T. J. Forrester’s fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Harpur Palate, The MacGuffin, The Mississippi Review, and Night Train, among others. He is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and one of his stories was shortlisted for Storyglossia Fiction Contest 2007.

First, tell us about this picture. Where is this place? What does it mean to you?

I walked through Glacier National Park during my Continental Divide thru-hike from Mexico to Canada. That was my first hike with grizzlies, and I’ll never forget stepping down a rung on the food chain. Especially since I knew entering the Park that a sow and her cubs ate a hiker earlier that year. They ate everything but his feet in his boots.

Now, I define my hikes as–with grizzlies–or without. I’d rather hike with them. Danger heightens the experience, and there is no drug on the market that can match the adrenaline when you see one of these bears in the wild. I walked with a can of pepper spray in a holster in my belt and at night positioned the can so I could reach it if a bear attacked. The first few nights I didn’t sleep well. Every rustle was magnified, and I spent my night peeking out of my tent and shining my penlight into the darkness. Eventually I developed a sense of fatalism. If a bear wanted to eat me, there wasn’t much I could do about it.

Occasionally, grizzlies attack humans. I can think of worse ways to die.

You’re currently assembling a collection of linked short stories about characters whose lives intersect the Appalachian Trail. In what ways do their lives intersect? Why the Appalachian Trail?

The collection revolves around a character whose financial and psychological freedom allow him to pursue a dream for the first time in his life. Taz and his mentally challenged dog, Einstein, attempt to hike the trail from Georgia to Maine. Along the way, they meet characters like Yvonne, a thru-hiker who harbors a desire to push someone off a cliff; Delilah, a teenager who hides in the forest to escape her addiction; Giuseppe, a B&B proprietor who mistakenly thinks Taz is gay and trying to steal his lover; and Bryce Stallworth, an actor who works on an illegal preserve that offers endangered animal hunts to the obscenely rich.
I chose this setting for three reasons.

1) Diversity. Not only does this trail cross thirteen very different states, each year it swells with more than a thousand thru-hikers from all over the world. Story possibilities are limitless.

2) Marketability. The Appalachian Trail is one of the world’s most famous, and I’m hoping a book of linked trail stories will interest the 23 million backpackers who populate this planet.

3) Write what you know. I’ve hiked the Appalachian Trail three times, and I’ve fallen in love with everything about it. I love the locals who live nearby and offer trail magic in exchange for trail stories. I love the thru-hikers who each year form a caring community as they migrate north. Most of all I love the walk and the time it gives me to think. There are no distractions on the trail, nothing between a hiker and his mind, and issues long submerged resurface until confronted. I’ve grown from my time on the trail.

Taz, your main character, has a mentally challenged dog named Einstein. How exactly is this dog mentally challenged? What does his disability add to the work?

I was practicing political correctness when I called Einstein mentally challenged. He’s retarded. That’s Taz’s word, not mine. Taz is the main guy in my collection and interacting with the dog helps develop his character. In that sense the dog is a tool. Einstein also adds a sense of comedy to a few of the stories. (The dog isn’t really retarded. He just has some strange ways about him.)

Do you have a personal trail story you can share with us?

Sure!

Literary Potpourri published a piece about an adventure that took place in the High Sierras.

Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a PCT Thru-Hiker

One of my favorite stories of yours is “The Revolving Door,” which is about a man with AIDS living in a home for the terminally ill. This story was published in the winter 2006/2007 issue of Harpur Palate, and their editors nominated it for a Pushcart Prize. Dan Wickett of Emerging Writer’s Network also featured this piece as the January 25, 2007 Work of the Day. What inspired you to write this story? In your opinion, what makes it a success?

I woke one morning with this story in mind. Other than that, I’m clueless how it came to me. I do know the main character’s desire became apparent early on. A sex-addict, he spends his last days attempting to contact ex-lovers and inform them of his illness.

Why is it a success? I’m not really sure, but I suspect the story somehow connects with readers on a basic level.

Since I know you have strong opinions about print versus online publishing, would you mind talking a bit about your thoughts and strategies regarding the two?

My strategy is the same for print and online publishing. I try to publish in journals that will get an agent’s attention. If an ezine’s prestige extends beyond the Internet, I put it on my submission list. I’m pleased to have published in Night Train and to have a story coming out in the fall 2007 issue of The Mississippi Review (web).

I hope big-house publishing changes how it views online publication. There are a number of high-quality ezines. These editors care about the stories they publish, and they deserve recognition for their efforts.

How do you approach revision? Are you a strong believer that a story must go through several drafts before being deemed publishable? Have you ever had a story you felt was ready the first time around?

My early drafts are free ranging. I discover the character’s desire, rewrite until the story feels round, then work on language with an eye on precision. Precision is as simple as condensing a verb to its shortest form or as complex as sharpening a description to assist the reader in connecting with the fictive dream. Then I workshop the story, paying attention to suggestions that resonate. I rewrite if necessary, then polish until I can’t polish anymore. When I get to the point I’m taking out commas one day and putting them in the next, the story is ready to go out.

A story must go through the drafts it needs to go through. Most of the time it takes twenty or more drafts before I’m satisfied. Last week I sent out a story I’ve worked on for three years. The story is rounder than when I first wrote it. Is it publishable? I hope so. If it doesn’t find a home, I’ll put it away and come back to it at a later date. I never give up on a story. Sometimes the missing ingredient is as simple as increasing hookiness or starting closer to the action.

Have I ever finished a story on the first draft? When I first started writing, I worked stories out in my head before I put them on paper. I didn’t do a lot of rewriting. They were a different kind of story than I write now, less organic. Also, less publishable.

But that’s just me. There are as many ways to write a story as there are writers.

Share with us the strangest rejection or acceptance letter you’ve ever received.

My strangest rejection came from a professor who privately mentored me the first year of my writing life. We were sitting in his living room when he threw a story at me and told me it wasn’t worth his time. Papers fluttered onto the sofa, my lap, the hardwood floor. My reaction is unprintable. Ha!

My strangest acceptance letter came from an editor who asked me to verify I hadn’t plagiarized the story. I’ve been asked to verify I had First North American Serial Rights for a story, that’s standard contract language, but an editor asking me if I was a plagiarist was a first. A tiny part of me was pleased he thought the story was so good there was a chance it had appeared elsewhere, but the rest of me was insulted.

Regardless of where you live, at heart are you a city or country boy? Why?

I prefer hiking long distances through the mountains, especially with a lover. Cool mountain air, warm campfires, honest conversation, skinny dips in turquoise tarns, bears without bars, hawks in the updrafts, the gluttony at all-you-can-eat restaurants when you hitchhike into town to resupply, a lover who enjoys the same—it’s a good time.

Contact TJ

Read:

“The Revolving Door”
published by Harpur Palate

“Chocolate-Covered Eyes”
published by Night Train



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