DONALD CAPONE

A graphic designer who lives in New York, Don Capone is already a well-published short story writer. His stories "Going Local" and "Deforestation Blues" were published in Edgar Literary Magazine, and "Green Panties" was published in Flask Fiction. His work can be found online in Thieves Jargon, both "Reprisal" and "Door to Door Service".

For a taste of his work, and to perk yourself up in the morning, his story "Astronaut" is available on a coffee mug from Flashfiction.net. You can find that right here: Astronaut.

Displaying classic good taste, Don is also a Yankees and Beatles fan. His second novel, As If I'd Never Been Born, incorporates his admiration for The Beatles by weaving a very personal journey with a landmark event in music history. I was lucky enough to read a draft of it, and it's truly engrossing and moving.

The query alone to his first novel, Into the Sunset, is unique and engaging and downright hilarious.

His short story "Another Day" has just been published in the June edition of Word Riot, and you can look for him in the upcoming anthology, See You Next Tuesday from Better Non Sequitur.

Funny, talented, and always with a fresh vision that'll keep you engrossed and engaged, you can find him online right here: Donald Capone.


1) Who are some of your favorite writers, and how do you think they’ve influenced you?

John Irving, T.C. Boyle, Ernest Hemingway, Elmore Leonard. You’re influenced in different ways by different authors. Hemingway’s clean prose set the template for authors for the next 75 years (and counting). He’s the Beatles of the literary world (have you noticed 40 years later and bands are still trying to sound like the Beatles? Well everyone is still trying to write like Hemingway whether they know/admit it or not). Irving and Boyle are so good it takes me twice as long to read their work because I re-read sentences and paragraphs just to enjoy them a second time. Boyle also writes short stories, which makes him a good author to study. And Leonard, what can you say? He’s the man. Guy’s like 80 and he hasn’t lost a thing, still cranking out these great books full of kick-ass dialogue. So, as a writer, you have to read the good stuff, absorb it, get a feel for how it’s done, run it through your own internal filter. Then spit it out in your own unique way. When I’m in the mood for a laugh: Christopher Moore, Bill Fitzhugh, Ted Heller, Tim Dorsey, Nick Hornby, and Susan DiPlacido, of course!

Flatterer!! I love it.

2) What do you think is your greatest strength or asset in your writing? Your biggest weakness or flaw?

My strength? Staying off the beaten path. I try to write about subjects I haven’t seen done 2,001 times before. And even if I do work with a common theme (say, 9/11), I’ll take a skewed look at it, try to give the reader a surprise or two. “Stay away from the obvious” is what every writer should keep in mind as they are banging away at the keyboard. Also, I think I have a good ear for dialogue. As soon as my other ear gets on the ball, my dialogue will be killer! My weakness: I never write enough. Every book on writing I’ve ever read says how you have to cut your manuscript by 10-20% during revision. HA! I laugh at that! Because I’m the opposite—I have to ADD 10-20%. An up-side to that is I don’t have a lot of fat to trim, just some basic copy-editing. So maybe it’s not a weakness after all.

3) You're a born and bred New Yorker. How do you think this affects your creative view and your writing in particular?

Hard to say really. The world is such a smaller place now, so connected. We’re all watching the same films, TV shows, surfing the internet. We all have those same influences. Is someone sitting in San Diego or London really that different from me anymore? Maybe the only affect being a New Yorker has on my work is that most of my stories take place in New York. So I can get a good sense of not only the environment, but the attitude of the people. Because I’m one of them. New Yorkers are always on the go, we try to maximize every minute of the day. I do that by writing as often as I can, I don’t want to waste time or put it off to the next day or the day after. You’ll never finish writing a story or novel with that attitude. So maybe being a New Yorker just makes me write faster.

4) You’re also a graphic designer and painter. Is there anything you learned from painting that you apply to your writing, or are they two completely separate forms without intersection?

