I thought they just wanted a laundry.

T.C. Boyle: I don’t know till I get there. I just realized about a week ago, however, how The Women will play out. Now I have to get there.

Administrator: Do you write every day? Are you disciplined about it?

LAreader: How do practice yur craft? What’s the genesis of your ideas?

T.C. Boyle: Aw, shucks, Admin. Thanks for the compliment. The story is about a fire station I know very well in the Sierras--it’s called “Sitting on Top of the World.”

Lindsay: what sort of shenanigans can i expect from your live appearance later today at the FOB?

T.C. Boyle: I practice my craft by awakening in the morning and then, essentially, falling back asleep again (at my keyboard). When I wake up the second time, voila, the story is done. Ideas? They come directly from a diseased childhood

Administrator: What diseases did you have?

LAreader: Were they physical or mental?

T.C. Boyle: Yes, I write every day. But not today. I find that you have to keep after it and that those pages do seem to mount if you cahin yourself to the desk.

T.C. Boyle: Malaria, epilepsy, yaws and koro.

Blue: How do you read other authors and stave off the desire to emulate?

T.C. Boyle: P.S. Yes, I was referring to mental diseases, actually.

LAreader: Do you have a list of your favorite books of All Time? What’s on that list?

Administrator: Do you have any favorite words?

T.C. Boyle: I don’t. I steal all I can. I will say, though, that I find it difficult to read novels while writing one: you don’t want another’s tone or voice to creep in.

T.C. Boyle: steatopygia and callypigian. Notice the shared root? Both have to do with buttocks.

Blue: I saw in the Top-Ten-Favorite-books-of-authors book that you put V. on your list, which was really great because there weren’t many nods to Pynchon, but I guess my question is, what about V. made you like it more than Gravity’s Rainbow?

Lindsay: What book are you currently reading?

T.C. Boyle: Yes, I love V, but of course I would name ten different books if asked ten different times.

T.C. Boyle: I’m reading the history of the west featuring Kit Carson. Fascinating stuff.

seantgla: Any readings, seminars or other public appearances coming up? And do you like doing that stuff?

Administrator: Is there anything you’ve ever written and published that you regret?

T.C. Boyle: Yes, I’m a natural ham and love to perform. I’m at the end as of today’s gig of a long line of things and won’t do any more public appearances till mid-summer. But, of course, all you need to is go to tcboyle.com and all gigs will be listed there--and if I forget to list them, the messagistas on the message board will have the info for you. They know far more about myb life than I do.

T.C. Boyle: Nope. Happy with it all. Of course, there are many books by other authors I wish I’d written.

Administrator: is it nerve-wracking to have someone else make a film based on your work?

Lindsay: can you tell us which b ooks you wish you’d written?

T.C. Boyle: Not in the least. As long as the author is wise enough to stay well out of it. There are many films in the works of my various stories and novels, and I hope for the best with all of them. And, to anticipate your next question, yes, I loved Alan Parker’s version of The Road to Wellville, starring Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Kellogg.

elizabethdobbs: I feel as if I am a professional reader at times, and I love to write for pleasure. I’ve seen you in person, once at couple of years ago at this festival, and once in Carlsbad, California, and both times I was struck by your intelligence - statement of fact. Who do you hang out with? Where do you find like minds? Who are you in awe of? Is it lonely at the top?

seantgla: Don’t you think you should update the photo at tcboyle.com?

T.C. Boyle: I hang with my friends and family and spend a lot of time in dark bars with non-specialized degenerates. This allows me to express both my inner and outer selves. And to drink.

Lindsay: Do you have kids?

T.C. Boyle: Actually, if you like a little deeper, you’ll see that there are many photos in the photo gallery from many different eras. They are dated also.

elizabethdobbs: Good answer; thanks.

Lindsay: Drinking sure is fun, isn’t it?! Most of the writers I know love to drink.

T.C. Boyle: All writers are drunks and drug addicts. And, with one exception--moi--they are the very lowest and most miserable of people.

Blue: Favorite drink?

seantgla: Who are your role models?

T.C. Boyle: I love to go to Paris, where I’ll be (forTalk Talk) in early June, and find myself at a cafe with a bunch of locals, tip back a glass of wine and say, very casually, “So, wow, man, you French people are into wine? I thought that was just a California thing.”

Lindsay: Nice

Blue: I like peach cider, by the way, and I’m not ashamed at all.

Lindsay: Blue, that is a very bold admission.

elizabethdobbs: Maybe I will only stay a reader, and not ever be a writer since I am not a very good drinker. I usually only go for one beer a year on St. Patrick’s, and I like Ouzo - which I have to bring my own to parties. So it’s wine for you? Wine, I consider a food group.

T.C. Boyle: I should say that I am looking for a new wife, as the old one is getting, well, old. I’m in the market for a woman in her thirties or forties, with a great sense of humor, worth a minium of ten million and educated at the Ph.D. level. No cats.

Administrator: is the “old wife” aware of this plan of yours?

Lindsay: What’s wrong with cats?!!!

elizabethdobbs: Would that be the definition of a “trophy wife”?

Administrator: are dogs okay?

elizabethdobbs: I liked your character in the novel about Alaska. She was a great lady. Does she live up to your reality?

T.C. Boyle: Yes, she is. She realizes that death comes for us all. As for cats, they’re all right except when they excrete. Please see my story, “De Rerum Natura,” from Descent of Man. In it, the inventor creates a widly popular breed of cat--the stoolless cat. It’s such a success that he goes on to create the headless, limbless variety of the stoolless cat.

Blue: Have you taken a look at any of the big new releases this month--Chabon, Murakami, DeLillo, etc...?

T.C. Boyle: I’m reading Murakami’s collection now and enjoying his non-Western approach to the short story.

Lindsay: i love murakami too. did you like “kafka on the shore”?

Lindsay: i thought it fell apart a little bit in the second half but still a fun ride.

T.C. Boyle: Haven’t yet had the pleasure. Maybe over the summer, once The Women is finished.

Administrator: Thank you all for participating in TC Boyle’s live chat! And of course, thank you Mr.Boyle!

T.C. Boyle: So, folks, I must hie me away to go to the auditorium and I’d like to wrap up some of the questions left unanswered. So: Yes, Yes, Yes and no.

elizabethdobbs Thank you!