Until his fateful first post at TNB, I had never heard of Steve Almond.This is embarrassing, and probably inexcusable, given that a) he’s well-known in fiction writing circles, circles which I like to pretend include me, b) by then, he’d already submitted a self-interview (easily one of the stronger entries in that particular archive), and c) I was, not two minutes before clicking on “Five More Bands For Joe Daly to Hate,” in the middle of reading an article on self-publishing he wrote for Poets & Writers.

*”Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”- A quip about music journalism variously attributed to Frank Zappa, Laurie Anderson, Steve Martin, and Elvis Costello.

Think of the sections at your local bookstore: romance, history, science fiction, fantasy, western, chick lit, erotica. How big are these sections? Where are they located in the store?

And how does the section on rock literature compare?

Is this gonna be the kind of interview where you get all emotionally confrontational and messianic about the Mission of Literary Art in Our Great Days of Ruination, or the kind where you’re all fake-down-to-earth and fake-witty and fake modest about your achievements, or the kind where you get pissed at the interviewer for calling you out on your more or less relentless line of bullshit?

Yes.