Nathan  Leslie is the series editor of Dzanc Books' Best of the Web anthology (2008), which includes Ron’s story, “My Small Murders,” about a married couple's demise after mice infest their apartment.

Nathan:
Great story, Ron.  Anyone who has fought infestation can, I'm sure, especially relate to "My Small Murders."  What is it about mice that brings out the real dynamics of a relationship?


Ron:
Thanks, Nathan. Mice are a great device for a story about relationships for so many reasons. At first glance, they’re cute, but then they become an ugly surprise if they take over your apartment or house. It’s one of the small, disturbing realizations of adulthood, that there’s nothing cute about mice at all.  They are emblematic of the fairy-tale myths of childhood, which meld sadly into the fairy-tale myths of love. When they come into our houses, we begin to realize our misconceptions about how we’d like to live and how we have to live.


Nathan
I like the modular structure to this story.  Was that initially a part of the story or did it develop upon revision?


Ron:
That format seemed to work well for the story from the start because in order to deal with a mouse infestation you have to undertake a process—step one and two and so on.  It’s almost like dealing with the stages of grief.


Nathan:
Your description of mouse shit--"black bullets of excrement" has the ring of truth.  Have you spent much time wiping up mouse turds with paper towels?


Ron
My, oh, my, yes—good question. This story is true in almost every detail.  Actually, I wrote it first as an essay several years ago.  Then, just last year, I thought it’d make a good final story for the collection I was working on.  So I pared it down and changed it a bit to make it fictitious. I’m no painter, for instance. But, yeah, I lived that story in some deep-down awful ways.


Nathan
Here's an old chestnut--who are some of the writers who influenced you?


Ron
I was taught and influenced by a slew of minimalists—Carver, Beattie, et al.  Hemingway was all but IV’d into me at an early age. Also Flannery O’Connor. Also Salinger and John Cheever, whom it seems nobody reads any more, myself included.  And Vonnegut. This is not to say that I write like any of these greats, but they did shape my formative years.

Nathan
You've won some pretty prestigious awards.  I know a writer's ego is a fragile thing though; has winning these awards helped or hindered your writing?


Ron
Oh man, truth is, I write not only because it’s my fix but also because I want to be loved. By everybody. So I enter contests now and then to see if anybody will love me. It’s sick, I know, but I need that kick.  I’m pretty good about rejection—and I get rejected a lot because you can’t try to publish, much less win a contest, without expecting rejection.  Still, I’m haunted by doubts when I hit a dry spell.  Those doubts--like asking myself, Am I out of touch?--are irritating but they don’t keep me from writing. Most of the time, despite the doubts and the dread, I’m having fun when I’m putting words down.


Nathan:
Are you managing the inevitable teaching/writing balance?  If so, please tell me how!

Ron:
Here’s the thing about teaching: I love it. I’ve always wanted to teach, well before I knew I wanted to write.  Nevertheless, teaching can eat you up. I’ve been doing it for about 15 years.  So I’ve learned a number of strategies to sustain my writing. Some of them aren’t really smart: for example, I don’t sleep much, especially when I’m into a project.  A smarter strategy is that I’ve learned how to write anywhere at any time. Give me ten minutes and I’ll put down half a page.  Something’s better than nothing, I tell myself.  Believe me, this took training. I used to think I had to have half a day, minimum, to write anything worthwhile. That’s bullshit. I’ll take whatever I can get. So I carry a pen and notebook in my bag at all times.

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