Next Big Thing Interview!

Today I am taking part in the networked blog interview, The Next Big Thing. I was nominated last week by poet Kristine Ong Muslim

1) What is the working title of your next book? 
DEMONSTRA

2) Where did the idea come from for the book? 
It was originally conceived as a followup to an earlier, hard-to-find chapbook of mine, MONSTRO, but like most literary ideas, spiraled away from there.

3) What genre does your book fall under?
Poetry, mostly, and beyond that we start getting into a quibbling of categories. Lao, Lao American, American, Asian American, Gen X., Speculative, Horror, Weird, Lovecraftian, Fantastic, etc.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition? 
I hadn't given too much thought to that, but Ova Saopeng and Lidet Viravong would be in the running, as would Kulap Vilaylack.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
DEMONSTRA is a poetic meditation on what is shown and what is learned, what we fear, and what we see.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? 
I'll be published through Innsmouth Free Press, but they've given me a lot of latitude.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? 
About a month, but the revisions have been going on for six months now.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I wouldn't want to over or undersell the text. But I think it would fit in firmly among my peers' work.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book? 
Approaching my 40th birthday, I still hadn't really seen the book I wanted to read, the one that was examining and exploring not just who we are and who we were, but where we were headed as Lao Americans, both internally and externally.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
I'll be working with the Lao American artist Vongduane Manivong who will be providing several modernized interpretations of many of the classic beings of Lao and Southeast Asian mythology.


Now, I'm obliged to tag five other authors, so, I'm starting off tagging:

Nicholas Almand: http://www.sonsofnowhere.com

But apparently most of my other colleagues have already done this interview already...

Hopefully they'll have something neice and juicy for you soon!