Interview with Michael Pronko, author of The Moving Blade

What can you tell us about your new release, The Moving Blade?

It’s a mystery thriller set into Tokyo. It’s hard-boiled and very Japanese, though the main characters have the experience of both Japan and America. It’s maybe different from standard mysteries and thrillers, more of a whydunnit than a whodunit. It wraps up with some hard truths about Japanese-American relations.

What or who inspired you to become an author?

It was just always there in my mind. As a kid, there were always books around me, in my house, in the library at school. The library was open all summer. Reading a lot was an early habit and I think more than anything that inspired me to think in terms of stories. I studied philosophy, which added another element of always asking why, which can be torture at times. After college, I traveled all over and lived in China and Japan. Being in a different culture is like being handed writing topics on a constant basis.

What’s on your top 5 list for the best books you’ve ever read?

I find it so hard to answer this. Everything that’s not a waste of time is best, at least in the moment it’s being read. Even those few bad books I’ve finished reading were instructive. I’ve always loved Zorba the Greek (life and how to live it), Gravity’s Rainbow (huge canvas), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (breaking restraints), Chekhov’s short stories (perfection), and (this is cheating, I know) but I’d include all of Dickens and all of Hemingway. Is that over five? Best I can do to narrow it down.

Say you’re the host of a literary talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask?

I’d invite a panel of Freud, Marx and Darwin. They were the giant blows to humanity’s ego. They showed humans are not the center of things. But at the same time, they show us how spectacularly creative, adaptive, and innovative humanity can be. I’d want to ask them why humans have those two opposing sides. Why isn’t there just the positive, creative, kind side, and not all the rest? I think literature tries to answer that question, too.

What’s your favorite thing about writing?

I love diving into words. Just being immersed in language and stories is fantastic. That alone would be enough, even if no one read what I wrote. But when I know my writing is connecting to readers, it becomes an even more thorough pleasure. I find that connection to readers, that relation, even if intangible, to be very pleasing. But I also want to keep writing on my own terms. Writing has an unlimited freedom, which is deeply connected to the other pleasures.

What is a typical day like for you?

I have writing days and teaching days. Teaching days, I write in the morning for several hours and then hop on the train, stop for lunch (ramen!) and then teach all afternoon. Evenings out with my wife or friends or for jazz, then back home to read. Writing days, I just hunker in at home. I write all morning, then lunch/nap/exercise, and then write again until my brain slows down. I have a glass of wine on the porch to recover with dinner and then read. I love both kinds of days.

What scene in The Moving Blade was your favorite to write?

The last one. It’s unexpected and re-humanizes the characters as they talk together without the pressure of the crime. I also like another scene when Hiroshi gets stuck in the middle of Tokyo Station and just can’t decide what to do. He’s unable to make a move inside himself, though he knows he has no choice but to act in the world outside. It’s a still point in the action, but very human.

Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?

I paste two mottos at the top of my computer screens. The first is nulle dies sine linea. Which I translate as never a day without writing a line. I’ve followed that for years. The other motto is primum non nocere, at least do no harm. That is often part of the physician’s creed. I take that seriously as a teacher, and dealing with people in general. Those two mottos are the basis of writing, too, I feel.

Michael Pronko is the author of the new book The Moving Blade.

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