John Milas [Host: Sara Rauch]

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Sara Rauch interviews John Milas.

John Milas is the author of the gothic horror novel The Militia House, which came out this year from MacMillan. He served on active duty in the Martine Corps and deployed to Afghanistan in 2010.

Sara Rauch is the author of the book-length essay XO, from us at Autofocus Books. She’s also the author of the story collection, What Shines from it, from Alternating Current Press. Her book reviews and author interviews have been featured in the LA Review of Books, Newcity Lit, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.

____________

PART ONE, topics include:

-- the office ceiling collapsing

-- a job you don't take home

-- writing habits changing

-- the first draft of his novel THE MILITIA HOUSE

--  getting  away with watching Alien as a sheltered kid

-- enlisting in the marines

-- a valuable poetry workshop

____________

PART TWO, topics include:

-- serving as a marine from 2008 - 2012

-- returning to school after the military

-- the parts of deployment that became parts of the novel

-- the haunted house at the center of the novel

-- scaring yourself to scare readers

____________

PART THREE, topics include:

-- porcupine quills as a motif in the novel

-- unfamiliarity

-- repetition as escalation rather than duplication

-- narrative devices related to writing

-- the question of PTSD in Act 3

-- the style of the narrator vs the writer 

____________

Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.