Elise asked C.D. Reiss:

Really enjoyed HardBall and its Shakespeare references (I had Sonnet 116 read at my and my husband's wedding). My question is about the stream of consciousness portions you wrote for Dash. Did you fashion those after any particular author (Faulkner, Woolf, Joyce, etc)? What was your process in composing those sections? Did you speak aloud as you wrote or write complete sentences and then pare? Very cool work!

C.D. Reiss Very clever question - and on Shakespeare's birthday too.
I didn't model them from anything. I typed a thought until it got boring, or until I had to pause to think of the next word, then I moved on to the next thought. I tried to do it by flipping on the verb. Something like

"How many bases can a man run back to her with my tail tucked between Tuesday and Wednesday I need her but I don't know this isn't the way to do...etc etc"

But actually that was even more confusing because he REALLY couldn't complete a thought. These sections were challenging enough for readers already (my reviews reflect that these passages were generally unpopular) so I had to lengthen the streams.

flag