For Better or Wrose
Soft White Underbelly
For better or worse, the episode of Soft White Underbelly with me has launched. Watch at your own peril.
You’ll find it here.
The only tragic aspect of the discussion happened immediately afterward. As we were parting on the sidewalk, I mentioned Studs Terkel. Since I was a kid I’ve loved the slice-of-life pieces that Terkel wrote, in particular his book Working, in which he interviews people in various professions. At the mention of Terkel, Mark Laita said, “I love Studs Terkel!” As it happened, we could’ve talked another hour just about our mutual obsession with Terkel.
The aftershocks of book tour are slowly winding down.
I love taking walks at dusk so I can peek in the windows of people and try to guess what their lives are like. I write entire worlds that these people inhabit in my head and give them tragedies and pain. Slice of life pieces are like nibbles of candy for my nosey self to use as jumping off points for how the rest of the story goes and now I’m going to find all the pieces I can by this new to me author. Thank you!
I just watched your interview. It immediately made me ask my mom for some of her stories and it confirmed a lot of what I knew about her. She had traveled coast to coast ever since she was eighteen to follow lovers and family members who were good people but never fit and I asked her if she had ever driven to any state just for herself and she couldn’t bring herself to answer that she hadn’t (she’s mid 50s) so I encouraged her if she ever could to try it and drag someone with her for once. She wasn’t opposed to the idea. Thanks for that. A fuck ton more crossed my mind but that’s for another day.