Below is a transcript of our continuing conversation with CMU English Professor Darrin Doyle
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas, and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University's students and faculty.
Last week, we got a look into the themes found in the writing of CMU English professor Darren Doyle. His collection of gothic stories, The Dark Will End the Dark, is now in its second edition and has been reissued on its 10th anniversary. Our conversation continued, and as it did, we talked about Doyle's sense of place…
Are you, since you're a Midwest guy, that was going to be the natural place? And do most writers lean on that as sort of where they want to frame the stories that they write?
Darrin Doyle:
I think so. I absolutely it informs everything I do. I think I thought when I started writing that I would be somebody who didn't let the setting that I had grown up in be the main palette, but it just happened. And I think it's great. And a cliche line is you can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy. And I think that's absolutely true. I would try occasionally to write stories about places I had visited or had lived for a short time and it just didn't ring true or there was some kind of element that felt missing to me. So yeah, this collection, all of my work, almost all of it takes place in Michigan or at the most, like in Cincinnati where I spent five years. So, I'd no longer fight against that. I don't want to fight against that. And certainly, this collection, everything either takes place, you know, there's a story called “Tugboat to Traverse City” that opens the collection that where this group of tourists opt to take a rundown tugboat up to Traverse City from Ludington rather than taking a fancier vessel. And I think the Midwest has a kind of gothic element to it with a lot of abandoned places. You can see every place does, but that's what I know well.
DN:
I've heard that. I've even heard some comedians talk about, you know, we're Midwest people because this is where we just stopped. There's that there's the East Coast that got established. There’re the people that went all the way to build up the West Coast, but there's a certain mindset about the Midwest that they got this far and just said, “eh!” we'll stay here. That works. Being born and raised here, it's kind of the same feeling, I guess. The proverbial, what's next? And I say that only to, is it perhaps a single story that's percolating or different theme? Even if we're talking about the dark humor and the Gothic, is there something that you're feeling is pulling you in the direction of…fill in the blank.
DD:
Gotcha. I have not been writing a lot of short fiction recently. There, 2024, I had a novella published called “Let Gravity Seize the Dead,” and I chatted with you about that one as well. When I wrote that novella, I knew that novellas also are kind of unmarketable, that they're considered unmarketable.
DN:
Bucking the system! That's good! You like that spirit?
DD:
Yeah, I just can't seem to figure out how to get in line with what's popular! But when I was kind of shopping that around, I had one editor say, when they were told that I had a novella, they said, well, I wish you had three of them so we could package them together. And so, I was like, all right, by golly, I'll write three of them. And so, I finished that one and it did get published by itself. But in the meantime, I had already started another one. And then while I was doing that one, I was kind of starting another one. So, with a foot in horror and a foot in mostly character. I'm mostly interested in psychology of characters and real-life issues. Yeah, once that third one's done, maybe I can buck the system some more and get them all out.
DN:
Even when maybe the trends are not there, it's certainly through all the work that you've done, it is finding that acceptance and it's finding that audience. And the same is here with “The Dark Will End the Dark” on its 10th anniversary re-release. Darren Doyle, thanks so much again. Congratulations on the re-release and stay strong against the system, I guess, and keep pursuing the art that you love! We appreciate the time today.
DD:
Thank you very much for having me.
