“Dick Cheney Shot Me in the Face” by Timothy O’Leary appeared in Issue 39 and can be found here.
We’d love to hear a little more about this story.
I was participating in a fly-fishing tournament (yes for some reason fly fishing tournaments exist) in Jackson Hole, Wyoming when Dick Cheney unexpectedly showed up to give an award. My friends, knowing my aversion to Dick, were kidding me about what I would do if I had to receive the award from him.
I did not win and we did not meet, but I became fascinated with Cheney, and that was the impetus of the story. All the facts about Cheney in the story are true, but I wrapped it with a fictional character that becomes the narrator, with the idea, “we all know Cheney shot one man in the face, but what if there were more?” I wanted to create a humorous background for a very serious guy.
What was the most difficult part in writing this story?
Blending fact and fiction.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
Tenth of December.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be?
There are many contenders, but probably George Saunders. I love the short story format, and I admire the fact that he keeps in front and center in a world otherwise dominated by novels.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
I have a new collection being released on November 7th called Men Behaving Badly, and I am in the final preparations for that release. I am particularly proud of the cover (please take a look on the preorder page at Amazon or Barnes). And in about a year I have a book coming out called The Corona Verses, that I am going through with a final edit.
Our thanks to Tim for taking the time to answer a few questions and share this story. Read “Dick Cheney Shot me in the Face” here: https://www.sequestrum.org/fiction-dick-cheney-shot-me-in-the-face.
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Timothy O’Leary is the author of Dick Cheney Shot Me in the Face, and Other Tales of Men in Pain (Unsolicited Press), and Warriors, Workers, Whiners, & Weasels (Zephor Press). His stories and essays have been published in dozens of publications, and he’s been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, won the Aestas Short Story Award, was a finalist for the Mississippi Review Prize, and The Lascaux Prize. He graduated from the University of Montana, and received his MFA from Pacific University. More information can be found at timothyolearylit.com