Q. What was the hardest part to write?
I had to do a lot of research into artists, painters in particular. My girlfriend, the artist and College of St. Rose art professor Gina Occhiogrosso helped me with that. Besides that, writing about autism presented several challenges, trying to get the body language right and the manner of speaking. Autism is an emotional condition. Oftentimes autistic people are narrowly focused geniuses. We “normal” people can’t imagine the internal processing they are accomplishing at any given moment. I’m awed by them and their gifts, even if I don’t entirely understand them.
Q. What was the inspiration behind the story? Where were you when you came up with the idea?
I’d just been separated from my second wife and it hit me very hard. That was my mental state. But for the few years we had been married, I really hadn’t written any fiction that was worthwhile. Ironically, there was simply too much drama going on! Now that we were apart, I went back to writing like crazy. I can’t say where the story of Rebecca and her pursuer came from exactly. It just sort of evolved organically. I’ve always been fascinated by the chase and the hell people will go through trying to stay alive, especially when confronted with an evil adversary in the deep woods. I also have been fascinated with an abandoned house that suddenly appears in the woods, in the last place you would ever kind of expect it to be. A big, ugly, dilapidated, tortured, crooked old man of a house. I guess The Blair Witch Project pulled off the same kind of thing pretty effectively. Like that movie, I wanted the novel to resemble a nightmare, and I hope I have succeeded.
Q: What’s the best thing about being an author?
There’s the travel, the freedom, the ability to write what you want to write about. But by far the best thing about being an author for me is when I walk into some crowded bar and someone I don’t know pulls me aside and says, “Man, I loved As Catch Can. Sentence for sentence one of the best novels I’ve ever read.” Doesn’t happen to me all the time, but when it does, it sort of validates to who I am, what I do, where I’ve been and where I’m going.
Q. Thank you for this interview, Vincent. We wish you much success!
Thank you for having me.
