Describe your latest book.
The Making of Zombie Wars is a roller-coaster ride of violence and sex. The main character, Joshua Levin, is a modestly talented wanna-be screenwriter whose day job is teaching English to immigrants and refugees. As the U.S. joyously invades Iraq, Joshua falls for a married Bosnian woman and his sadly stable life disintegrates. On the upside, his script entitled "Zombie Wars" seems to be going well, even if nowhere in particular. Entertaining mishaps ensue. Anyone who has ever casually ruined their life could easily identify with Josh.
Describe a recurring dream or nightmare.
I have dreams which differ in details but all have the same structure: I share a space with a large number of friends from my previous (Sarajevo) and my present (Chicago) lives. We always do something together — often we play soccer — and there is never any drama or danger or sorrow. We just exist together.
What scares you the most as a writer?
Indulging my vanity and the false feeling that I'm effortlessly, indelibly good at writing, so that whatever I crank out is great, however inane or undercooked. Also known as the Updike Syndrome.
What's your biggest grammatical pet peeve?
Subject pronouns in place of object pronouns. As in: "She stared at Adolf and I because with those mustaches we looked like fucking idiots." Also, the abuse of almost for the purposes of hedging the statement. As in: "It was almost as if his head had a propeller on the top." Or: "She was almost pregnant."
Why do you write?
Because I cannot not write. Which is the only legitimate, defensible reason. I think that every writer at whatever stage of his/her career ought to be aware that if s/he didn't...