Ask The Author: Ryan Mohr

This great little number from Ryan Mohr, “It’s All Pretend,” from the March Issue.

1. Where did “It’s All Pretend” come from?

I knew I wanted to write a sad and dark, yet perhaps optimistic story about love. I think I started working on it shortly after an inadvertent glance at an escort ad in a print or online classified. I was probably looking to buy some used tools or something. I think it began like that . . . or in a motel room immediately after paying or not paying for companionship.

2. How much of your life bleeds into fiction?

Exactly thirteen percent.

3. How do you move back and forth between poetry and fiction?

I’m not sure. I consider myself far more proficient at fiction than poetry. Most of my poems are tangential, postmodern kind of stuff with first-person narrators. “It’s All Pretend” is only one of a handful of stories I’ve written in first-person. Generally, I prefer to write in the third-person.

4. What are your nerd credentials ?

I do own a lot of books, so if that fact alone gives me a “nerd credential,” I’m more than willing to accept it. My girlfriend says it’s because I’m not very social, which is true to some extent. I like to believe that nowadays I just lack the mental and physical energy for conversation. I guess I’m probably more of a “nerd asshole.”

5. What have you pretended lately?

That I do not live in 2012 America.

6. Does everyone want to feel something real?

I suppose it depends on context. Who doesn’t want to feel genuine love or happiness? Or is that not entirely attainable? Who knows? Obviously, people tend to read fiction and plays, watch movies, etc., hoping to be entertained, searching for an escape from the mundane truths of reality.