Liam Sweeny – an Xperience Interview

Liam Sweeny – an Xperience Interview – by Hugh Manatee.

Liam Sweeny is the Managing Editor, Creative Director, and Journalist for Xperience Monthly. His book, “Troy Love Story” is available on the open market.

RRX: You just had a new book published called “Troy Love Story.” Can you tell us a little bit about it?

LS: First off, “Troy Love Story” isn’t a romance. There are romantic elements between some of the characters, but overall, it’s a love story to the city of Troy itself. It’s an anthem to Troy or any northeastern Rust Belt city that’s going through change. It follows a group of people who used to rule the city and its music scene as they lose one of the patriarchs to an opioid overdose. It brings them together for one last shot of glory while changes in the city are tearing them apart.

RRX: Gentrification weighs heavily in the story. What does it mean in the story, and in real life?

LS: In the city, the biggest effect of gentrification is the closure of a nascent venue run by one of the group, Jordan, who’d gone to New York City but hadn’t forgotten her Troy roots. She had the misfortune of her venue not fitting the city’s new aesthetic.

In life, it means people coming into a city, falling in love, improving it and/or simply investing in it, and changing the character of the city, ideally for the better. Sounds great, but the rents get jacked, and people who called the place home for decades suddenly can’t afford to live there. Not only that but populations get shifted, so neighborhoods with historically low crime end up with more crime and lower home values. So where the center of the city gets a boost, it’s at the expense of the outskirt neighborhoods.

RRX: You’ve been a writer for many years. You’re also a writer and artist for Xperience Monthly. How hard was this book to put together?

LS: Mostly I do the covers and layout of the paper here. It’s not much. Some interviews, and I write content for the website. As far as being a writer, the physical work is just labor intensive, but keeping an idea developing throughout the writing process is very difficult. And if you want to get published, you have more rules to follow.

RRX: Are your books in bookstores? Can I get it at Barnes and Noble?

LS: Yes and no. My book is in the Market Block Bookstore in Troy, and the Book Barn in Stuyvesant Plaza, and you can get it on the Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites. But it’s very difficult to get books published by an independent press into a Barnes and Noble brick-and-mortar store, even if you’re a local author. But like I said, it is on their website.

RRX: What would you say to people starting to write?

LS: Do it. But start out doing it for yourself. If you go out and get books on how to get published, you either end up frustrating yourself, or writing stuff that’s publishable but feels like a dead fish to you. Write wild sh*t your friends would want to read, that you would want to read. Build your chops that way.

RRX: Any final words?

LS: I’d like to thank you, Hugh, for doing the interview, and Xperience Monthly for giving me the space to talk about the book. This book has been in the pipe for three years, and I’m glad to be getting it out and in the wild. I’m having a book signing at Market Block Books on Saturday, October 26 from noon – 2 p.m.

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