How did I find my voice? That’s a really interesting question. I’m not sure I know the answer. I do remember at some point, my first novel was All Alone in the Universe and I set it in a lightly fictionalized version of my hometown and it seemed to me that my hometown, in the same way that I wanted to say to those kids your life is beautiful, it seemed to me that my hometown offered a lot of richness and good stories.
And I remember it, when I was working on that book, I think I read a quote from, who was it? James Thurber who, or somebody describing James Thurber and how he had this little territory that was James Thurber and then thinking about how you know, not to put myself up too high but how William Faulkner has Yoknapatawpha County or whatever.
And I thought I think that suburban Pittsburgh might be my place that I can talk about, you know partly because I, but it took me not living there to be able to do that. I really admire people who are able to stay in one place and talk about it in an objective, loving but objective way. I had to leave it for a long time before I could see a lot of things about it.
