INTERVIEW: Humorous Author Max Harrick Shenk

 

Max Harrick Shenk

Vermont and Pennsylvania

USA

 

 

Good morning, Max, and welcome to Vision and Verse. What have you written?

Oh, you name it. In addition to my published fiction, I’ve worked at a handful of newspapers (remember those?) and also put myself out there as a singer-songwriter for about a decade back in the 90s and 00s. 

My fiction follows a core group of characters from their childhoods in Quaker Valley, a fictitious central Pennsylvania town (their tourist slogan is “Like Gettysburg, except nothing happened here”), up through adulthood. I’ve published a short story collection (“What’s With Her?” New Plains Press, 2010), a serialized novel (“Meeting Dennis Wilson,” 2013) and a prequel novel (“You Don’t Think She Is,” 2015) featuring these characters... but I’ve taken the characters and their story universe and extended it into the present day via, first, stories told in email (I was bored at work, so I created email accounts for all of my characters and had them tell the stories in messages to each other), and more recently, via a project I call Facebook Flash Fiction: I created Facebook pages for all of my characters, and have been drafting out material in their voices. Through this I’ve also introduced other characters, mainly the children and grandchildren of the original characters; that actually resulted in another book, “Eva Kelly’s Book of Book Reviews,” which is a compendium of children’s book reviews written in the voice of my then-six year old character Eva.

I’ve enjoyed this project but have been backing off on it lately, and feel like it’s time to take the almost 20 years’ worth of character posts and emails that I’ve written and review them to see if I can make them into a book.

I’ve also branched out into cartoons which, again, are a takeoff on the original characters and their story.

My Facebook Flash Fiction is gathered in the Facebook group Welcome To Quaker Valley PA.

 

What is your favorite genre to write?

I don’t really write to a genre. “Fiction” is about as close as I get to a genre. I like to try to create work that will surprise a reader by either making them think or notice or laugh. Would that qualify as “humor”? My novels were technically ‘YA” but I don’t know how many young adults read or connected with them; they seem to be more for people my age who are looking back, although who knows...

Sorry if that’s not much of an answer.

Favorite food.

Nearly anything that I cook.No one knows better than me what I like and how to make it.

However... if I’m going out, diner food is the best. 

Two restaurants in Carlisle PA (my parents’ hometown): the Hamilton, which is a Greek-owned “family restaurant” that’s famous for “hotchee dogs” (chili dogs with cheese onions etc) but where I usually get a blockbuster (a couple big grilled pieces from a spiral sliced ham with cheese, onion and tomato on a kaiser roll); and the Chinese buffet, for reasons that anyone who’s ever gone to a Chinese buffet will understand).

 

Tea or coffee?

Strong Cafe Allonge or Americanos in the morning (made with Cafe Bustelo, but half decaf); occasionally herbal tea in the afternoon.

 

Pizza or ice cream?

Pizza. Believe it or not, Aldi’s frozen thin crust supreme, with a little bit of extra cheese on it. Although I really miss the boardwalk style pizza at Positive Pie in Vermont right now.

 

Wine or beer or soda or what?

If I have Coca Cola around the house, I’ll drink it, so I try not to have it around the house. A good glass of wine with a meal, or a Yuengling with a pizza = perfect.

 

Where would you like to visit?

First, France, Norway, and Germany. The non-tourist spots in Paris; the Oslo to Bergen to Trondheim to Bodo train in Norway; and old ancestral family areas in Germany (pre-WW1).

Then Britain and Japan.

 

Favorite musical artist.

There are so many, but as a pure artist, my favorite is Neil Young, not just because of his music, but for the way he’s conducted his career. There are other musicians and there is other music I like better and play more, but I have more respect for Neil as an artist than for anyone else I can think of. He refuses to let himself go stale or be put inside a box. His quote after he scored a number one pop hit: “This put me in the middle of the road. That got boring, so I headed for the ditch. It was a rockier road, but you meet more interesting characters there.”

Also the Beatles, and Brian Wilson, and Louis Armstrong, and Billy Strayhorn, and Fats Waller and Erroll Garner and Sinatra and...

