Troubadour 21 is very proud to introduce Christopher Dwyer as our T21 in-house writer. He will be writing two stories a month, exclusively for T21. Christopher is a writer from Boston, Massachusetts, and his stories are beautifully written, filled with vivid images that either touch one’s heart or send chills down one’s spine. He has a special gift of being able to write in a variety of styles, either sensitive, touching love stories from a masculine perspective, or eery noir thriller stories of gore and blood that make one want to lock all doors and bolt all windows.

Christopher sent T21 his first story “Sometimes You Can’t Wait Forever” in August. His story soon became one of our most viewed stories, and his other three stories, “Black Orchid”, “Viscomy” and “In the Pink of Twilight” have also been widely read. Christopher was an in-house writer for another online magazine that is no longer in existence, and a few months ago after discovering T21, he inquired about the possibility of becoming T21’s in-house writer. His first in-house story for T21 “Anatomy of a Firefly” is written in his chilling noir thriller style, and compels the reader to hold his or her breath right up to its conclusion.

We thought that a good way to introduce Christopher as our in-house writer would be to write the latest featured article on him, and his answers to the interview questions were as follows:

T21:How long have you been writing? Was there a moment or moments you remember helping you BECOME a writer?

Christopher J. Dwyer:There were a variety of factors that played a role in becoming a writer. The first was just a mere love of literature; you could ask any member of my family and they’ll tell you that as soon as I could read, I always had my head in a book. Too, what was interesting about what I was reading was that I was always a bit “ahead” of the pack, so to speak; my peers were reading young children’s literature and I was reading Stephen King and Michael Crichton. And I think because of that I’ve been open to a lot more books and writers that I wouldn’t ordinarily be exposed to outside of a classroom.

I’ve been writing stories since I was a teenager, but professionally I’ve only been writing for about five years. It’s actually a bit amusing; I look back to 2004 and 2005, and it seems as if those works were written by a completely different writer. The great thing about being a writer is that you’re constantly learning, constantly honing the craft. I even notice now that I’m writing tighter and more-focused prose than a year or two ago. Every time I sit down with a thousand empty yards of white space, I know that whatever I write is going to be better than what I wrote a week ago. And that’s exciting.

T21:How would you describe your style? What do you want your stories to say about your viewpoint on the world? What do you want your reader to come away with when he or she reads one of your stories?

CJD:I try to steer away from shoving my work into a specified genre or style, but at gunpoint I’d say my stories lean towards the darker edge of literary fiction, some sort of noir, perhaps. And I think the noir thing is more than just a style; noir fiction often associates itself with characters who are burgeoning from a dark place. Often, noir characters are erupting from some type of sinister place or profession and the author spends a few hundred pages chronicling that redemption. A lot of my stories involve characters that are searching for something, maybe dealing with loss in some overt way. The real beauty is the realization of that redemption at the end of the story. Craig Wallwork interviewed me earlier in the year and he said that much of my work is focused on the art of redemption, how a character overcomes that sense of loss for a greater good. And I think he’s absolutely right.

I want my readers to be haunted, entertained and blown away. A story has to be powerful and leave a scar. I can only hope that a person is bleeding after reading one of my stories. A fantastic piece of fiction leaves the page and sticks with a reader for days and months to come.

T21:Who is your favorite writer? What is it that attracts you to his/her work? Whose writing have you studied recently that inspired you, caused you to think in new and different ways?

CJD:It’s tough to pick a single writer that I’d call my “favorite.” Will Christopher Baer, James Joyce, Craig Clevenger, Stephen Graham Jones, Stephen King, Charlie Huston…the list goes on. A common trait in all of those writers is their ability to make words beautiful, powerful, violent and haunting. I’m attracted to fiction that’s edgy and entertaining, but can also inspire me to be a better writer.

As far as inspiration goes, I’ve been moved by two different groups of writers: the big names, and the writers I call my friends and peers. Robert J. Sawyer’s novels (Calculating God, Flashforward, Rollback, etc.) have really pushed me to new boundaries in my work. He’s most definitely a science-fiction writer but his stories have so much emotional juice that it’s just damn perfect. It has the poignancy of my favorite noir writers but it packs this cool sci-fi edge. Great stuff.

