I grew up hearing the sound of construction work, hammers and saws, dogs barking, birds singing, outlaw country music, beers being opened and uncles yelling over bad engines being revved to figure out the problem. Then, for a bunch of years, I was an arts critic. Now I write apocalyptic magical realism. I like McCarthy tension and Burroughs action sequences, Lovecraft atmospherics and King narration, Pynchon plots and Hemingway sentences, Vance images and Chandler descriptions.