World's Worst Interview

Victor Gischler, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers, introduces a new feature to the World's Worst Blog. (Thanks to Sarah for tipping me off.) He has conducted the first World's Worst Interview, with Sean Doolittle as the subject.

Q. Aside from Victor Gischler, who is the biggest influence on your fiction? Who's the thirteenth biggest influence?

A: I like what I heard Walter Mosely say about this at the Vegas Falley Festival of Books in October. He said writers always lie about their biggest influences to sound loftier. They say Faulkner or Proust or something when really it was Curious George.

With that in mind I'll say Frankin W. Dixon, Wilson Rawls, and Mad Magazine for fossil fuel. Later, Stephen King for combustion.

Here's a spooky story: recently I went to ABE.com and found an old beat-up library edition of a book I'd read only once in 6th grade but always sorta remembered fondly. It's all about this couple who moves out to the country and discovers the woods around their house are infested
with feral cats. All I remembered was that it was called FERAL.

Anyway, I got this thing in the mail the other day, and it turns out the main character's last name was Bishop (kinda like the last name of the main character in my first book, Dirt).

So never mind what I said before. Apparently my biggest influence was Berton Roueche.

Having met both these guys, I can say they're just as much fun in person. (There's a reason that spell check recommends "giggler" as a replacement for Gischler.) I suppose this means I better read one of Sean's books.