I’m inspired almost everyday by my peers, the writers who I work with on a constant basis. Guys like Nik Korpon, Richard Thomas, Axel Taiari, Caleb Ross, Chris Deal and the many others who have provided me feedback, friendship and support over the years. These are the writers that move me and inspire me to push my work to new and exciting ventures.

T21:Tell us something quirky about yourself. Is there anything about you that people might not suspect? How does that come out in your work?

CJD:I have a bunch of quirks, some things that I’m sure drive the people around me crazy. I can’t sleep without a bottle of Gatorade next to the bed. I don’t eat fish and I loathe salad. I’ve recently become allergic to red meat and certain paid medications, which is plain annoying.

Casual acquaintances might not know this, but my family and friends sure do: I wear my heart on my sleeve and anyone close to me can pretty much detect my mood based on my mannerisms or the look on my face. If I’m angry or upset, they’ll know it. I guess that some of my fictional characters, typically in their narration (since a lot of my work is told via first-person point-of-view), can be pretty blunt about their feelings. The real trick is toning that down, though, because no one wants to read a character’s every thought, feeling or sentiment.

T21:Who is your favorite band and what is it you like about their music? 

CJD:Similar to the “favorite writers” question, there are many bands that I love, including A.F.I., Placebo, Metallica and U2. And, like my favorite writers, those bands inspire me and move me. If a song can give me goosebumps, then I want to try to replicate that feeling through words in a story. For example, the new A.F.I. album, Crash Love, is beautiful, haunting and aggressive. Davey Havok, their lead singer, can elicit a range of emotional responses through his lyrics. I gravitate to the ethereal, and A.F.I.’s songs exude otherworldly emotions.

T21:What are the major themes you deal with in your writing? Have you added themes, changed direction, or played with new themes as you change and grow as a writer?

CJD:For certain, redemption is a major theme in my writing, as I’ve described above. My in-progress novel concerns a man who isn’t convinced his wife is dead, regardless of the world around him insisting that she’s gone. It’s a journey, one in which the narrator’s world slowly comes apart. It’s equal parts noir and literary fiction, with a healthy tinge of sci-fi.

Since I’m constantly evolving as a writer, there are other themes that play into my fiction. Identity is a theme I’ve been working with as late; it allows me to leverage a character’s emotions in such a way that it fuels their development and the ways they overcome conflict. And with that very development comes a change in identity. Often times, too, a character’s identity changes without the writer being aware. As a writer, it’s exciting to be a part of that.

T21:When you are gone, what would you like the world to remember about you?

CJD:I’d want the world to remember me as a writer whose stories entertained and inspired. To me, literature isn’t always about entertainment. It should elicit some type of emotional response. Some of my stories draw a scare, others can make a reader cry. And some make the reader think about their own frame of mind, their lives. I want to leave behind a trail of novels and stories. There’s something endearing about discovering a new writer and unearthing a plethora of their other novels to devour.

T21:Where, other than Troubadour 21, can our readers find your work?

CJD:I’ve been published at a variety of places over the last few years, including Nefarious Muse, Colored Chalk, Gold Dust Magazine and Twisted Tongue Magazine. I spent the first half of this year as writer-in-residence of independent literary magazine Dogmatika. Recently, though, some of my favorite stories were published, such as the disturbing “Shiver” in Sex and Murder, and perhaps my best short story, “Sometimes You Can’t Wait Forever,” right here at Troubadour21.

Of course, any interested readers can visit www.christopherdwyer.com for a full list of my published works, including those that have appeared in anthologies and printed magazines.

T21:What do you think of the answer to the great question, as expressed by Douglas Adams in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?

CJD:Hmm…42 would be the safe answer, right? How about 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42? (For the fans of “Lost”…)

We hope that all of our readers at Troubadour 21 will thoroughly enjoy reading Christopher Dwyer’s stories as much as we do. We at T21 are extremely lucky that Christopher is not just writing stories for T21, but that he is also bringing many of his talented writer friends (shown in the photos above) right along with him. He mentions just a few of them in this article, and they are not just sending us short stories, they are all now writing short story series for T21 that appear either twice a month or once a month. The editors at T21 would like to welcome Christopher Dwyer, and we look forward to what he will be bringing to Troubadour 21, his new online home.