Bill Meissner
Author Interview - Bill Meissner
Author of THE WONDERS OF THE LITTLE WORLD
The Wonders of the Little World is a compelling novel that, like a journey down the midway of a colorful carnival, is filled with mystery and magic, surprise and wonder.
Estelle Esmeralda, a fortune teller in a suffocating, small-scale carnival, is unable to predict her own future, much less discover where her missing husband has gone. With their precocious eleven-year-old daughter riding along, Estelle sets out on a road trip to search for Tony, a charismatic tightrope walker who disappeared suddenly on a quest to find some answers regarding his past.
Interspersed between Estelle and Tony’s chapters are secret journal entries by the spunky Ariel, who fills the pages with creative observations about her life within the unique and sometimes puzzling confines of the carnival.
The Wonders of the Little World will delight the reader like a free-wheeling thrill ride that leads straight to the heart. With its unforgettable main characters trying to discover their place in the world, the story explores the thin lines between truth and lies, between who someone is and who they want to be. Part road trip across 1960s America, part love story, and part illumination of a family struggling to heal itself, this novel immerses the reader into a world that is not only entertaining but also moving and, ultimately, enlightening.
Author Interview - Bill Meissner
Author I draw inspiration from:
Tim O'Brien and John Updike's writings.
Author Interview - Bill Meissner | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
Anywhere there's light.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Billy Pilgrim (from Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE). I'd greet him and say "How are you?" And he'd reply, "I'm not sure. I'm unstuck in time." I'd question "What's that mean?" And he would answer "Well, I'm here right now, but I'm back there in the war and in my childhood quite a lot." I'd exhale "Oh? How does that happen?" He'd reply "Don't know."
"So what's that like?" I'd insist, hoping for an answer, and he would just study the elevator panel, the lit buttons reaching floor 21. "This is my stop," he'd say. "See you on the way back?" And then he'd step out, the doors closing slowly behind him.
Author Interview - Bill Meissner | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
When I wrote a 10-page "illustrated in pencil" adventure story when I was ten years old. I used my father's work stationery, and stapled the hand-written pages together.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Love hardback books. Paperbacks are great to throw in a backpack and take on a trip or on a plane. Audiobook--What? I can't hear you.
The last book I read:
WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch. I loved the description and characterization in that novel.
Author Interview - Bill Meissner | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
You forgot the most important writing tool: the typewriter. I've loved writing on a typewriter over the years, just for the snapping sound and the visceral connection. I have about 21 of these machines. I typed an entire novel on one. But lately, I use a word processing because it's much faster, and you don't have to use White Out or Co-Rec-Tape if you make a typo. There is a Classic Typewriter site (https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tributes.html) where I've written some (tongue in cheek) tributes to the typewriter. Here is the link to one, though I have six different essays on that site: https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/meissner.html
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Huck Finn. I'd like to float down the river with him. The cynical part of me would like to be friends with Holden Caufield. Not his racist or misogynistic side, but because he is a rebel, and a unique individual. “I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day."
Author Interview - Bill Meissner | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
Fortune teller/life coach
Favorite decade in fashion history:
Late 1960s. Right on, and Write On!
Place I’d most like to travel:
Any island with an interesting cultural town, the remains of an ancient culture, pristine beaches, clear water for snorkeling, and a tiki bar on the shore.
My signature drink:
Chocolate milk stout beer. The darker the better.
Favorite artist:
Bob Dylan (his lyrics in the mid-1960s)
Number one on my bucket list:
Driving a stock car in a race.
Anything else you'd like to add:
I have three novels, and the most recent is THE WONDERS OF THE LITTLE WORLD. Please consider these books for your book club!
Find more from the author:
https://www.facebook.com/wjmeissner
https://twitter.com/BillMeissner2
About Bill Meissner:
Writer and teacher Bill Meissner is the author of twelve books, including four books of short stories and five books of poems. His novels are Summer of Rain, Summer of Fire, and Spirits in the Grass, which won the Midwest Book Award.
He taught creative writing at St. Cloud State University, and now acts as an occasional writing coach and presents readings and creative writing workshops at area colleges, high schools, elementary schools, and book clubs. He has won numerous awards for his writing, including a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, A Loft McKnight Award, a Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction in Fiction, a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, and several PEN/NEA Syndicated Fiction Awards for his short stories (one of which was selected by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.).
Meissner grew up in Baraboo, Wisconsin, also known as “The Circus City”—the birthplace of the Ringling brothers and their first circus. As a teenager, he worked in the Circus World Museum, vending peanuts, cotton candy, and snow-cones to museum visitors. His boyhood home was located a block from the county fairgrounds, and once, as a ten-year-old, he rode the Rock-O-Planes nineteen times in one day.
Bill’s interests include rock music, photography, baseball, vintage typewriters, and travel—especially to tropical/beach locations such as Mexico, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He lives in Minnesota with his wife, Chris.
