Timothy Schaffert is a novelist from Omaha, Nebraska. His latest book, Devils in the Sugar Shop, is “a comical whirlwind of deception, adultery, desperation, drag queens, stiff cocktails, nervous breakdowns, an anonymous stalker, and suburban swingers,” and was chosen as a May pick by BookSense, the online consortium of independent bookstores. According to Time Out Chicago, in Devils “Schaffert writes with precision and charm, and does Omaha some serious justice.” In addition to writing, Schaffert also directs the Omaha Lit Fest and teaches at the Nebraska Summer Writers Conference.
We talked to Schaffert after the recent release of Devils. In this interview, he tells us about his inspiration for this latest book, the themes he finds himself drawn to, and the strange way he found to spend three hours last week.
Your most recent book is Devils in the Sugar Shop, about a hodgepodge of bohemian characters entangled in a web of mismatched sexual and familial relationships. How did you come up with the idea for the book? Can you say a little bit about how you discovered and wrote the plot and the characters?
I started writing a short story set entirely within a small glassed-in smoking lounge in an airport. And as that character, the smoker, contemplated things, I realized she was going back to Omaha, to her friends and relationships there, and I started to wonder about those people too. Originally, I conceived of each chapter of the novel dwelling on the circumstances and preoccupations of a different point-of-view character, in this introspective, modernist Woolfian fashion, but the novel called for more interaction between the characters.
All of your books (Devils in the Sugar Shop, The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God, and The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters) have certain elements in common: Nebraska settings, romantic relationships, and humor. Is it a conscious choice to have these similarities in your works? Do you sit down with these things in mind when you start a new project, or do they creep in? Either way, what do you think causes to you choose them?
I often think that an author doesn’t choose his subject, the subject chooses him. At least that’s the way it is in my case. I’m not trying to portray the process as mystical in any way, I do indeed consciously consider the story that I want to tell and the elements required in telling that story, but a writer needs to be open to inspiration, certainly. Usually the characters come first, and with the exception of the characters in Devils, those characters have been best-suited for rural Nebraska towns—those characters tend to have the kind of ragtag existences fostered by small-town life. And all my characters tend to be preoccupied with romantic ideals, often sorting through their perceptions of love and the actualities of their romantic relationships.
One more similarity in your books is the presence of female protagonists. Author Joni Rodgers said about Devils, “Men should not be allowed to write women this well.” Why do think you gravitate toward female characters? Why do you think you write them so convincingly?
Larry McMurtry is often credited with writing about women well, and he was a writer I read much of during my impressionable years. So maybe I learned something there. But I also think that women have the sort of rich inner lives that interests me as a writer, and they have very complicated relationships with each other. I’ve just always enjoyed paying attention to women.
In addition to being an author, you’re also the founder and director of the Omaha Lit Fest. Tell us a little about the event – what happens there, and how, and why. How did you start the Lit Fest, and why is it important to you?
Regional writers, and writers from all across the country, get together to meet readers and each other and to sit around and talk about books. It’s informal, uncensored, unacademic. We have readings and panel discussions, a party or two, maybe an art exhibit, maybe some music. The reason I started the festival is because I wanted to host a literary event that wasn’t stuffy and pretentious, but was sophisticated, intelligent, inviting. There’s often a lot of complaint that people aren’t reading enough, or not enough people are reading, or both, and I grow weary of that approach—bullying people into feeling obligated to read. I just don’t think it’s that dire. We just have to be more inventive, more actively involved, in helping readers find writers and vice-versa. As a matter of fact, communication has become even more text-based over the last ten years, with websites, email—people are reading the news again, instead of having it read to them. The words we choose to express ourselves are vital to all of us. This results in a more democratic literary realm, as people self-publish or write their own blogs—resulting perhaps in more writers than there are readers to support them. But, personally, as a farm boy from central Nebraska, someone who grew up far from any literary center, I find that exciting. These days a self-published book, or a book published by a micropress, can find its own audience, without having to be part of some corporate system.
Now that Devils in the Sugar Shop has been published, what are you working on? Can you tell us about your next project?
I’m finishing up a collection of short stories, and working on a new novel—another small-town Nebraska book that I’m kind of thinking of as the third in a loose-linked trilogy (after The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters and The Singing and Dancing Daughters of God).
What kind of literature do you like to read? What writers have influenced you, either directly or indirectly? What are some of your favorite books?
I meet a lot of writers, so I tend to read their books. I don’t always manage to read the books everyone else is talking about and all the magazines are reviewing, but that’s the joy of it. The books that get declared the best books of the year aren’t representative of all the good books published. Some books are blessed with strident and deep-pocketed marketing plans, but most contemporary literature has to fend for itself, and that sense of discovery can be inspiring. As for writers who’ve influenced me… certainly Faulkner and Eudora Welty. Probably Stanley Elkin and Larry McMurtry, who are two writers who are about as different as they could be, but I can see them guiding my hand somewhat. But it’s hard to say whether these writers have influenced me, or if I’ve been drawn to their work because I share a similar sensibility. I’m probably as influenced by music and movies as I am by books.
Here’s a fun one: ask yourself any question and answer it.
Q: How long did you spend trying to come up with a great question to ask yourself?
A: Approximately three hours.
You can read Timothy Schaffert's LitMinds profile here and discuss this interview here.
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