Meet Andrew K. Clark

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andrew K. Clark. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Andrew K. , so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Confidence doesn’t come naturally to most people, and it certainly doesn’t for me. I find my confidence in being utterly prepared for whatever the task or challenge might be. Sort of like: do your homework and you won’t be worried about the test. This manifests for me as a writer in that if I am giving a reading of my work, I will practice the reading over and over until it feels very natural for me. If I am giving a talk I do a lot of preparation on the topic and I literally record myself discussing important aspects of it. This may be overkill for a lot of people but for me it takes the anxiety out of the moment and yes, increases my confidence.

Self-esteem I think comes from being the kind of person, in the writing community, that helps others. One thing I don’t like about the social media world we find ourselves in is the focus on the self. I always find it more fun to be in community with others and when I’ve earned the respect of other folks in the writing community, I feel healthy and well.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am an author and my latest novel, Where Dark Things Rise, comes out on 9/16. It is an 80s horror: think Carrie meets Stranger Things but in Appalachia. It is the sequel to Where Dark Things Grow, which came out last year. The first book is set in 1930s southern Appalachia and has magical realism and folklore horror elements. The new book has some overlapping characters from the first (they were teenagers in the first and they’re now in their 70s) so I am very excited for folks to see the progression and what happens to these characters.

I will have a number of events to promote the book, and readers can learn about them at andrewkclark.com.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I think good writers were first good listeners. It’s a good guidepost for all relationships, really, but for the writer we need to be able to let go of what we want to say, and listen. As observers out in the real world, as artists who have characters that take on a life of their own. I think it is one of the strengths we most need to continually work on. I do think it has made more successful as a writer and a person.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

As a fiction writer, I have to answer this with a book of fiction: Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell. This book was my first of his, but what Woodrell’s writing teaches is the power of sparseness. We tend to, as beginning writers, overnarrate and over explain details to our readers. Instead, this book has brief chapters with everything but the core of what matters, and it has the best first chapter of any book I’ve ever read. By the end of that short first chapter we not only know the main characters and have a sense of their coming struggle, but we also fell a connection to the place and world they find themselves in.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andrewkclark.com/
• Instagram: @theandrewkclark

Image Credits

Author Photo: Parker J Pfister
Cover of Where Dark Things Rise: Fay Lane
Cover of Where Dark Things Grow: Marcus Amaker