Totally different animals. I don’t consider myself a painter, anyway, at least anymore. I sold a few some years back, but I’ve given it up now. I’m a much better writer than painter. And my dirty little secret is I can’t draw. Plus, writing is a lot cheaper.

5) You have a lot of range as a writer. I’ve seen you tackle very serious subjects (such as 9/11) from different angles: ironic and also deeply moving. You seem to move effortlessly from comedy to action to suspense to intense drama. Do you have a “mood” or tone in mind before you begin a particular story, or can something change and develop as you write? (Like, have you ever set out to write something very serious and it took on a comic undertone?) Also, what kind of mood/genre/tone do you find to be most demanding and what are you eventually most satisfied with?

I don’t consciously set out to write in a certain mood. Anyway, the story itself usually dictates what tone it’ll take. 9/11 wouldn’t really translate into a slapstick comedy, you know, though you could get away with black humor (maybe). I tried it in a story called “Terrorist Lite,” about a pre-9/11 wannabe terrorist, but I’m still trying to get that one right (this is an example of setting out to write something serious and it taking on a comic undertone). My early writing was more humorous; once I became a better writer, or got more confidence at least, I was able to write in a more serious or “literary” style. But I don’t even see myself as crossing any genres when I write because I always write from the character’s perspective (character driven vs. plot driven and all that nonsense). If your character is walking down the street with his best friend and something funny happens to them, then you have a comedy; if his best friend has a piano fall on his head then you have a serious story on your hands. Except that’s not a good example because a piano on the head is pretty funny. Suspense/intense drama is the hardest, and I’ve only really tackled it once with my story “Reprisal.” It worked there, but it’s too hard to keep away from cliches: “Suddenly he pulled a gun from his coat pocket!” Someone gets shot and it hurts and they’re dying. I think I’m most comfortable and satisfied with the “mainstream” story—I find most of my characters are yearning for something, wanting more out of life, yet can still see the ironic humor in life. I always inject humor into my writing, even the more serious pieces.

6) Stock question: Dinner with anyone, dead or alive. Who is it?

John Lennon. And I hope he’d be alive, because dead it wouldn’t be a very appetizing meal. Off the top of my head, though, I can’t even think of any questions I’d have for him. I’d be happy to just sit and listen to him talk all night. Then Yoko would come and gather him and I’d go home with a good story to tell.

7) What’s the best sound of New York in the summer?

Yankees radio announcer John Sterling screaming, “The Yankees WIN! TheeEEEeeee YAN-kees WIN!!” Haven’t heard it enough this year, though. When Yankees rookie pitcher Chien-Ming Wang (pronounced Wong) won his first Major League game earlier this year, Sterling actually was corny enough to say, “The Yankees Wong!, TheeEEEeeee YAN-kees Wong!!!”

8) Other than fiction writing, what’s the biggest lie you ever told?

See the answer to question #9. Seriously, I really can’t think of any big lie I’ve told. Just your normal, run-of-the-mill small daily lies. Maybe I haven’t told my big lie yet.

9) You can’t have both: Would you rather have respect from your peers and critical acclaim (but not making cash from writing), or would you rather be a bestselling author with the fat coin?

I’d love to take the high road and say critical acclaim and respect from my peers. But it’d be hard to resist the big bucks and the opportunity to quit the daily grind of cubicle life. Once you hit the jackpot, then you’ll have plenty of time to work on critical acclaim (see Stephen King). $o, in conclusion: fork over the cash, bastardize my work, cast Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr in the movie version of my novel and let me out of this cubicle already! OK, that makes me sound like all I want is money. Every writer knows there’s no money to be had, we’re giving our work away! Literally. So I don’t begrudge anyone their money. If someone breaks out and scores big, more power to him! Because we all know we write for the love of writing, and having people enjoy our work, and seeing our name in print. No one gets into writing to make the big bucks. You’d have a better chance winning Lotto.