JD Glass is a novelist and musician based in New York City. Known for her band Life Underwater, in which she plays guitar alongside her partner Shane, and her series of books featuring interrelated characters, Glass has emerged as a definite dyke author to watch out for.
Glass' first novel, Punk Like Me, was published in 2006, and novels Punk and Zen, Red Light, American Goth, and X have followed in quick succession. She is currently in the studio working on a new record, putting together a script for a graphic novel project, and finishing work on a novella titled Triskelion, part of the Outsiders anthology with authors Lynn Ames, Georgia Beers, Susan X. Meagher and Susan Smith. Despite her more than busy schedule, Glass took some time to chat with the B.A.R.
Rachel Pepper: Hi, JD. What is your band Life Underwater up to these days?
JD Glass: Life Underwater is in the studio at the moment, putting together new material, and getting ready to perform. The heart of the band is really Shane and I, and while we've had the joy of performing with various amazing musicians over the years, she and I are the song-writing core. We've done work as an acoustic duo, and in the last two years, we've created a few booktrailers/mini-movies, complete with soundtracks, something that's tons o' fun for both of us.
When you wrote Punk Like Me, did you have any idea you'd be writing more books about the same group of characters?
No, none whatsoever! I thought, "Hey, I've written a novel, awesome! How many people do that, right? I'm never gonna do that again, though." Next thing you knew, there was a sequel, and then there was even more to say.
I just finished reading Red Light. Your knowledge of the EMS field seems quite detailed, did you train as one? What other work experiences make an appearance in your fiction?
I am, in fact, a licensed EMT, and have been one for many years. As to other work experiences that make an appearance in my fiction, I have to say pretty much all of them. I can't think of a single field that I have a main character working in that I haven't been involved with in some fashion. I'll probably someday even write about writing, and I'm sure there'll be a lot of staring involved: staring at the screen, staring out the window, staring into space.
Your sex scenes are refreshingly free of the cliches that plague much lesbian writing. How have you avoided them?
I honestly don't know! Perhaps it's because I'm not terribly familiar with cliched sex? The language of those scenes reflects the characters: their culture, their unique erotic response, the emotions that they have about themselves, their partners, and who they are at core. If the character finds a certain word or action arousing, then it's my duty as author to be completely honest and accurate in portraying that.
What other writers have been influences on your writing, and who do you feel kinship with in the LGBT writing community?
There's a host of writers who've influenced my writing, and continue to: Katherine Kerr certainly, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Louisa May Alcott, Thomas Hardy, William Blake. Susan Smith is the author who, upon reading her first novel, made me think that yes, it was possible to write a story that was honest about life in all of its facets. Smith was authentic, and I always say she led me to my voice.
Another author I get linked with a lot is Sarah Schulman. It's not because we write similarly, but because we both take very unflinching points of view, and attempt through our words to reach for ultimate truths about being and meaning.