Featured Interview With A. C. Burch
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was raised in a small town about 50 miles south of Boston. From earliest memory, I knew there had to be someplace better. I worked for years as a classically trained musician with a “day job” in technology. Eventually, I found that better place. I’ve been a resident of Provincetown, MA for nearly 30 years. My constant companion is Dori, a young golden retriever who accompanies me for long walks on the beach and sits patiently in my “writing shack” when I write.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
From my earliest days, I wanted to write. My first effort was a short story submitted to my fourth-grade English teacher, a “dumb jock.” I used the name “Modell” and he corrected to “Model,” which completely ruined the story. I remember thinking at the time that he was a dope. I didn’t write another story for forty years.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I’m a big fan of several authors. Because I write it, I read a lot of LGBTQ fiction. Armistead Maupin is a hero for his breakthrough Tales of the City series. I enjoy the Walter Mosley’s characters as well as Bart Yates. William J. Mann has been a strong influence. I love mysteries but also read (and reread) the classics such as the comic novels of Jane Austen and Henry James.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
A Book of Revelations includes the first story I wrote when I made I my mind to get over my fourth-grade experience. (Some things take a while.) Götterdämmerung is the story of an orchestral conductor who had a stroke in the middle of a Carnegie Hall performance. Another story, Private Quarters, grew out of the paper-thin walls of an apartment I stayed in while at music school. I’ve always been fascinated by shape-shifters, so a couple of the stories deal with identity. Another story was inspired by a call from a friend who was going to the wake of a suicide “because there might be a book in it.” She went to the wake. I wrote the story.
A Book of Revelations was not written with a specific intention. I was reviewing a bunch of my short stories and saw that all of them had unexpected twists and people who were not as they seemed. One morning I realized they all had a common link: there was a revelation of some sort within the tale. That’s how the book came to be.
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