An Interview with Writer Andrew Wice

Andrew Wice is a novelist, haiku poet and blogger, as well as a world traveler and avid sports fan. His latest novel, To The Last Drop, was recently published by the Bäuu Press. In an email interview, Wice, 34, reveals which writers inspire him, what he thinks about the war in Iraq, and how he would give it all up to be a professional football player.

To The Last Drop imagines a present-day war over water rights between Texas and New Mexico. The Texas State Guard invades and occupies New Mexico and provokes an increasingly violent New Mexican insurgency. How did that idea come about?

I live in a former coal-mining town in New Mexico, and the diminished quantity and quality of water confronts me every day. Quantity, because it's the high desert near Santa Fe which has an enormous demand for a very limited supply. Quality, because the water is contaminated with heavy metals, coal, sulfur gas-it reeks of rotten eggs and isn't fit for drinking.

That pointed me toward the importance of water. The war aspect was inspired by the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. In watching the footage of our soldiers, I was struck by how similar Afghanistan's mountainous terrain is to New Mexico's. It certainly looked like a place where the defender has an enormous advantage, and I imagined that New Mexicans would fight with the same tactics as the mujahideen.

So I had the primacy of water in one hand and the imagery of a dirty guerilla war in the other. I simply made mud.

How did your personal feelings about the war in Afghanistan, and later Iraq, influence the story?

Personally, I think that it is important we make a distinction between those two operations. We invaded Afghanistan because the Taliban was aiding al-Qaeda in that country. Committing to a ground war in Afghanistan should only be undertaken with great caution and a keen eye for history. But it was justified by 9/11 and the "clear and present danger" to the U.S. which al-Qaeda represents, and we had the support of most of the world.