My next author interview is with writer and poet Shaine Greenwood, author of Faces & Other Poems.
Tell us about yourself! What would you like readers to know about you?
Shaine Greenwood: There are milestones in my life that have shaped me: I have been homeless more than once. I have lived a vagabond life—which isn’t as romantic as Kerouac made it out to be. Before that, I was an academic with a Linguistics (Near East studies) and English double-major. I’ve wandered and now I’m settled. I embrace both lifestyles. I think that shows up in my work.
Alexis: I was never quite a vagabond, but I was a starving artist (or in my case, a starving musician), and that was also not nearly as romantic as people make it out to be.
What book or books have most influenced you as a writer?
Shaine Greenwood: Big Kurt Vonnegut fan, love Slaughter-House Five and Breakfast of Champions. Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison) has been extremely influential to me. That book showed me how powerful fiction can be. How fiction can cut through reality like a knife and reveal truths. Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace) showed me how wild and expansive one can take writing as not just a discipline, but a philosophy. The Namesake (Jhumpra Lahiri) was the first book that demonstrated to me the power of exposition. How a writer can pick at the reader until they’re forced to feel something in the spaces between dialogue.
Alexis: I also love Kurt Vonnegut, though I’ve never read Breakfast of Champions. Mother Night haunts me to this day, though, and I love Slaughter-House Five. I also loved Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. I never read David Foster Wallace or Jhumpra Lahiri, but I hope to get around to them someday.
What are some tropes of fiction in your genre that you love/hate? Why?
Shaine Greenwood: The biggest trope in fiction, one that I hate, is the perpetual sex, gender identity, and racial disparagement we see. A lot of literature is whitewashed. Popular fiction is mostly written for white people, by white people. I’m not saying that white people need to go out and put a non-white MC in every one of their stories, but we as writers need to reflect deeply about why most of the faces in our stories are white—then make a change!
A general trope that I support is romance in non-romantic fiction. When done well, it’s a great way to humanize people. We all seek varying kinds of connection and most of us desire intimate bonds with other people. (It’s OK if people don’t want intimate relationships as well, and we should think about writing people like that into our stories.) Some people are against romance in non-romantic stories, and I think that’s because it typically builds on the stale tactics of the hero always winning the heart of the person who was out of everyone else’s league, so to speak. Love is such a varied and nuanced concept, that when we rely on the old trope, we fail to do what we as writers wanted to do in the first place: make our character seem more real.
Alexis: I definitely agree that too much literature is whitewashed. It’s racist, and it’s also dishonest and unrealistic. Look at the world around you! Especially in science fiction, why would you imagine a world where people of color don’t exist?
Who is your favorite character in your book? What do you like about them? (or, which character do you hate most and why)
Shaine Greenwood: No novel, but I’ve got some short stories that I’ve published online and some that I’m currently working on. Here’s a beautiful bullet-pointed list:
Currently Published Online
The Manufactured: I love the printed person in this. I layered a lot of subliminal concepts into this (not giving people names until the end, as one example), but putting that all aside...the struggle and discovery that the printed person goes through was uplifting and cathartic for me.
Coffee, Robots, and Walt Whitman: This was a story I wrote when I was 14, that I edited it in my late twenties. It’s dear to me in a unique half-nostalgic, half-self-deprecating way. I love the “mechanic” in that story. I put “mechanic” in quotes because they’re more than they seem. *Queue spooky music.*
Works in Progress
Atmosphere: I love both Simone and Citlali in this. Without spoiling too much, Citlali illegally charters a ship to a dangerous, quarantined planet to save her wife Simone, who with her crew became MIA for months.
Untitled “trapped in apartment” story: This is about someone who is trapped in their apartment due to a countrywide chemical gas accident. I actually started writing this short story before the pandemic but I put it down because it was bumming me out due to our actual pandemic. I was to a part where the main character gets a cat shipped to them unexpectedly, and well, I really love that cat.
What are you doing to de-stress during the pandemic? Is there any coping mechanism you’d recommend (or NOT recommend)?
Shaine Greenwood: I’m introverted, but still want to maintain connections with the few people (by choice) that are dear to me. I’m also catching up on a lot of reading and writing projects. Most importantly, I’m taking time to rest when I don’t feel motivated. I would not recommend excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages at this time. I’m trying to fight the one drink a day or so that I might have into several drinks to “destress.”
Alexis: I’ve also been glad to have the chance to do more reading.
What do you like to do other than read or write? Do you have any interesting hobbies?
Shaine Greenwood: I paint. I painted the book cover for Faces and Other Poems. I’m trying to practice my painting techniques for more realistic concept art so that I can paint all of my covers. I’m also practicing French and soon I’m going to try and learn German.
Alexis: I’m always impressed with people who paint and do other artwork. My mother is an artist, and she does painting quite a bit. I also think it’s great to learn new languages. I studied Latin and French in school, but I haven’t kept them up very well. I’ve also learned a smattering of Spanish, but I really want to learn more.
Tell us about a mystery/urban legend from your hometown (or another place you’ve lived).
Shaine Greenwood: I live in Seattle. Our big urban legend and unofficial Seattle mascot is the Sasquatch, or Bigfoot. An ape-like creature that frequents the forests of Washington. It’s likely that people are misidentifying bears and bear paw prints as Sasquatch tracks. Loggers have claimed to bear witness (pun intended) to Sasquatch for many years, but no substantial evidence can be found on their existence.
How do you choose what books you want to read?
Shaine Greenwood: Mood. Sometimes I want to explore futurist ideas in scifi, sometimes I want to be informed and wowed by reality in nonfiction, sometimes I crave the humanity and call to think deeply about myself and the world around me, so I’ll read poetry or some of the great 18th and 19th century literature out there. It all depends on my mood at the time.
Alexis: That’s interesting. I also like reading widely, including nonfiction and poetry. I especially love Ancient Greek and Roman poets.
Do you like Greek/Roman/Norse/Asian/African mythology or folklore? What’s your favorite myth?
Shaine Greenwood: I majored in linguistics in college, which means a lot of history for my specific field of study. I have a deep fascination with Mesopotamian stories, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh. These are the first stories written by human beings, not passed through word of mouth alone, and they’re filled with such spirit and creativity, such wonder and at the same time they capture the bonds of friendship and the despair of death.
Alexis: I’m also fascinated with the Epic of Gilgamesh. I’ve tried to write a novel set in that world, but it never quite took off. I do have one short story that was inspired by it, though, and maybe someday I’ll find a way to finish or re-write the novel.
If you write Scifi, what technology or innovations or scientific discoveries have inspired your work?
Shaine Greenwood: I think the idea of interplanetary travel (with what Space X is doing) is my inspiration to write Atmosphere, my scifi short story (work in progress).
My muse for writing The Manufactured is the research into printing 3D organs for transplants, and—of course—Frankenstein. My original story actually involved a brain transplant and the printed person’s moral dilemma with someone else being murdered to give them life, but I couldn’t really fit all of that into the story without it being extremely long...so I cut it.
Learn More About Shaine Greenwood
Book: Faces and Other Poems
Medium: https://medium.com/@neutrinoburrito
Twitter: https://twitter.com/neutrinoburrito