In the August issue, I had the pleasure of reviewing The Little Book, a strange, time-and-mind-bending novel about an aging American rock star waking up in Vienna at the end of the 19th century. It’s the perfect summer read, a historical mystery that puts the main character, Wheeler Burden, on the same streets as Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt, and an 8-year old child by the name of Adolf Hitler. What was even stranger was the book was written over a period of 33-years, completed after countless rejections and fitful starts and stops. I spoke to author Selden Edwards about his long labor of love.  

PLAYBOY: You took 33 years to craft this novel. Didn’t you dream of being a famous young writer?
EDWARDS: Anyone who has written unpublished for long periods of time and has mailed out manuscripts knows the manic depressive nature of the practice. While working on a story, polishing it and taking it to the post office, there is a rush of confidence and joy. “Maybe this time,” we say.  But when the stamped self-addressed envelope arrives with either a curt note or an impersonal rejection, there is a pretty intense feeling of—let’s face it—depression and hopelessness. A friend once said jokingly that in my biography there would be a chapter titles “Vienna: the wasted years.” So, yes, I did give up a number of times.  But then, with the passage of time, the desire to get back to it always returned, and thank God it did.
 

PLAYBOY: Give us a brief timeline of how it all went down.
EDWARDS: I wrote the first version of it in 1975 with every intention of having it published as my debut novel, at age 34. I finished a number of drafts over the years, with the same intent; they were rejected, and I received a number of rather blunt suggestions to give it up, such as “come up with something at least reasonably plausible”. I loved the story, and in spite of the depression that always accompanied the rejections, I kept thinking about the plot and adding details over the years, making it a better with each revision. Steinbeck’s editor said, “A novel is a box that the author had to fill.”  I guess I finally filled the box.  It turns out this is just the way it was meant to happen. Now that it is being well-received out in the world, it all feels very much like a dream, a wonderful one.  I am absolutely thrilled that the story I have grown to love like one of my children is now out there being read.  In short, to have a debut novel at my age brings feelings of indescribable joy and affirmation.
 
PLAYBOY: The Little Book moved very effortlessly but must have taken a huge amount of time and patience to craft that. What advice would you have for aspiring writers when it comes to one of the hardest aspects of great story telling, pacing?
EDWARDS: Michelangelo, when asked how he created the David, said something like, “I just carved away everything that wasn’t him.” That’s pretty much what I did over time.  I just told the story as it was meant to be told, for better or worse. In terms of plot construction I do have the English teacher’s advantage of having taught novels for years and having developed a sense of timing or pacing perhaps. Syd Field’s book Screenplay and Joseph Campbell’s theory of the hero’s journey from his Power Of Myth interviews are guides. But mainly I followed my instincts and tried to make each scene both come to life vividly and contribute to the unity of the story. I would advise beginning and unpublished writers to just think of how a good story is told, and tell it.  I would also advise reading The Great Gatsby over and over.
 
PLAYBOY: I think one thing beginning or novice writers struggle with (I know I do) is feeling a need to explain everything. You never spell out how, exactly, this middle-aged American man from the 1970s ends up in 1897 Vienna. Did you consider coming up with the ‘how’ of Wheeler’s journey back in time?
EDWARDS: From its very inception in 1974, I was writing a story, inspired by Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, about a character who wakes up one morning in 1897 Vienna, no explanation given.  In the Kafka story, there is no explanation of how the main character, Gregor Samsa, becomes a bug; he just wakes up as one. Mine is not a science fiction story.  It is just the story of someone who finds himself awaken in a strange land, with no means of identification or support, and has to make a go of it.
        
PLAYBOY: Care to offer a quick list of who inspires you?
EDWARDS: The Great Gatsby and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn stand out at the top of my list.  I think one can see much of those two novels in mine. I absolutely love J.D. Salinger’s stories and Catcher In The Rye is one of my all-time favorites. As I was writing this novel, EL Doctorow, John Irving, Richard Ford, and Pat Conroy played big roles. When I first read Ragtime I feared that people would accuse me of plagiarizing, I found mine and it so similar. I also read and was influenced by Time and Again by Frank Finney. There is a zaniness to Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut that I hoped to capture in my portrayal of Wheeler Burden. Conroy’s The Prince of Tides is in my mind the pinnacle of the mountain I am trying to scale.

--Bryan Abrams