Joe Meno
Joe Meno
Joe Menois a novelist, writer of short fiction, playwright, and music journalist based in Chicago...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
borrowed boy detective mood music particular taking
In my fiction, there's a lot that's borrowed from music. It's never like I'm taking a lyric, but more the mood of a particular song. 'The Boy Detective Fails' was like listening to 'Eleanor Rigby' by The Beatles, this very melancholy-but-poppy song.
although final pages students took
I tell my students that with a 200-page novel, you are going to write 100 pages that don't make the final cut. See it as an opportunity, although it took me a while to enjoy that 'lost in the woods' feeling.
relationship religion
I would say I have a complicated relationship with institutionalized religion.
artists both boy detective favorite felt good lucky means money respond smaller willing
I felt really lucky that 'Hairstyles Of The Damned' and 'The Boy Detective Fails' were both bestsellers, and I thought that donating the money from 'Demons' was a good way to respond to that. My favorite artists are the ones that are willing to experiment, even if it means a smaller audience.
contacts copies corporate novels plan press sell small thousand ways willing word work
Most novels put out by small or corporate presses don't really sell that well - usually a thousand copies or so. Working with a small press, you have to be willing to book reading tours, plan events, make contacts with other small press authors, and find new ways of getting word about your new work out there.
mistake fall boys
The boy detective thinks, The only thing all men have in common with one another is their inherent capacity to make mistakes. He reasons, But there is wonder in the attempt, knowing we are all destined to fall short, but forgoing reason and fear time and time again so deliberately.
sex expectations awkward
[Sex] is really awkward. You know you have expectations and then it's this great moment of connection and it's a surprise. But that's what so exciting about it is that sense of surprise.
sex book perspective
Sex scenes in books are always like first person, from this male perspective and just about how awesome he is. It feels like such a fantasy.
afterlife tragedy triumph
It is what we see when we imagine what the afterlife must be like: our happiest triumphs, our most sincere moments, stolen from the seam of our lives, a respite just before the onset of imminent tragedy.
sex character writing
I always feel super uncomfortable when it's like ah, there probably has to be a sex scene. I feel really bad and then always look around to see if anyone is watching me while I'm writing. I want to apologize to people who have to read those sex scenes, but I feel like it's part of the characters life, it's important.
prayer quiet cry
When she cries, it is quiet, tearless, almost completely imperceptible: one more unheard prayer.
our-world way wells
Our worlds are so momentary. We are along all our lives and then go off that way as well.
trying radio appeals
And it's exactly what's wrong with the radio. It's like...anything that tries to appeal to everybody always ends up sounding so cheap.
sleep simple worry
Beneath all of her thoughts and worries, beneath the complication of conflicting identities and needs, maybe it's as simple as loving the way some other person looks when they're sleeping.