Shane plays guitar and writes songs with his twoman-band, Sequoia Rising. He writes songs as he writes stories--with an emphasis on the magic of human experience. He tends to chase the day with a whiskey (Wild Turkey 101) and a re-run of The Office. Shane’s novels are A Year Since the Rain (Snow Leopard Publishing, 2016) and The Smoke in His Eyes (GenZ Publishing, 2018). Shane’s short story, “The Boy Who Kissed the Rain” was the 2017 Rilla Askew Short Fiction Prize winner and was nominated for a 2018 Pushcart Prize. Shane is currently at work on a new novel.
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shanewilsonauthor.com Uncaged welcomes Shane Wilson Welcome to Uncaged! Your latest book came out in January, The Boy Who Kissed the Rain. Can you tell us more about this book and can you explain why it’s a Stage Play? Thanks for having me! The Boy Who Kissed the Rain is the story of Lance, a young man who lives at the edge of a colonial settlement. The members of this colony have struck a deal with the magical creatures of the forest, called Little Thunders, who bring the rain. This deal is basically over the boundaries of the settlement and the land that the Little Thunders are allowed to occupy without human interference. Lance considers these stories to be a farce, and he encroaches on the border between the two groups. This is where he meets Luna, a Little Thunder. The two fall in love and attempt a romantic relationship all the while knowing that their love is doomed from the start.
The Boy Who Kissed the Rain was actually a short story before it was ever a stage play. I wrote this story a number of years ago, and I initially struggled to find a home for it. The story was a little saccharine and sentimental compared to what I normally write—it’s really borderline romance. Regardless, I continued to submit the story because I believed in it, and it eventually found a home in Conclave: A Journal of Character where it won the Rilla Askew Short Fiction Prize. I was thrilled. Now, its journey to the stage is a bit more involved. I was a theater kid growing up. I was a theater major for a while in college. I love live performance and I think live theater is a magical experience. I decided on a whim that I wanted to try my hand at writing as stage play, and I settled on adapting this short story for the stage because I think there are compelling characters and opportunities for interesting visuals. So, I wrote the adaptation, turning this short story into a full two act stage play, and the rest, I suppose, is history. You also are a musician and have intertwined storytelling and music. Can you tell us more about this creative melting of mediums that you do? This “creative melting” (a term I like, by the way) really started with my second novel, The Smoke in His Eyes. I was interested in exploring the creative impulse and the myriad of reasons why artists pursue their art. I decided this could be explored in interesting ways through musicians, but I didn’t play an instrument. I also didn’t want to write about musicians making music without some foundational understanding of what that would be like. So, I bought a cheap guitar and taught myself to play. When I first strung together a handful of chords and played a song that I had listened to a million times, it was like unlocking a magic trick. I’ve always had a passion for music, and finding the ability to play it myself was the only nudge I needed to move forward with that. The first song I ever wrote was a song mentioned in that novel, which I think is a cool way of giving that Issue 57 | April 2021 |
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