Do you listen to music when you write?  What?

No. If there’s music on, I want to pay attention to it, and then I don’t write.

 

What makes you laugh?                        

A man is hiking the Sahara Desert and he’s gone three days without water; he’s burning up, crawling in the hot sun, moaning “Water! Water!” On the third day he sees in the distance a little kiosk where an old man is sitting under an umbrella. He crawls up to the kiosk: “Water!” The old man says, “I don’t have water. I have neckties. You wanna buy a tie?” The thirsty man says “I NEED WATER!” and the old man points to the horizon and says ’20 kilometers that way, there’s an inn.” The thirsty man crawls off toward the inn. The next evening he comes crawling back to the kiosk. “Water!” The old man says “Didn’t you get water at the inn?” The thirsty man says “THEY WOULDN’T LET ME IN WITHOUT A TIE!!” 

 

Favorite work of art or sculpture.

Andy Goldsworthy’s installations, and Yoko Ono’s Fluxus work, all of which makes me notice my surroundings and gets me to think.

My favorite type of art might be standup comedy. It combines humor and writing and acting in a unique way; the best of it is fearless and unapologetic and, best of all, funny, all qualities I aspire to in my writing.

If I was to name a specific work, though, it’d be an album called The Beach Boys Love You. I was a huge Beach Boys fan in my teens, and when this album came out, it was so strange and sounded so unlike anything I’d ever heard from them or expected from them that I hated it and almost returned it. But then I played it again, and one song stuck out; played it a third time and another song stuck out. The more I played it, the more I liked it, and it became my favorite album of theirs. It taught me that sometimes a great work of art is puzzling at first, and that’s because it’s trying to pull me out of my comfort zone and expand me. Meet it on its terms, not mine.

 

How old were you when you started writing?

I remember writing stuff that wasn’t for school as early as first and second grade. I even put together homemade “newspapers” and by seventh grade, was writing for the school newspaper and producing my own Beatles and music ‘zine. 

 

Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?

Yes.

Early in the process I just let it fly and write whatever comes out-- I don’t review it or think about it; I just put it down on paper. Then after a while, there comes a point where I realize it’s starting to get direction and form, and that is when I need to do a formal outline and take notes so that I can map out where I’m going. 

My process is usually as follows: I draft out a handwritten first draft where I just freewrite the story (kind of a reined in version of Natalie Goldberg’s “practice writing” exercises). At this point, I’m just putting it on paper, so I don’t worry about shortcomings, lack of detail or description, clunkiness, or anything like that. 
Then I type that handwritten draft into a Word document, and already at this point I’m starting to tweak a little as I type. I print that draft, then review it and make handwritten changes on the printed copy, which I then type into the document (saving the previous draft under a different name). 

Another important part of my process: while I’m revising, I always read my work aloud. This slows me down and helps me notice nuances that I might have missed otherwise. It’s particularly helpful with dialogue. It’s hard to create a finished piece of stilted prose if I’ve read it aloud. (Knock wood.)  

Describe your perfect evening.

I’m not an evening or night person, so the perfect evening to me is quiet, with me going to bed early so I can get up before the sun and get work done before the day hits.

Most writers I know are the same. A friend of mine said he got into the habit when he ran a bed and breakfast with his wife while working outside the house part time and raising two sons. Early morning was his writing time; it was quiet, but it also put his writing FIRST in his mind’s list of priorities. I agree with this approach.  

 

Where do you get your inspiration?

If by “inspiration” you mean “ideas,” everywhere. I’m always paying attention to everything that’s happening around me and adapting it for stories or vignettes. “How would my characters react to this?” Most of the Facebook Flash Fiction is stuff like that. This morning, for instance, was the day we were supposed to set the non-computer clocks back, and of course I forgot to do it... and as soon as I reset the clocks, I was already typing out two character pieces about daylight savings time. Things like that happen daily: I see a sign, or read something, or overhear something in the cafe or at a restaurant, and immediately my mind starts thinking “how would my characters react to this?” It’s just a matter of changing enough details to make it congruent with my story universe. All of the vignettes, in aggregate, make a larger story and a life. It’s up to me to get it down and then join them into something larger than the individual pieces.

