An Interview With Wesley Stace AKA John Wesley Harding About His Novel, By George

This is the first part of a two part interview

 I’m a fan of the musician John Wesley Harding, which is the name Wesley Stace goes by when doing music. You may recognize the name from one of Bob Dylan’s albums. Harding writes clever, witty songs and he is an eloquent lyricist.  In recent years Stace has written two books and I asked to interview him. He politely agreed.I could tell you how smart and funny he is but it’s easier to just let him demonstrate that. His new book is about two people named George, one of which is a ventriloquist’s dummy. And this is no ordinary dummy – rather he’s pretty funny. 

I got to know Harding when I saws him play live at a college I attended in Southern California and have liked him ever since.

Hi, Mr. Stace. First, I don't know what to call you since I've always known you as John Wesley Harding. I saw you play live while I was in college at Cal Poly Pomona. That would have been about 1990. You opened for two bands who later faded into obscurity: The Ocean Blue and the Mighty Lemon Drops. 

Ha! Actually, The Mighty Lemon Drops broke up, but The Ocean Blue were still around last time I looked. I remember the gig well.

First, how did you come to write not one but two novels?  

Well, I wrote them one at a time, which made it easier. I guess, like anyone else who makes their living as a professional musician, I found myself with time on my hands, and writing is how I chose to spend it. I'd felt for some time that music wasn't using all of me to its best advantage - and my lyrics were always criticized, or praised, for being 'literate' - and I'd always planned to write novels. I'd put it off for sometime, or failed at it casually, because I felt that I should make music while the sun shone - and any young person who turns up the chance to do that is a fool! But back in my study I was always working on this or that larger project, and Misfortune was the first one to come to fruition.

Were you surprised by the popularity of your first novel, Misfortune?

Yes, I was. I was more surprised, though, by how soon after I'd finished it, and announced its presence - I was rather secretive about it while writing, and six years is quite a long time to be secretive - I was able to get an agent and a deal for the book. I wrote it absolutely for myself and on my own terms. The writer Rick Moody gave me a good piece of advice, ages before I'd finished. He read a little and told me not to give it to anyone until I was absolutely finished, because Misfortune was in its own world, and didn't need to be prodded around by other people. He thought it wasn't like a lot else that was out there and that this was to its advantage, provided no one messed around with it. It was amazing that people wanted to publish it in Israel, Japan etc --- and, yes, the whole thing was a great surprise. I'd always assumed it would be a little bit like my music - where record companies looked askance at me, as though if I were trying a little harder, I could make very nice pop music with fewer words that everyone likes.

Article Author: Scott Butki

Scott Butki was a newspaper reporter for more than 10 years before making a career change into education... then into special education.

He reads at least 50 books a year and has about the same number of author interviews each year and, …

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