Hello, Mr. Arneson. Thank you for taking the time for this interview today. Would you mind briefly introducing yourself to the readers here?
Sure, I’m married and the father of two young sons, ages twelve and nine. I’ve been writing my entire life—screenplays mostly—but Citizen Dick is my first novel. I worked in corporate America for thirteen years, but left once my wife was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. She’s fine now, even though she just finished battling back cancer for the second time last year.
When I left corporate America, I decided it’d be a good time to do for my boys what I’d wanted to do for years: build a tree house. But I got a little carried away with the project, and soon installed electricity, Ethernet access, a phone line, and air conditioning. I think this was my mid-life crisis—it did something for me. Throughout the construction project, I knew I had to finish it, that it was somehow critical that I complete it and do it well. Then my mom died, and I decided it was time to get started on Citizen Dick, which I’d outlined long ago. And, of course, the tree house ended up being the perfect place to write. It’s now more my office than anything else. I’d really like to get a piano up there at some point, but I think that’ll require a little re-enforced flooring.
You’ve recently published your book Citizen Dick; could you tell us briefly about the book?
Sure, it’s about a bit of a slacker, Dick Citizen, who kinda backs his way into the PR department of a huge telecommunications corporation. He writes this goofy, farcical press release for the enjoyment of his coworkers, but it gets leaked to the press. Wall Street responds favorably to the corporation for the first time in a dozen quarters, and the lame duck CEO, who has nothing to lose, decides he’ll ride it out, take the company in the direction the press release has them heading. So they get into an industry they know nothing about: meat.
Where did the name “Citizen Dick” come from?
I grew up a Dick and hated it—I mean, hated it. When I went into junior high, I told my teachers that I wanted to be a Richard, and have been ever since. Dick Citizen is a bit of a tortured soul, and I thought it’d be a good name for him to have, more emotional baggage for him to drag around. Citizen Dick was the name of a band that, if I recall, played when I lived in San Francisco—maybe Washington, D.C. Anyway, it just stuck with me; I loved the name.
What inspired and/or drove you to write this book?
I used to write these fake press releases when I worked at a huge telecommunications corporation, even formatted them just like the ones we distributed. I used to have us doing these nonsensical things like creating a new canning division, then bundling our long distance products with pork ’n’ beans or tuna. Goofy stuff. But I started thinking that it’d be funny if one of those got into the hands of a trade publication and they ran it … then the Citizen Dick story just sorta steamrolled from there.
What is one question people never ask in relation to your life as an author and/or your book that you wish people would ask?
I’m a little disappointed that nobody ever asks me why Noble Tud, the CEO from Citizen Dick, is so obsessed with prison. I love the reason why, but it’s never mentioned in the book. I thought it’d be obvious, but nobody seems to take that leap and figure it out.
Where do you go from here? What are you working on?
I’m currently writing my second novel, The Tree House, which is about a guy who builds a tree house for his two young sons. It’s very, very loosely based on my experiences building the tree house in our backyard. It’s a comedy, but definitely more serious than Citizen Dick. Of course, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to write anything too serious. When I begin to head that way, something in me jumps into comedy. I’m sure it’s a defense mechanism of some kind.