I just need to be careful that, if something about a friend or family member really hits me, I embellish it enough to make it unrecognizable to them. No complaints so far, but then family and friends are notorious for not reading a writer friend’s work.

 

What do you do when you get a writer's block?

One of my favorite writer’s quotes is from Jerry Seinfeld. Someone asked him how he dealt with writer’s block, and he replied, “Writer’s block is just a made-up bullshit excuse for not doing the work.” I’ve found that’s true. The best cure for “writer’s block” is to just sit down and treat it like work. Write garbage if you must. Garbage can be revised, but as I tell people all the time, you can’t do anything with nothing. 

If I just sit down and do ANY work, the so-called “block” dissolves on its own.

It’s a discipline: I need to treat it like work and show up on time. I’m not always as disciplined as I’d like to be, but if I get really stuck, I feel like I know what to do, and that’s write through it. 

As the mystic writer Walter Lanyon said, “the answer to the question ‘how do you do it’ is as simple as it is exasperating: just do it.” 

 

Who is your favorite author?                           

Henry David Thoreau. 

 

Best book you ever read.

Two of them:

Thoreau’s journals, which is why he’s my favorite author. My ambition for the next several years is to start reading the whole thing at the beginning and go through to the end. As it is, even the bite sized daily blurbs I’ve read always contain something that makes me see the world and myself differently.

The most influential book I ever read was Richard Anobile’s The Marx Brothers Scrapbook. It was interviews, mainly with Groucho Marx but also with other people who worked with the brothers, and from it I learned so many things, but mainly about the unreliability and subjectivity of memory. Groucho would say one thing in an interview, and then two other interviews would contradict him; then he’d come back in another interview and give yet another version of “the truth.” Plus his voice leapt off the page, and of course he was hilarious and a master wordsmith.

Oddly, as a fiction writer, I read very little fiction. The books I love are nonfiction, probably because I want my fiction to have the veracity of a nonfiction book. I want my stories and people and settings to seem real to my readers.

 

Last book you read.

Related to what I just said: “As Long As They’re Laughing” by Robert Dwan, who was a producer of Groucho Marx’s TV show “You Bet Your Life.” It was laugh-out-loud funny in spots and it’s always fun to read about Groucho, who might have been the most brilliant humorist of the last century.

Also Timothy Smith’s biography of John Burns, John Burns: ‘The Hero of Gettysburg,” subtitle in quotes because that was how Burns referred to himself. It’s a meticulously researched and fun book which dispels so many myths about the war, the battle, and Burns, who, as Smith wrote, “said at various times after the battle that he was wounded once, twice, three times, four times, five times, and seven times. So whatever we don’t know about John Burns, we DO know that he wasn’t wounded SIX times.” 

 

If you weren’t a writer, what would you do for a living?

I can’t imagine not writing regardless of what I do in other areas of my life; it’s so intertwined. I suppose I’d work in radio or TV. Maybe even be a standup comedian, but in all of those, I’d still be writing. It’s an impossible question. To earn a living, I’ve done many things, and all of it was to keep my writing going. 

 

Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?

Neville Goddard. His metaphysical and mystical teachings both made complete sense to me and clarified questions I’d had for decades, while at the same time challenging and mystifying me. I’m still working to integrate it all into my daily life. It sounds so simple, yet...

 

If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?

It’d be my Dad, because he’s no longer here to have those conversations, and I don’t feel like I had enough of them when he was around.

 

What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?

Write, and treat it like work. Don’t wait for inspiration; read a Miller Williams poem entitled “The Muse” for more on THAT mistake. If you want to write, then write, and keep writing. Even if-- especially if-- you don’t feel like it, or you don’t feel like it’s any good. Sometimes the best work comes when you push through blocks and squeeze it out.

 

 

Anything else you think we should know about Max Shenk?

