I was recently asked in a podcast interview, ‘How did Balloon Animals come about?’
It was the first question and it flummoxed me and I must’ve been confused if I use the word flummox so I skirted around that question.
I have no idea how Balloon Animals came about. Writing is an organic process. I wanted to tell the interviewer ‘I just sit at my computer at the same time every day and wait…’ But I thought that might’ve sounded sarcastic but that’s how Balloon Animals came about.
For me, writing is a series of join-the-dots (instances) and eventually you have the bigger picture (plot). Characters are a different story, pardon any puns: they take my hand and lead me down streets I wouldn’t have chosen, sometimes dead ends and sometimes hands I prefer not to hold.
If the interviewer had asked me, ‘Why comic fiction?’ I would’ve told her that comic writing is where I feel comfortable. I have been publishing short stories since my early twenties (now 37) and in that time I’ve tried various genres.
The turning-point for me regarding which genre to focus on came when I submitted a thriller to a London agent and she responded by asking me, ‘Is it a thriller parody?’ How could I take myself seriously after that?
Balloon Animals is comic fiction. A 299-pg novel about the belated coming-of-age tale of a 30 year-old man who takes his mysterious grandfather’s dying breaths in a birthday balloon from Ireland to Iowa is a leap readers should make if they want something other than the tired generic novel.
Twitter @ WriterJDunne
Facebook @ jonathan.dunne.505
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