Owen King: In His Own Words

Nina Livingstone:

I’m really grateful that you’re offering your time. I really appreciate it. I’m really grateful.

Owen King:

Happy to do it.

Nina Livingstone:

Thank you. Thank you. I’m reading my little tickets here in braille.

Owen King:

Okay.

Nina Livingstone:

I wrote notes for myself, and then I had to narrow it down. The first question I was going to ask that I didn’t ask in the other interview questions was what are you most afraid of? If you have any fears, what are you most afraid of? And that was one that I forgot to put in.

Owen King:

I get variations of this question a lot. Actually, I got it just the other day and I had to confess that I have a very, what seems to me, kind of predictable answer, which is that I’m quite afraid of death. The idea of suddenly losing association with all my loved ones and friends and also ceasing to be and not having, this is a really happy discussion, and ceasing to be and not having sensation and it’s grim. It’s grim to me. So yeah, I’m quite afraid of that. I think it’s scary.

Nina Livingstone:

That’s honest. And the other was, if you could change anything, what would you change?

Owen King:

If I could change anything? Is this just about myself or am I allowed to change the world?

Nina Livingstone:

Yeah, probably, well, whatever you’re comfortable with. Both if you like, but whatever.

Owen King:

Gee. Well, on a personal level, and I might’ve mentioned this in the interview, but I suffer from migraine headaches and they are very annoying. I don’t suffer the way that some people do where they go through months of agony. But for me, it’s almost like an allergic reaction. Like something stressful can hit me and I can feel the migraine sort of come rolling through my head like a dust cloud, but a dust cloud made of metal filings that have been sharpened. It’s extremely unpleasant. If I could change one thing about myself that would be high on the short list. There’s probably some other things that I could be on a more global scale. Boy, I don’t even know where to begin, but yeah, so much.

Nina Livingstone:

Yeah.

Owen King:

It’s hard to say what particular inequality or awfulness suffering people to start with. There’s so many things wrong right now and probably more things that have been wrong in the past than we’ve been honest with ourselves about. So I don’t even know where to begin, but there’s many possibilities.

Nina Livingstone:

How do you see yourself 10 years from now?

Owen King:

You know, I wondered, I remember this question too and I don’t have a ton of longterm goals and that may be a mistake. I don’t think of my life in that way. I don’t sort of have those five year plans that some people do. And I think it’s because I kind of am doing what I like to do now. I like to write in different fields and I get to do that.

I look forward in 10 years to seeing my family grow up, but I don’t have a whole lot of expectations for myself. I don’t know. It’s interesting. It’s such a good question because it’s made me want to ask other people the same thing because I don’t think of myself like that.

I also think that some of it may be related to the way that I think I write, and the way that I think a lot of people write, which is sort of the one sentence at a time kind of deep deal. There are certain writers who are so confident and so capable and so comfortable inside the skins that they’re working in, and in the field that they’re working in, that they can just sort of plan I’m going to have my next book done in eight months. And then the next book after that, which I’ve already outlined, is going to be done eight months after that. And I don’t really go into stuff.

Nina Livingstone:

Do you set your own deadline by the way?

Owen King:

I don’t set any deadline except the one that tells me, oh, this isn’t working, you have to give up and do something else.

Nina Livingstone:

I see.

Owen King:

Otherwise, I finish and I do it and it’s however long it takes. And I think that if I could speak about my dad for a second, because he is so prolific, I would say he’s not somebody that is actually that quick. He’s working on the book that he’s working on and he knows what he’s going to do and he gets to the end of it when he can get to the end of it. It’s not as if he thought to himself, I’m finishing this in six months. It just gets finished.

Nina Livingstone:

Right. I get what you mean.

Owen King:

You see what I mean?

Nina Livingstone:

Yes, yes. Do consider yourself, but I’m more speaking of writing routines, a morning person or a night person writing wise?

Owen King:

I’m really a morning person and I don’t like to go to bed thinking about my work because it keeps me awake.

Nina Livingstone:

Oh, that’s interesting.

Owen King:

It’s like caffeine kind of, you know?

Nina Livingstone:

Yes, yes. It makes sense. Yes. So I gather you do drink coffee in the morning?

Owen King:

I do. I do drink coffee in the morning and I do everything in the morning and in the early afternoon if I can help it.

Nina Livingstone:

Yeah. Yes. Do you love what you’re doing? Do you love the work?

Owen King:

I do. I do. It’s more, I was going to say it’s more stressful than I maybe originally envisioned when I got started. But you know, I’m not sure that’s true. It’s just you’re your own boss and you’re your own first judge of what you’re doing, and so it can be a little stressful trying to please myself. But I do, I do love what I do.

Nina Livingstone:

But do you feel any pressure at all from any outside source? Or do you feel really relaxed when you’re doing it without any pressure at all?

Owen King:

No, I think most of the pressure I have comes from myself.

Nina Livingstone:

Yourself.

Owen King:

If I’m contracted to do something, there is some pressure from the outside.

Nina Livingstone:

I see.

Owen King:

What I put on myself is usually I think, and I bet again, most people who write would say the same thing, is the heaviest pressure comes from myself to write what I think is good and to live up to the idea, whatever it may be. But I do, I feel tremendously lucky to be able to do what I do. I’ve been absurdly fortunate in many ways in my life, and just I am grateful for all that luck. I don’t know what else to say.

Nina Livingstone:

Yes, yes.

Owen King:

Great. Well, thank you for doing this and I hope it all comes out the way you want.

Nina Livingstone:

Oh, yes. I’m grateful and I will certainly email you when I get home and thank you.

Owen King:

Okay. Be well, Nina.