Education- BA communications, Temple University (1987); MFA, creative writing (2008) and MA, Education (2010), both from Goddard College MA

Age - 60 but I feel 42

Marital Status:Twice divorced, confident that the third time will be a charm

 

Middle child (younger brother, older sister)

My parents were both teachers. My dad was also an announcer and writer, and I’m sure that that’s where I got the bug for both of those.

My Dad died in June, and cleaning out his desk recently I found his old Cross pen, and have adopted it in hopes that it will create new work that would make him proud.

 

Favorite book store: Whistlestop Bookshop, Carlisle PA. One of those old brick and mortar shops where the owner and all of his staff seem to have read every book on the shelves (a “curated inventory,” I think they call it). Anytime I see a new title I want, I jot the information down and take it in there and order it. 
And then, across the street, the Bookery, which is the public library’s ongoing book sale. Maybe the best used book shop I’ve ever frequented. 

 

Favorite place to spend an afternoon: Gettysburg PA, or, for coffee, Helena’s in Carlisle PA or the Dirt Cowboy in Hanover, VT.

 

Best non-writing job I ever had: Children’s librarian, with night manager of a ski dorm (which catered to high school ski groups) a close second. There’s nothing better than working in a library or working with kids; the first job was both, and the second was working for a great family owned business with teenagers on ski trips. What wasn’t to love? Plus I got lots of story ideas from both of them.

 

Two things I deliberately craft into my work:

Inobtrusive equality. I learned from STAR TREK that the best way to make a point about inclusion, racism, sexism, etc, is not to write provocative pedantic pieces, but to just make your characters PEOPLE. Uhura and Sulu weren’t “the black woman” or “the Japanese man” on the Enterprise; they were just crew members, same as everybody else. Two of the characters in my story universe are a married same sex interracial couple. I just try to write them the way I would any couple and not make a point of their gayness, whiteness, blackness, etc. As Gene Roddenberry preached, you go to a world where those “differences” are irrelevant.
Sketchy detail. One of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve heard was from Garrison Keillor. He was interviewed by Paris Review and they noted that they loved the details in his stories, and he said words to the effect of  actually, he withholds detail. Give too much detail and the reader will feel a disconnect; give just a little bit, and suddenly settings and people become works of the reader’s imagination. I loved that. I realized that it was a good way to make my work more engaging and interactive.

 

Best piece of writing advice I received from a non-writer: A friend of mine who’s a voracious reader read a rough draft of one of my books, and said “I liked it, but... I wanted the chapters to be shorter.” She said she often reads before bed and if a chapter is too long, she might fall asleep before she reaches the end of it, or read it while sleepy and not enjoy it. That taught me the value of short chapters.

 

Star Trek or Star Wars? I think I already answered that one. 

 

Favorite TV shows: M*A*S*H, any iteration of Star Trek.

 

Favorite quotes:

 

“If you’re going to be canceled by any culture, this is the one to get canceled by.” ~ Woody Allen

 

“What I do not know, I know how to learn.” ~ Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Civil War general

 

“Look, if I had all the answers, I’d be at the Mayo Clinic. Does this place look like the Mayo Clinic?” ~ Henry Blake, in M*A*S*H

Do you have some links for us to follow you?

Here are some links: 

 

My website - www.maxshenkwrites.com

An online shop where I sell PDFs of my books - www.ko-fi-com/maxshenkwrites/shop  

Facebook author page -https://www.facebook.com/max.harrick.shenk.author

 

“Welcome to Quaker Valley, PA” Facebook group featuring my “Facebook Flash Fiction”  -https://www.facebook.com/groups/1671461559782204   

 

Did I mention I do a weekly radio show? 
https://tinyurl.com/uncle-max-show-archive

I designed all of the cover art and layout for my books, and I’m almost as proud of the designs as I am of the content within. Here is a gallery you might like:
https://maxharrickshenk.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/cover-by-cover/

  

 

My parents were both teachers. My dad was also an announcer and writer, and I’m sure that that’s where I got the bug for both of those.

 

My Dad died in June, and cleaning out his desk recently I found his old Cross pen, and have adopted it in hopes that it will create new work that would make him proud.

 

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