Ask the Author: Peter Levine, Future Cult Leader

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When he’s not planning his future cult, Peter Levine is writing short stories and a novel and today he talks to us about his short short story There Are Two Girls Next to Me Knitting.

1. Do you knit?
No.

2. What inspired this story?

Sitting next to a bunch of girls knitting at a Cosi (coffee shop,restaurant/bar).   They were drinking and knitting and chatting.   It was a knitting group.   I was listening in.

3. You’re at work on a novel. What is it about?

Yes, I am.   It’s about two brothers who have a falling out, and one’s attempt to try to patch things up over a  long weekend.

4. We love your turns of phrase. What does it mean to be pretty in an Indiana Way.

Thank you – that is very nice to hear.   I guess pretty in an Indiana way means wholesome-looking.   Not a ton of make-up.   No fake-baking, etc.

5. If you had to lead a cult, how would you characterize your ideology?

Ha!   My cult would be like a book club where mostly you don’t talk about the books but drink and eat and shoot the breeze.

6. The narrator or this story makes many unkind judgments about the women knitting. Does his outlook make him unreliable?

I don’t think he’s unreliable, but maybe.   Certainly, he thinks knitting is strange for young women, but perhaps only because he’s never seen it before.   It could be quite popular.

7. Do you have a favorite coffee shop? What’s it like there?

Not really.   I do tend to go this one spot in DC called Tryst, which is a pretty cool place – it’s huge and you just go in and pick a spot, try to find an outlet, you can stay as long as you want, drink, eat, get  boozy if you want, free wifi  during the week,  and there are professional people working remotely, students – all kinds of folks.   Only, it’s really loud sometimes, which is not too good (for me) if you’re trying to write.   Good people watching.

8. Did you write many drafts for this story? What is your writing process like?

No.   More like edited this story a few times to make sure things made sense.   Punched it up.   My process is usually most productive when I sit down for a bit, like a half hour, and then am done.   My attention span is getting worse and worse.   Internet=terrible.   But in that brief time I can do a page or more, if I’ve been thinking about something, and then I can review it, tweak it, etc.