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To read Tom Franklin's profile click here.
SLR:
Hi Tom. Good to see you again. Glad we were able to get
together while I"m in Oxford.
TF:
Good to see you too.
SLR:
So, let's get right to the novel. Smonk is getting lots of
good reviews. I first want to ask you a question I think a lot of
people who have already read the book would like to know and that is
where in the world did you get the idea for this novel?
TF:
I got the idea for the character Smonk from my daughter. On the way
home one night we smelled a skunk and she asked me what that was. I
told her it was a skunk but the next day she was talking about it
and calling it a smonk. It stuck with me. I thought it was a great
name for a character. Then a friend of mine gave me this beer
mug with the ugliest face on it and the word, or name, smonk just
seemed to fit it. So the character in the book started to evolved
from all of that.
SLR:
The story falls on the tradition of southern grotesque humor,
and at times just plain gross, did you ever think to yourself "I've
gone too far, this is too much, too over the top, or did it seem
easy--as if it had to be written exactly the way it is?
TF: I knew it was over
the top. No doubt about it. But Smonk, I can honestly say, is
the novel that I most wanted to read. I loved writing it. Sometimes
I just sat in here writing and laughing out loud. IT was so much
fun. It unfolded jus the way it was suppose to. So natural.
SLR:
You used to write short stories and if I recall correctly were
nervous about the novel? Has that changed? Now that you have two
under your belt, do you prefer the novel? Is it easy to go
back and forth between the two formats?
TF:
I write short stories all the time. It's how I come up with novel
ideas. Smonk was a short story and my friend, William Gay,
told me that it was a novel, others said so too.
SLR: USA Today
called Smonk "ingenious" Publishers Weekly called
it "a gloriously debauched second novel" and warns that it "isn't
for everyone." When you wrote this, who was your audience? Who
did you write this for?
TF:
I was worried about the audience. I was pretty much writing for me
and my editor even flew in from New York to try and talk me out of
making this novel my second novel. He was concerned about the
audience, but I knew I was writing the novel that I most wanted to
read and I laughed out loud when writing. I never had that
experience before. It was great.
SLR:
What research did you do for this novel, if any? Any surprises in
your research?
TF:
That was the beauty of Smonk--I didn't have to do any research. I
could do whatever I wanted.
SLR:
So, what's next for you?
TF:
Well, I have four ideas right now, but I've learned not to talk
about them with people so much. Something's lost when I start
talking about them, so I'll just have to see what pans out.
SLR:
Well we look forward to it. Whatever it ends up being. Thanks for
talking with me Tom. It was good seeing you again.
TF:
Thank you.
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