An Interview With Shawna-Lee I. Perrin
Thank you so much for sharing your book with me and agreeing to do a Q&A for my readers.
Thank you for having me, Sarah!
Give us a quick summary of Radio Waves!
Music is everything to college radio DJ Viv Pierce. When her fiancé excitedly reveals his vision for their future – a future in which they get married right after college and start a family – she panics because housewives don’t have time for travel, punk rock shows, or late-night record-listening parties. She takes solace with her friends at the college’s dingy little radio station and tries to figure out what she’s going to do. When an intense connection with a handsome young Joy Division fan visiting from England leads to a one-night stand, she has to decide what kind of future she really wants.
Set between 1979-80, Radio Waves is a novel of longing and rebellion, infused with the post-punk music of the late 70s that embodied both.
This is your first novel and you are also a musician. How has your love from music inspired and influenced your writing?
Music has always been important to me; when I was a kid, I was obsessed with ABBA, and in high school it was U2, and countless other bands from there. What I think makes me love a song, record, and band is when I feel transported somewhere just listening. It’s like meeting someone you just know is going to become your best friend; something clicks, and suddenly the world feels magical again. Playing music is like that, too – I play bass, so getting consumed by a rhythm with a group of people is incredibly fun.
I discovered that it’s extremely hard to put those kinds of feelings into words! My friends tend to listen to a lot of the same music as I do, so when we talk about music, there’s a built-in kind of short-hand. But in writing a novel, there is no short-hand. The reader only experiences what we show them. So I ended up listening with fresh ears to this music that I talk about in the book – almost like hearing it for the first time, and forcing myself to figure out precisely why I feel such a connection to it, and then transposing that over to my characters. It was very challenging, and a lot of navel-gazing, but I hope my readers feel transported, too.
You’ve described your book as a “Post-Punk Novel”. What does that mean to you?
I subtitled it “A Post-Punk Novel” because I think that fans of that music will like my book – it’s a good way to kind of wave them down and say, “Hey! Over here!”
Post-punk is a genre of music that started in the late 70s as punk rock’s fierce energy was waning. I like to think of it as that time after a raucous party has ended, when the loud, drunk people have long since passed out, and it’s finally possible to have those deeper, late-night conversations about life and death and books, that sort of thing. Joy Division, a band I talk about a lot, is a prime example of post-punk; their melodies are played on bass, as opposed to guitar, so the sound has this meaty feel to it, and the singer’s voice is also very low. Their songs are pretty otherworldly sounding, but the beat is relentless. It’s a neat combination.
Did you have any major hurdles in getting this book out into the world?
Just knowing when it was time, when the book was really ready. As I’m sure you know, it’s entirely possible to keep going back and tweaking and revising forever – there’s always going to be something to work on. But when the time was right, I just kind of felt it.
How long did it take you to finish your book, from first draft to publication?
Just about four and a half years. I wrote the first draft during our MFA program; I worked very hard on the first half of it for about a year and half, trying to get it right. Then, when fourth semester rolled around, I really wanted to have a complete first draft so that I could get that faculty feedback that’s so valuable, but I had no idea how I was going to write half a novel in just a few months, when it had taken so long just to get the first part! In the end, I worked with my mentor to figure out a plan and just wrote like crazy, skipped a few showers along the way, and made it happen. Then it was two more years of revising and querying literary agents before I realized that the only person who was going to get this story into the world was me.
Much like you, your main character, Viv, is music obsessed. How much of your own personality and life experiences influence your protagonist?
Luckily, I’ve never been engaged to someone who was wrong for me like Adrian is wrong for Viv! And my family has always been great – loving and supportive – so I had to find references other than my life to make those obstacles real for her.
But her involvement with college radio, and the different kinds of people who are drawn to that – that was very much inspired by my experiences. I DJed at our local college’s radio station, WKNH, from the time I was a junior in high school in 1987 until I graduated from that very same college in 1994. Fun fact: the building that the radio station was in while I was there had been a hospital until shortly after I was born – and that’s the very hospital I was born in. I also met my husband at that radio station a zillion years ago. I always wanted to do something to pay tribute to the ways that place changed my life for the better and helped me figure out who I was, so that was what I tried to do with this book.
Your book is self-published. Can you share with us why you chose this route and what about it has worked well for you?
Between 2018 and 2020, I queried 90 literary agents and a couple of independent presses, and in the end, they either passed or didn’t respond at all. What a discouraging, disheartening experience that was. It really wore me down. I had to make a decision if I was going to abandon it, since no one wanted it, or go ahead and put it out some other way.
Last year, I contacted a professional developmental editor who was recommended by one of the faculty from our MFA program, and he gave me incredibly useful feedback that caused the final major overhaul and polishing of the book. By the time I finished incorporating his suggestions, I knew I had it: the book I’d always really wanted. I queried a few more agents, but their response (or lack thereof) didn’t change. I frequent a few music-minded communities online, and connecting with people there, and telling them about my book has worked really well – they’re a major part of the people I wrote this for, so it’s a very natural thing to reach out to them. And it’s wild to know that people who don’t know me in real life have read it and loved it! I’m not looking to get rich or famous from my book, I just want it to find its people, and so far, it has.
I was lucky enough to meet you when we were both students at the Mountainview MFA program. How do you feel like pursuing your MFA helped your writing?
I’d been out of college for over 20 years when I applied to Mountainview, and my writing had fallen by the wayside. The MFA program sharpened my skills, and helped me re-learn how to tell a story. Getting to work with people – both faculty and students - whose writing I so admired and respected, and seeing them actually take my writing seriously empowered me to take it seriously, too, and to put the time and work in that I needed.
What is your writing kryptonite?
Stress and anxiety – I’ve found it very difficult to be creative during this pandemic. I just keep wanting to watch comedy and keep my mind off the bad stuff.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers who are working on their first book?
Squelch that urge to edit as you’re writing your first draft, because if you don’t, you’ll never get a first draft to make better. Just plow through, even if you know it’s going to be a hideous beast when you’re done, because only then can you polish and fine-tune and gut and improve. Also, if you don’t have a writing community in your life, use the abundant resources for writers online to find people who will read your stuff and give you useful feedback. Writing can technically happen in a vacuum, I guess, but the good stuff usually doesn’t.
Radio Waves is available now. What are you working on next?
I’ve been writing some short non-fiction articles for a website, which has been a great help in keeping my skills sharp. Novel-wise, I’ve got a couple in progress that I need to get back to. But people keep telling me they want a Radio Waves sequel, and I do really miss those characters, so maybe…
