T. Fox Dunham

answers the Usual Questions

T. Fox Dunham is an author based in Philadelphia. He is a self-styled modern bard whose interests include fishing and D & D.

Has your interaction with fans, for example, at conventions, affected your work?

I listen to my fans. Writing is not a one-sided process. I communicate, and my readers communicate back. It is a cycle, a circular ritual. I don't like to speak at my audience from afar.

T. Fox Dunham

I hate podiums. I move into the people. I wade into the listeners. I read to them, talk to them and then listen. They are contributing to my work as much as I am writing for them. I have no desire to write vapid work. I live my life on the edge of a cliff, and I want my work to have an impact. My work begins with listening. And it ends with listening.

Is there any particular incident (a letter, a meeting, a comment that stands out?

The most important email of my career was the email from my editor at Gutter Books telling me that Throughline films wanted to adapt my first novel, The Street Martyr, into a movie. This is the email authors wait their whole lives for and usually never receive. Damn lucky. When he told me the potential dollar amount, I realized I was going to survive.

Do you have a favourite author or book (or writer or film or series) that has influenced you or that you return to?

I read Vonnegut often, but I worship my gods: Salinger, Capote, Hemingway. Bradbury taught me how to write short fiction - not personally. But his writing nurtured my love of the art of the brief. A writer needs to keep going to their sources, but we must seek out new writing also. I have too many to list.

Who is the person you would most like to be trapped in a lift with? or a spaceship?

That would have to be Mark Twain. If you're stuck in a lift for an undisclosed period of time, you want someone that can help you pass the time. That man could weave wit out of boredom. We would spend the hours talking of heaven, hell, politics and society.

Who is the person you would most DISlike to be trapped in a lift with? Or a spaceship?

I would have to say Mark Twain. Without a constant stimulation of news, I suspect he'd quickly run out of material and tell the same stories over and over again. You can only spend so much time with your heroes before they become ordinary.

What would you pack for space? (Is there a food, beverage, book, teddy bear, etc that you couldn't do without?)

book cover, The Street Martyr by T Fox Dunham; 140x213

I would need a cappuccino machine and all the various components required to make it. I probably need food or air and wouldn't survive long on Cappuccino. I have tested this. I've attempted to live for weeks entirely off cappuccino - and whiskey. I didn't last too long, but my work prospered.

What is the most important thing you would like to get/achieve from your work?

Freedom. I am restrained by illness, my disability. I long to have the freedom to plot my own course, to define my life. I've spent years trying to break the bonds of cancer, and I am using it to propel myself into my own life. I'm close. With this movie deal, I will have written my way into my sky.

What is the special satisfaction of your work?

The gratification of building something meaningful. There's a special success in writing. It is an arduous field, and most authors never get through the door. I need to do something important with my precarious life. It can't be any less than spectacular, and it's giving me a life and a family, something I didn't believe I could have.

submitted by T. Fox Dunham

26 September 2014

For other answers to The Usual Questions Click here

Just the facts:
Born: February 2nd 1978 to the damned human race. October 1996 to a hospital outside of Philadelphia - died and reborn.
Resides: Philadelphia, USA, Earth, Sol Solar System, Western Spiral Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Bibliography/Awards:
my Goodread's page

Web site:
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