📚 A Bookish Chat with 'St. James Infirmary' Steven Meloan | Author Interview | #AuthorInterview #BlogTour #Interview

 

Today we welcome Steven Meloan to The Writer's Life e-Magazine! Steven is the author of the new book of short stories, St. James Infirmary (Stories). This interview is part of his Blog Tour by Pump Up Your Book. Enjoy!

 

Steven Meloan has written for Wired, Rolling Stone, the Huffington Post, Los Angeles, BUZZ, the San Francisco Chronicle, and SF Weekly. His fiction has appeared in SOMA Magazine, the Sonoma Valley Sun, Lummox Press, Newington Blue Press, and Roadside Press, as well as at Litquake, Quiet Lightning, Library Girl, and other literary events. His short fiction collection, St. James Infirmary, was released in 2023 on Roadside Press. He is a recovered software developer, co-author of the novel The Shroud with his brother Michael, and a former busker in London, Paris, and Berlin.

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Q: Welcome to The Writer's Life!  Now that your book has been published, we’d love to find out more about the process.  When did you come up with the idea to write your book?

Many of the stories were spawned by semi-annual “Sonoma Writers’ Workshop” literary events in my town—raucous, coffeehouse-style readings set to acoustic live music. The picture of me on the back cover of St. James Infirmary was taken at one such reading.

After several years of these gatherings, I realized I had a sizable collection of stories. The co-founder of the events suggested I put them together into a book, and so I did.

In writing and then compiling the stories, I came to see that they often centered around “wounded people in need of care.” And since the title story makes mention of an old folk-blues standard, “St. James Infirmary,” it seemed the perfect encompassing title for the collection. 

Q: Who is your publisher and how did you find them, or did you self-publish?

My publisher is Roadside Press, out of the Midwest.

Michele McDannold is the founder of the press, and a true force of nature—with over 100 recent books of prose, poetry, and memoir. She is also a brilliant poet in her own right.

I connected with Michele thanks to Westley Heine, who has both a memoir and a book of poetry on Roadside. Wes and I previously had chapbooks published by a small press out of Germany.

Q: How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips that you could pass on which would make the journey easier for other writers?

For this particular kind of writing (short fiction), I think it’s essential to get down to the heart and soul of the story being told. I typically began with the telling of some event or experience that was important or memorable to me, and then let the underlying meaning of the experience reveal itself along the way. And since many of the stories were intended to be read aloud, it was also important to find the proper rhythm and pacing of the words. Reading them aloud during the writing process often helped to hone the final versions.

 

Q: What other books are you working on and when will they be published?

I’ve just released a joint collaboration with my brother Michael—The Kind the Pharaohs Try. Spawned by the New Wave/Punk scenes of the 1980s, the book offers story-song lyrics by myself, and spoken word stories by Michael. The songs speak of doomed loves, and noir tales in exotic locations, inspired by the wry/bitter-sweet stylings of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Elvis Costello. The spoken word pieces take readers on journeys of seedy carnival midways, lives of urban madness, transcendent spiritual retreats, and coming-of-age garage band shacks. 

https://www.amazon.com/Kind-Pharaohs-Try-Steven-Meloan/dp/B0CTPM7NVJ

Beyond this, I have extensive notes and early drafts of a follow-up collection of stories (a conceptual cousin to St. James Infirmary), as well as an in-process collection of philosophical essays exploring popular music in the 20^th Century.

Q: What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?

That most of the stories are based on real life experiences—"autobiographical fiction,” if you will. As is often said, truth is greatly stranger than fiction. 

 

Q: Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?

I don’t know that there is necessarily an overarching “message.” For me, it’s more a matter of finding beauty, tragedy, poignancy, and meaning in the everyday experiences and events of life. As the book’s jacket blurbs note, the stories explore “complex human relationships and the often-mysterious forces that shape them,” while “throwing a column of light into the underground of the ordinary.”

Q: Thank you again for this interview!  Do you have any final words?

Related to the above, I regularly come back to a quote by Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite authors:

“Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”

 

Title: St. James Infirmary

Author: Steven Meloan

Publication Date: April 20, 2023

Pages: 80

Genre: Short Fiction

A book of short stories by Steven Meloan.

Steven Meloan’s writing has been seen in Wired, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles, BUZZ, the San Francisco Chronicle, and SF Weekly. His fiction has appeared in SOMA Magazine, the Sonoma Valley Sun, Lummox Press, and Newington Blue Press, as well as at Litquake, Quiet Lightning, and other Bay Area literary events. He has regularly written for the Huffington Post, and is co-author of the novel The Shroud with his brother Michael. He is a recovered software programmer, and was a street busker in London, Paris, and Berlin.

“Reading these stories, I felt like I was hearing an original voice for the very first time. They are surreal, cinematic, poetic, and have real punch-with everything I could want in a collection of short fiction. Set in California and Europe, from the 1960s to the 1980s, they vividly capture lost times and lost places. They have echoes of Jack Kerouac and Paul Bowles, and can be read again and again with a sense of wonder and pleasure.”-Jonah Raskin, Author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955

“St. James Infirmary is a captivating collection of stories that takes readers on a dark and uncanny journey through everyday life. Meloan’s writing has a haunting subtlety that draws one in, as if witnessing the events in real-time. With sharp insights and unexpected twists, these stories explore complex human relationships and the often-mysterious forces that shape them. Meloan vividly captures the gritty reality of each setting, throwing a column of light into the underground of the ordinary. For fans of evocative writing that stays with you long after the final page, St. James Infirmary is a must-read.” 

– Roadside Press

St. James Infirmary is available at Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/fv3zr2hn and Roadside Press at https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/james/129 .

The Writer’s Life

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