Ask The Author: Kyle Minor
[admin / October 3rd, 2011 / Interviews ]Kyle Minor’s “How To Fire A Bullet” is a powerful, thrusting piece that appears in the special Crime Issue. Here, he answers all our questions about bullets and shots.
1. Is this how you would actually fire a bullet?
You go through phases where you’re into things, and you go through other phases where you’re into the names of things. For awhile I was supercharged by the language particular to firearms, which is rich with phrases such as “wived malediction,” which, once you use it, you’re not only talking about bullets anymore.
2. What would you make a bullet out of?
I’ve been trying to make them out of paper, with my typing fingers, for about fifteen years.
3. How did “How To Fire A Bullet” come to exist?
I wanted to make something better than the thing I ended up making.
4. What would you fire a bullet at?
What worries me is how the list is getting longer.
5. How is a love letter a bullet?
Henry James used to talk about how he and she is the engine that makes fiction run.
6. Would you fire a warning shot or go for the kill?
Lately the winners always seem to be the people who go for the kill shot, but it’s been a long time since I won anything. Maybe character is the measure of what you’re not willing to do to get what you want.