I have an interview with Ingrid Burrington up at The Faster Times. We talk about word-things, protest signs, Venn diagrams, etc. 
Andy Devine was born in Flagstaff, Arizona and it is probably significant that his first name begins with the letter A. From an early age, Andy loved to play with his wooden letter blocks and as he got older he would alphabetize them into walls of letters. In kindergarten, he was mesmerized by the alphabet that hung over the chalkboard—both the uppercase and the lowercase. Andy did not talk much, though, so it was a while before his parents realized that he had a speech impediment, a kind of stutter (which some have sited this as a possible explanation for his conceptual fictions). When he was 8, there was a terrible incident concerning the family’s baby being killed, though it is unclear how and who killed the baby. It is known, however, that Devine was sent to live with his maternal grandparents in Toms River, New Jersey after this and worked in the family grocery store growing up there. He spent a lot of the daytime in the backyard where he taught himself to sit so still that birds would land on him and squirrels would crawl over him. In middle school, Andy started reading a lot of books, his favorites being dictionaries, encyclopedias, and thesauruses—anything that arranged the material alphabetically. In high school, Andy was a small forward on the basketball team and a middle-distance runner on the track team. He began to notice girls and fell in love with girl after girl whose names started with the letter A—Abby, Alice, Amy, Angie, Ann, Anna, Audrey (in that order). The first girl he ever kissed was named Birdy. In college, Andy played in a punk band called Babylonia that only played covers of songs that were written in languages they didn’t understand. And Andy studied library science and, after graduating, worked for a time at the main branch of the New York Public Library, but he eventually became disenchanted with the Dewey decimal system as an organizational system. While living in NYC, Andy developed a hatred for actors and a taste for a thoughtfully constructed indexes. In his late 20s, his girlfriend Zooey broke up with him and she was the last woman that he ever loved. Andy tried to read novels to console himself, but he felt as if novelists were choosing the wrong words. In response, Andy started creating lists of words that should and shouldn’t be used in fiction, works that became implicit critiques of contemporary writing and publishing. In spring 2010, Publishing Genius will bring out his first book, WORDS. 
Other acknowledgments of his remarkable work are the fact that Andy Devine Avenue (in Flagstaff, Arizona) is named after him and his mention in a Frank Zappa song (“Andy”). Someday, there will probably be a bridge or maybe a mountain that is named after him.
Jason McCormick was born and raised in Hawaii. He was the only kid with blonde hair at his school and the locals called him the haole kid (meaning tourist or mainlander; that is, an offensive term that insults somebody’s skin tone). At 9, Jason moved to California and attended Palo Alto High School in the Bay area. He started playing golf and his grades improved. He moved to San Diego and studied philosophy at San Diego State University. Then he moved back to SF and then back to SD to study philosophy. The most important decision that Jason ever made was deciding to pay for tuition instead of paying rent. In early 2009, he had just been laid off from his job and had 2K in his bank account and paid his spring tuition instead of his rent. He stashed his stuff at a buddy’s house and crashed there twice a week while living in the campus library the other 5 days a week. Jason looked for a job every day, but was homeless for 3 months. In fact, there was a small community of homeless college kids who befriended the security guards and stayed floors of the library that security never checked. Jason read a lot of books during that time. His grades improved and he felt like a free man. But being homeless definitely took its toll on him. Jason hardly slept. He had to carry his backpack filled with my school stuff and a duffle bag filled with clothes and a shaving kit. He exercised and showered at the student gym. At the end of that spring, Jason signed a contract to coach youth golf at a summer camp in New York. Jason made some money here and there, sold some stuff on Craigslist, worked a few tutoring gigs, and an hour after he finished his last final exam his buddy Jon picked him up at the campus parking lot and they left San Diego to drive cross-country. After Jason coach at the golf camp, he moved back to SF. In SF, he worked part-time as a golf instructor for kids. He also read and wrote a lot (mostly stories about how he breaks the rules, but he still manages to save the world). Then Jason moved back to SD to finish his BA in philosophy. He still plays golf, but his grades are slipping. Over the years, Jason has had a few serious girlfriends—a 4-year thing and a 3-month fling, but he’s been single for a year+. He’s been dating a pretty cool girl, Savannah, for a few weeks. They met at a kegger. She has long brown hair, smells like vanilla, and makes him laugh. Right now, Jason is pursuing an American dream. He plans on writing fiction for the rest of his life and he wants to write a great American novel. Then Jason will escape from the real world and live like a recluse somewhere near the Adirondacks.
Lulu arrived on a whim. Her brother Pierre was snatched away from his mother two days before. She didn't seem to notice. Pierre appeared lonely, his eyes solemn, and Lulu was just as fluffy and scruffy as her sibling. They belonged together and the new mother had no doubt that this was the right decision. When the new mother brought Lulu into the household, the two seemed to get along fine in the ground floor apartment with the balcony that faced the courtyard. Lulu and Pierre had their moments. Lulu ignored Pierre when the friend of the new mother put him on a skateboard and he skated away. Lulu decided that all would be best served if she grew at a faster pace than Pierre. She out ate her brother two to one and her fluffiness expanded rapidly.
Lulu was pegged the “powder puff princess” and she accepted her new stature as any French kitten would do. Pierre scoffed at Lulu's new status and began his retreat from the family. As any powder puff princess does, Lulu strutted around not wanting to be picked up. She only wanted to be stroked on demand. For the longest time, she kept her distance and avoided being smothered with kisses from visitors who entered the flat. Time went on and Lulu’s attitude began to change. As the new mother's belly got bigger, Lulu had a breakthrough. She started sleeping with the new mother, curling up beside her. This new behavior perplexed the new mother. She thought perhaps the catnip that she placed in lonely socks was finally paying off. Lulu was growing up and their relationship grew stronger until the baby appeared and took Lulu's place in the bed. Lulu, once again, kept her distance, which saddened the new mother. The family coexisted in their own way with the baby keeping Lulu at bay. A few years went by and Pierre decided that the house was too crowed so he moved out. Lulu was fine with this, as well as the new mother, as her hands were full with a sprouting baby whose cat-like tendencies kept her on edge. Lulu had an influence. More years went by and the new mother attended to the child. Lulu dealt with a few new residents. Dante and Bullet moved in, but they were eventually snatched by the cycle of life. With the other cats gone, Lulu took to being the main attraction and kept any unwanted visitors away. She wiped out an entire family of groundhogs—first the babies, then the teenagers, and finally the parents. A few more years later, a new kitten joined the family and the child, who was now school-aged, named it Ocean. Lulu kept her distance for a while, but learned to cohabit with her spunky younger sibling who everyone swore was half-bunny. 
Today, Lulu remains the princess of the household, showing off with a dance or two at the door while the whole family beckons her to come inside. She once again cuddles with her mom, curling up on her lap while she works. Sometimes Lulu even shows her affection to the child who is now a lot bigger than her. As far as Ocean goes, their relationship remains mixed. Sometimes love, sometimes anger, and sometimes indifference.I have an interview with Matt Bell up at The Faster Times. We start with the ways in which Matt begins a fiction, talk about working with ideas and working with language, and then finish with the way a fiction ends. 
