Interview with Author Karen Heuler By Armistead Johnson
	Karen Heuler

Email is a wonderful medium for interviewing people. There is no pressure on either party, people can think before “speaking” and everyone usually ends up sounding good. Because of my hectic schedule as an out-of-work actor, I thought an email interview with Karen Heuler, who’s latest book, Journey to Bom Goody, has just been published by Livingston Press, would be excellent.

Word to the wise, however: don’t email-interview an author. Words are their business and they will end up sounding much better than you. Witness the following:

“Part of the way this idea <for Journey to Bom Goody> developed was a result of the tour buses that make a habit of patrolling the West Village. I kept wondering what the draw was—we Villagers aren’t that strange; we’re hardly an exotic culture. So part of it emerged from the whole business of being seen as a tourist attraction after traveling as a tourist to see other attractions (such as the Amazon).

In Journey to Bom Goody, a man called Forbes goes on a quest to the Amazon. He feels that the natives should be given the chance to see how we live, since he’d been watching PBS specials about the Amazon for years. I liked that kind of dislocation, the way outsiders and insiders get switched around,” said Karen Heuler.

Karen is answering my standard last question in any interview which is, “What is one thing I should have asked you, but didn’t?” Because this was an email interview, Karen was spared the “well… duh” look on my face when I realized that by the end of the interview, I had yet to ask what Journey to Bom Goody was about. Good job, Armistead!

I have, however, read the press release, so my first question had been a little more informed.

Q) Journey to Bom Goody is a "miraculous  story" that takes "place in the Amazon and features vengeful spiders, men turning into dolphins, the fountain of youth, tribes of Amazons, and two Americans who find that journeys can change without warning." Sounds like you've had experience with vengeful spiders and aqua men…what sort of research did you do for this novel?

A) I went to the Amazon by myself for four weeks in 1990-91 and kept a good journal. Of course, it was pretty vivid and I have an ongoing film in my head about it, even without the journal. It was strange and ominous and surprising—which is how people see Manhattan too, if they’re from out of state.

True. I (Armistead) hadn’t thought of that.

I make that point because a lot of this book has to do with perspectives, with how people evaluate differences. If it’s where you live, then it makes perfect sense to you. If you’re just visiting, then it’s filled with a lot of abnormal behavior. So you think the Amazon is strange? Stranger than a man bringing generators and videos so the Indians can look at Star Trek and Ponderosa? And just what would those Indians make of it anyway? Is what they’re seeing true or false? Are those documentaries we’ve seen about the Amazon true or false? How would we know?

Good point. But FYI newyorkcool.com readers, there are a lot of people in this country who, unfortunately, also question whether Star Trek is true or false. We’ve all seen them.

Q) The opening paragraph of the novel has the reader on an African-Queen-like boat that you say in the second sentence is "doomed to a bad end." You didn’t give away the ending of the novel in the second sentence, did you?

A) No, that was just about the boat. The two main characters, however, meet up with ends that they couldn’t possibly anticipate. The boat, however, now that I think about it, is the opening motif signifying journey, and the "bad end" signifies unexpected consequences, unforeseeable climaxes. I’m impressed. I must have constructed this novel very carefully, because it’s the perfect opening scene. I always wondered, in college lit classes, if the writers had actually been conscious of all the meticulously significant images my professors pointed out. I know the answer now.

Oh…good.

(You see, readers, when crafting that question ahead of time, I was hoping I could somehow clear up a question that had been nagging published author Karen Heuler ever since she'd been in college, and thank goodness, with my skill as an interviewer, I was able to lead her in that direction.)

Q) How does Journey to Bom Goody compare thematically with your previous books?

A) There’s a sense in most of my writing that people are given irrational things to do, and must sort it out however they can. And that life is a sort of roulette wheel, and we’re that little ball that keeps going around until it lands somewhere. I like the sound that little ball makes, so I’m sticking with this image. That metallic, running flutter and then the little drop-drops that mark the place we land in. And then the wheel gets spun again.

Q) So can people read about you and your work at, say, www.Karenheuler.com or something? And where can we buy Journey to Bom Goody?

A) I would love it if everyone would go to my website, www.karenheuler.com - I like to see if the number of hits has changed. It should also contain a list of readings—mine and the ones I host at Cornelia Street Café.

You can get Journey to Bom Goody through Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com or ask your local store about it. It’s more likely to be found in an independent bookstore. I know Three Lives & Co. on West 10th will be carrying it, oh--and Barnes & Noble on 8th St at 6th Ave.