Interview by Peter Mladinic
Just as characters in stories are in settings, do you have a particular time and place where you write, a particular setting, or does that setting vary?
I generally write in whatever setting my character happens to be in. If a character is driving, I take my laptop into the car and ask someone to drive me around until I’m done with the scene. If a character is skiing or something, I try to take a little field trip and jot down notes on a chairlift. Obviously, this can get trickier when more exotic locations, flights, etc. come into the picture, but I do my best.
Do you begin writing on a keyboard or keypad, or with a pen or a pencil on paper?
I dictate all of my drafts to one of my interns.
This is a hypothetical question. If someone asked, What do you write? and you answered, Whatever I can get away with; and they asked you to elaborate, what might you say?
My biggest hope when I write a book is that my words become a catalyst for serious social and political change. In regard to the specific types of changes, I would like to think that my work speaks for itself. As one of my all-time heroes, Gil Scott-Heron, eloquently put it, “The revolution will not be televised!”
Assuming the first thing about writing is to like doing it, what satisfaction do you get out of act of writing?
The pounding of keys gives me bigtime ASMR tingles.
Do you write solely fiction?
I also write poems about Larry Bird.
Let’s say in fiction, an author begins, heightens and resolves a conflict between a protagonist and an antagonist. When you are writing, do to ever think abstractly about the conflict, or do you just see characters at times in places in your mind, and go with what you see, hear, and feel—in your mind?
When I’m thinking about a conflict between two characters, I like to get as abstract as humanly possible. I tend to imagine the characters as geometrical patterns colliding and meshing together inside a digital sphere akin to Tron’s ENCOM system.
Do you read writers whose fiction is similar to your own; and writers whose fiction differs from your own?
I almost exclusively read beat poetry with heavy jazz slang.
Does the proliferation of social media impact your writing? I’m not talking about publishing outlets, but rather about what you write and how. (Here I’m thinking of writing communities, versus an individual alone with language.)
Social media has helped me discover content creators like Dhar Mann, who have had an immeasurable influence on my creative life.
Do you ever think about the difference between offending and unsettling your readers?
I’m not sure about the difference, but I’ve always been a firm believer that laughs are cheap. I go for gasps.
What does an item of your fiction’s being published mean to you, other than they people will read it?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Who are two or three fiction writers do you like and what do you like about them?
One of my favorite authors is a young neuro-divergent novelist named Maxwell Vago. His “Letters to the Napkin” series really changed the way I saw the world, particularly his musings on attending culinary school via the United Negro College Fund.
I’ve also really been enjoying another somewhat obscure author named Karl Boudine aka Body Odor. I adore his detailed descriptions of powdered wigs and the crypto Jewish roots of Japanese culture.
Do you have an ideal reader?
The Def Poetry Jam crowd.
What do you do for fun?
Drink Henny and reminisce about all of antics that took place while touring as one of Don (Wahlberg)’s backup dancers. I also hit up the clubs and pick up babes with subliminal language pattern scripts.
Find more about Brian Jacobson here: https://www.instagram.com/officertangerine/
About the interviewer: Peter Mladinic’s most recent book of poems, Maiden Rock is available from UnCollected Press. An animal rights advocate, he lives in Hobbs, New Mexico, United States.