Author Insides - Dan Lundin

Dan Lundin's work appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of The Battered Suitcase.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Signing yearbooks in junior high school. Seriously. Kids I had never really talked to before were handing me their books and asking me to sign them because they had seen what I had written in someone else’s yearbook and thought it was funny/different. Up until that moment, I had never thought of myself as creative in that way. I suppose I assumed everyone could write like I did.

Why do you write?
I like to make things: art, furniture, bread. Writing feeds that desire and well. It challenges me as much as anything else in my creative life.

Is being a writer/poet anything like you imagined it would be?
Too early to tell.

What do you think makes a good story?
One that trusts its audience.

What's your favorite genre to read?

I am open to anything that tries hard yet reads as effortless.

Who is your favorite author or poet?
Martin Amis


What books or stories have most influenced you the most as a writer?
Quite a few. Along with many of the works of Amis, I’ll note three: Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Nabokov’s Lolita and Greene’s The End of the Affair

What books or stories have most influenced you as a person?
Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, Miller’s Tropic of Cancer, Solzhenitsyn’s One Day… and, most recently, Franzen’s Freedom

Where/how do you find the most inspiration?
Three steps out the door or three inches into my own flesh; out the door is most times easier.

What does your family think of your writing?
They are tirelessly enthusiastic.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
No schedule. I will write at anytime, anyplace, on anything, and by anything I mean physically anything I can get my mitts on: receipt, gum wrapper, paper airplane. I’ll even send myself texts if I’m in a bind.

Do you have any writing quirks or rituals?
Finding a quiet place and reading my work out loud.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
Editing. It can be hard to throw things out.

What are your current projects?
More short stories.

What are you planning for future projects?
One long novel.

Do you have any advice for other writers?
Write it down. Find the theme. Exploit it.

Where can we find your work?
You can follow me on my blog: http://www.gonelumberjacking.blogspot.com/