Q/A w/ Veronica Menne

Posted by Nick Martinez in Creative Writing

As a part of an ongoing Q&A session with the Creative Writing and Literature Department’s Senior Reading class, Jackalope Magazine sat down with Veronica Menne. Menne discussed her father’s influence, Young Adult fiction and TV detectives.

Menne will be part of the first Senior Reading, “What Happens After,” with Drake Blais and Schuyler Hall Gilmore at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 7.

Jackalope Magazine: How dare you?

Veronica Menne: I don’t know how to answer that.

JM: How did you get into writing?

VM: I got into writing because it saved me, literally, after my dad died. If it wasn’t for writing and a couple of my cousins, I probably would have gone to the road of drugs and partying. Because of writing, I was able to have positivity and a lot of stability in my life.

This spring, Veronica Menne will be graduating from SFUAD’s Creative Writing and Literature department. Photo by Ash Haywood

JM: What genre do you work in and why?

VM: I tend to write in fiction and screen, because it’s a way to escape reality. And it’s a way for me to create stories that fill me with joy, because I like to escape some of the pain. It’s also a way for me to bring up topics that aren’t really talked about, to try to incorporate abuse and drugs and stuff. I do Young Adult writing.

JM: What three words would you use to describe your writing?

VM: I would say powerful and determined…I forgot the third one.

JM: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever written?

VM: My first novel from when I was writing after my dad passed. It was totally childish. It was about three princesses that were thrown onto earth to be saved, and they were just learning powers. It was a childish thing that I needed to write to get through.

JM: How do you balance work and family?

VM: I haven’t even found balance between work and school yet. I use my work as an escape from my family.

JM:I scanned your Facebook likes and saw you like a lot of Prime Time detective shows. So, Marry, Fuck, Kill: Leroy Jethro Gibbs (“NCIS”) Patrick Jane (“The Mentalist”), Brenda Leigh Johnson (“The Closer”).

VM: Marry Jane, because he’s just crazy and unpredictable.

JM: You want to marry the crazy unpredictable one?

VM: (laughs) I need unpredictable. Kill Johnson, because just from watching the show, she does things that are out of bounds that I don’t agree with. And Fuck Gibbs, because he’s the only one left.