June's Featured Author: Peter Straub
Interview by Peter Mark May
Mini-Bio
Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 2 March, 1943, the first of three sons of a salesman and a nurse. The salesman wanted
him to become an athlete, the nurse thought he would do well as either a doctor or a Lutheran minister, but all he wanted to do was to
learn to read.
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Are there any secret novels hidden away in your attic that may or may not see the light of day?
No, but there are maybe half a dozen books that seemed to begin well but poodled out in aimlessness, confusion, and despair.
What authors do you like to read?
Tons of them. Just to take a random sample, Iris Murdoch, Raymond Chandler, Henry James, Michael Connelley, William Maxwell, Jonathan Lethem, Stephen King,
Dan Simmons, Thomas Tessier, Michael Chabon, John Updike, Ian McEwen, and Donald Harington. Plus a long list of poets.
What is your favourite book?
My favorite book is probably SOME OTHER PLACE. THE RIGHT PLACE., by Donald Harington. It is a real masterpiece of American fiction.
What is your real guilty secret favourite book?
Guilty secret favorite? You mean, a book I actually prefer to the Harington but am ashamed to admit it? Or a book I am just embarrassed to have enjoyed?
I don't know that there is any answer to the first, but as for the second, I could offer... oh, maybe those "true crime" books about serial killers
I used to devour.
What can we see from you in the future?
In October of this year, the Library of America will publish the two-volume anthology, THE AMERICAN FANTASTIC TALE, which I edited; and
sometime this fall, DC/Vertigo should publish the graphic novel written by myself and Michael Easton, THE GREEN WOMAN, art by John Bolton;
and in Jannary of 2010, Doubleday will publish my new novel, A DARK MATTER.
What is THE DARK MATTER about?
THE DARK MATTER concerns the consequences and long after-image of an act of occult magic that ruined the lives of the participants.
What is the worst and best reviews you've ever had in any medium?
The worst one was written by Elmore Leonard, who said that GHOST STORY was not fiction but hype. Thirty years later, he apologized to me
and said that he was probably drunk at the time. The best would probably be any one of the reviews Gary K. Wolfe has given me in LOCUS.
He's always really intelligent and really generous at the same time.
Are there any of your older books that you would like to go back and change the ending?
Not really. (Thinks.) No, probably not. (Thinks some more.) No, definitely not.
Do you like real ale or lager?
Oh, come on. Real ale, of course. Lager is far too much like American swill.
The best bit about being an author?
Being your own boss. Being able to live within one's own imagination. The amazing possibility of actually and truly BEING four of five
people in the course of a single day. The opportunity to discover what you Almost deeply know. The knowledge that a number of people
really, really enjoy your work and get something valuable from it.
And the worst?
The loneliness (though you do get used to that in time), the insecurity, the incredible emotional see-saw of trying to write fiction at
the top of your game, with unflagging passion and a flawless memory.
Do you still get marketed in the Horror genre or is your work a publicist nightmare to place?
I don't actually know the answer to this. I have the feeling that I am seen as a kind of strange subset of Horror.
TheNovelBlog.com would like to thank Peter for his time and answers.