Below you will find some information on Alan’s published and forthcoming works.
FICTION:
No Cry of Distress in Our Streets
This story, which first appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, volume 18, actually began as an exercise for a form and theory class at Arkansas, where we had to imitate the style of an author we were studying. I chose Donald Barthelmae, because after reading Forty Stories (and several other works by similar authors) I was puzzled by how the stories could be emotionally moving, yet reliant upon almost none of the techniques I’d typically been told to employ. I decided the best way to learn about the form was to attempt it, and “No Cry,” which relies primarily on the tension between conflicting images that move a somewhat distant narrator through a thematic exploration of fear, was the ultimate result. “No Cry” was my first publication, which I found a little funny (and intimidating) because it was like virtually nothing I’ve written before or since. I did learn a lot from it, though, and there has been a mild stylistic influence on my current projects.
This was the second story I had accepted, and appeared in the Fall 2007 edition of Ontario Review. It’s much more in line with what I typically write than “No Cry”, and focuses on the dynamic between a recovering alcoholic and his cancer stricken father. Set against the backdrop of the son’s relocating an aging music professor’s small family graveyard (the son works for a company that has recently purchased sub-surface mineral rights on the property), this story traces the pair’s precarious relationship as they try (and sometimes fail) to move past their mutual resentment and find, to some extent at least, comfort in the face of their respective afflictions. For personal reasons, I’m rather attached to this story; I’m glad it’s found a good home.
A few years ago I saw a movie with Jake Busey where he played the resident slasher in a high concept horror flick, and after realizing that I’d now seen him in several of these parts I thought, “Wow. It must be really hard for him to get dates.” From this observation (jokingly presented of course) came “Sequels,” which traces a brief period in the love life of a B-Movie actor in horror films as he deals with the mutually exclusive temptations of his artistic girlfriend on the one hand, and his voluptuous co-star on the other. It’s a man-behaving-badly kind of yarn, but I ultimately view it as a story about identity.
This one was published Clackamas Literary Review.
This story, which was published in Louisiana Literature Spring/Summer 2008 Issue, comes from an Arkansas workshop a few years back, and deals with a Seattle businessman whose fractured marriage is placed into higher relief once a tragedy half a country away rekindles his memories of a past relationship, one both more enlivening and more devastating than his current life can emulate. The narrative cuts back and forth in time between the two stories, and while it probably isn’t one to show your grandma, it still haunts me. Hope you feel the same.
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