Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am twenty-five, having submitted query letters for ten years. “Rabbit” was the fourth attempt at a novel, based upon a short story, expounded upon the real-life event of meeting my father in the middle of a 4,000 mile road trip.
I am a lover of language and musical expression. And animals. All kinds.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Rabbit: (a novel?) was inspired by unearthed desires to meet my father and better understand the man I wanted to grow into. He was homeless. I found difficulty holding a job beyond handfuls of months. He chased women. I loved feeling loved.
My generation feels hinged by divorce, observing friends and their friends over the years. “Rabbit” was a very necessary story to be told, whether it reached many people or just a few. I know some who needed the character to exist on paper, to be carried around with them, to help heal. This book is for them.
The novel is colored with obsession of the cosmos, idealized childhoods, disturbing instances of abuse, suicidal fantasies, and helpless creatures.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I spend weeks planning and outlining every action, learning from my characters, until the story pours forth in large spurts. Half the book here, half there. It may take years of planning but only months to write. Then it sits. I meditate. Then I carve out everything unnecessary–bland words, repetitive scenes, insincere dialogue–and more is added.
Then I pitch the book to agents. Meanwhile, I outline the next four books filling my head.
My fiction is inspired from my external world. My imagination only assists in shaping structure.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Italo Calvino. Sherman Alexie. Raymond Carver. T.C. Boyle. C.K. Williams. Don DeLillo. Gustave Flaubert. Jon Krakauer. Sembene Ousmane. Tony Morrison.
Joseph Heller’s “Something Happened” is a masterpiece of an unhappy man who has the life he always worked hard for.
Thomas Pynchon. Good god, he writes beautifully.
What are you working on now?
A widower is raising his four children on the outskirts of gossip-driven suburbs, four years following his wife’s brutal murder. It is a small town drama where every parent is obsessed with every child’s sexual maturity.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook has been a nice tool for approaching people personally. WordPress helps, too. Twitter.
I prefer face-to-face interaction. Bookstores. Bars. The street. Anywhere tangible.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep your livelihood synonymous with your craft. Be the filter for your remote world and tell its story. Inform the generations-to-come who we were–who you were–who everyone wanted to become.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Quit talking about doing something and just do it.
What are you reading now?
I am rereading Sean Davis’ THE WAX BULLET WAR. Also, rereading Paradise Lost.
Tom Spanbauer’s I LOVED YOU MORE and Suzy Vitello’s THE MOMENT BEFORE are the newest editions to my shelf which I am thoroughly enjoying.
What’s next for you as a writer?
The small town drama. The lonely observer trying to reenter life following a colorful breakup. The couple moving through the delivery of their stillborn child. The big plane crash. The space-coma opera. The abstract speculative fiction.
I’ve promised myself to finish these first then get back to living life, unhindered by the urge to scribble out notes for a story six years down the road, but I’m afraid that day will never come.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The entire Calvin & Hobbs collection. Shakespeare’s Works. Dante’s Trilogy. Don Quixote.
Author Websites and Profiles
Jared Smith Website
Jared Smith Amazon Profile
Jared Smith’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account