Q&A with Writer Erick Mertz

Where are you from/where did you grow up?

I grew up in Oregon City, Oregon. But really, that’s only a small fraction of the whole origin story. 

My parents both came from New York City and when they crossed the country in search of a new life, they brought a full bouquet of east coast eccentricities with them. I’m talking about everything from outlandish pizza snobbery to their taste in gangster movies to bombastic accents. 

You could always locate my parents at a little league baseball game because they were the ones making it sound like it was Game 7, World Series, Yankee Stadium.

What are your hobbies and passions (other than writing)?

I love cooking (anything with sauce). I’ve grown to enjoy the outdoors more than ever. Sports and music are important diversions. My family is pretty awesome.

What’s the earliest thing you remember writing?

I remember that I was six or seven years old when we went back east to visit family. It was my Uncle Mike and Aunt Paula’s wedding, a big New York Italian shindig. The kind of party where everyone wears a tank top in the swimming pool and argues themselves hoarse about who makes the best chicken parmesan.

We were sitting around my great-grandmother’s house and I spied a brass apple sitting on the shelf. There was something about this particular objet d’art that led me to write a story in a spiral notebook that started in the living room where I was at the moment and traveled around the world, ending up in Antarctica, of all places.

Currently, I do not have the apple, thus, the whole story is a tragedy.

What’s your favorite kind of chocolate?

I don’t know, but my favorite watercolor chocolate memory is of the truffle I ate on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy.

What’s your go-to karaoke song and how does it relate to your teaching?

“Surrender” by Cheap Trick. 

It relates to my teaching in that anyone who hears me sing it knows I must be a writer (or anything other than a singer). 

What’s the most challenging part of writing for you—plotting, drafting, editing, marketing, etc.?

Marketing. By a long shot. As ee cummings said, “Like all obsessions, the Making obsession has disadvantages; for instance, my only interest in making money would be to make it.” 

Once I write something, it’s hard for me to do anything but move on.

What are your favorite/least favorite genres or forms of writing to create?

My favorite genre to create is anything speculative.

How do you deal with writers’ block and/or procrastination?

This answer may turn some off: I don’t experience writer’s block. I’ve never had trouble getting to the page and getting the characters in my head to do the things they want to. I’ve primed the creative pump such that I’m always focused on getting to the page.  

Do you like to re-read books or are you a one and done kind of reader?

I’m definitely a re-reader. There are multiple books that I return to again and again: J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye, ee cummings’ Is5 and Stephen King’s The Body to name just a few.

Got any writing superstitions or quirky rituals?

I don’t like the smell of oranges on my fingers while working. It’s very distracting.

What’s the biggest misconception people have about writing?

You should write what you know. How utterly awful would that be? To write only what you know? Imagine if Octavia Butler only wrote what she knew?

To me, the advice should be, write what makes you curious. Write what creates awkward pauses at dinners. Write the thing that crosses your mind when you stare out the window of a moving bus. Write the thing you confess to your dog.

What’s your go-to snack during a writing break?

Changes by season. I’m always a salty snack person though.

What playlist or song gets you in the “write” mood?

I’m an album snob. I want the collection of music as the artist intended it. Context matters to me. 

I listen to a lot of ambient and classical music when I write. My favorites are Brian Eno’s “Music For Airports,” Erik Satie’s “Gymnopedies,” and an artist from Seattle called Carl Sagan’s Ghost.

Are grammar rules meant to be broken, bent, or followed to a T?

“Table manners are for people who have nothing better to do.” – David Byrne, lead singer, The Talking Heads

How do your life experiences shape the way you teach?

Autumn term of 9th grade at Oregon City High School, I found “Journalism” on my schedule. 

I knew I wanted to be a writer at this point in my life, so I was overjoyed at getting the elective. Our first teacher, whose name I don’t recall, went into premature labor about a week into the class during which she taught entirely by the book. Then, rather than send us all to shop, in walked Matt Love, a long haired, long term substitute teacher whose first act was to throw out the text book and proclaim, “let’s publish a newspaper!” We did just that. We published a silly sixteen page rag that I still have a copy of and will never, even at gunpoint, get rid of.

 This was a term where I learned by doing and it has been absolutely instrumental in how I look at my journey as an instructor. 

Creation, of any kind, is a uniquely personal act. I can’t tell you exactly how to do your story, but I can show you all the tools that have worked for me and hopefully one of those will work for you. On our best day, we’ll come up with a brand new tool together and unlock the puzzle that way.

Describe your teaching philosophy – feel free to compare it to a book genre, movie genre, superhero, or a meal. 😉

A salad bar.

What do you want your students to learn from you?

I hope they discover their teacher is passionate about learning alongside them. 

I think, when it comes to any of the creative acts, the best way to learn is to foster a free discussion and encourage openness. 

If most of us get out of the silo of our own heads long enough to not only listen to the person in front of us, but beside us, behind us and inside us, we find the path to story is much easier.

Who’s an ideal student for you?

If you’ve read this far, you are.

What’s one word you hope students will feel after completing your?

Empowered. Enlightened? Or maybe entertained? I don’t know, but I’m pretty darn sure that whatever word it is, begins with an E.

Oh wait, enraptured. 

What advice do you have for other writers today?

“The best time to plant a tree was thirty years ago.

 The second best time is now.”

Translation of this proverb for writers? I think it means, you don’t necessarily have to be sitting at a desk every morning writing your debut novel to be a writer. Writers do a lot that isn’t literal writing. They walk dogs. They drink too much wine at their best friend’s wedding and make a fool of themselves. They take trains to strange stations just because. They spend a summer washing dishes at a diner and questioning everything. They train for the Olympic cross country ski team only to break their leg in a qualifying event and watch from the couch. They break up with someone they pine for later in life. They develop a weird mid-life obsession with Turkish archeology. They fail their real estate license test. They raise kids. They raise grandkids.

Whatever you’ve done till now is enough to start the writing part of a journey. Heck, if the above list was your life resume, you’ve probably got a story to tell.

What do you wish you knew when you first started your writing journey?

I thought there would be more cigars.

If you could write a letter to your younger writer self, what’s the one tip you’d give?

Bet the under on disappointment. 

Upcoming classes you might enjoy

Nap-a-thon

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Nap Ambassador sign ups close Sept 30.
Napping and fundraising happens Oct 1-31.

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