Writers chatting to each other on writing. Tedious or devious? Let’s have twenty questions, and find out. In this guest-spot, READ TUESDAY participant Charles Yallowitz delivers the answers...
1. Fire rages in your house.
Everyone is safe, but you. You decide to smash through the window, shielding
your face with a book. What is the book?
I would grab my thick compilation of Edgar Allan Poe works
because it could protect me the best. Also, if I die using it then people can
make a creepy story about it.
2. Asleep in your rebuilt house,
you dream of meeting a dead author. But not in a creepy stalkerish way, so you
shoo Mr Poe out of the kitchen. Instead, you sit down and have cake with which
dead author?
Funny since I didn’t read ahead. I’d have cake with Fred
Saberhagen just to tell him how his Book
of Lost Swords inspired me to become an author.
3. Would you name six essential
items for writers? If, you know, cornered and threatened with torture.
Chair, pencil, liquid refreshment, paper, laptop, and a bed
to pass out on.
4. Who’d win in a fight between
Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster? If, you know, you were writing that
scene.
I would go with Frankenstein’s Monster because Dracula wouldn’t
be able to drink his blood. It wouldn’t really be an honest win for the Monster
though because it would end with Dracula being frustrated and not realizing the
sun has come up. He gets weakened enough for the Monster to crush his head.
5. It’s the end of a long and
tiring day. You are still writing a scene. Do you see it through to the end,
even though matchsticks prop your eyelids open, or do you sleep on it and
return, refreshed, to slay that literary dragon another day?
If I’m near the end, I’ll try to finish it off. Otherwise,
I try to make a stopping point that I can easily jump back into. For example,
ending a conversation portion and writing the first line of an action or
description paragraph.
6. You must introduce a
plot-twist. Evil twin or luggage mix-up?
Evil Twin’s luggage gets mixed up with the Good Twin, who
has been a ghost the entire time. Also, the Evil Twin is their own grandpa.
7. Let’s say you write a bunch of
books featuring an amazing recurring villain. At the end of your latest story
you have definitely absitively posolutely killed off the villain for all time
and then some. Did you pepper your narrative with clues hinting at the chance
of a villainous return in the next book?
If I had no intention of bringing the villain back then I
wouldn’t do that. Doing so would be so mean to my readers and I’m a big fan of
closure.
8. You are at sea in a lifeboat,
with the barest chance of surviving the raging storm. There’s one opportunity
to save a character, drifting by this scene. Do you save the idealistic hero or
the tragic villain?
The idealistic hero because the tragic villain might be
angry that I ruined his greatest scene ever. Besides, for all I know, he was
supposed to die this way. I’m going to retain my right to toss the hero
overboard if the character is highly obnoxious.
9. It’s time to kill a much-loved
character – that pesky plot intrudes. Do you just type it up, heartlessly, or
are there any strange rituals to be performed before the deed is done?
I’ve only done this once and I just typed it up. It had to
be done like ripping off a bandage. Then the healing can begin.
10. Embarrassing typo time. I’m
always typing thongs instead of things. One day, that’ll land me
in trouble. Care to share any wildly embarrassing typing anecdotes? If, you
know, the wrong word suddenly made something so much funnier. (My last crime
against typing lay in omitting the u from Superman.)
I do ‘form’ instead of ‘from’ a lot. I’m trying to think of
my greatest spelling mistake, which is hard to remember. My best grammar typo
of all time is: “He was thrown clear across the clearing.” My friend who helps
me with editing was about to beat me to death with her Kindle for that one.
11. I’ve fallen out of my chair
laughing at all sorts of thongs I’ve typed. Have you?
Quite a few. Most times I just groan and hang my head in
shame. If a person catches me, I go into this ‘I swear I’m good at what I do’
speech. Kind of sad really.
12. You take a classic literary
work and update it by throwing in rocket ships. Dare you name that story? Pride
and Prejudice on Mars. That kind of thing.
Of Mice from Mars and Men from Mercury.
13. Seen the movie. Read the book.
And your preference was for?
I’m rather flexible with this because I understand that not
everything transfers well from book to film and vice versa. I do get annoyed if
there are major changes during the transfer like Elves at Helm’s Deep or
novelization having plot central conversations to fix plot holes.
14. Occupational hazard of being a
writer. Has a book ever fallen on your head? This may occasionally happen to
non-writers, it must be said.
A few times when I’m at the library. Thankfully, they were
all paperbacks.
15. Did you ever read a series of
books out of sequence?
I don’t believe I have. The moment I realize I’m not
reading the first book, I stop and hunt down the beginning of a series.
16. You encounter a story just as
you are writing the same type of tale. Do you abandon your work, or keep going
with the other one to ensure there won’t be endless similarities?
I would keep going for a little while to see if it diverts
from the other. If it doesn’t then I’ll put the idea aside and return to it
with a fresh mind. Maybe there’s another direction I can go with it.
17. Have you ever stumbled across
a Much-Loved Children’s Classic™ that you’ve never heard of?
I hear a lot of people tell me about these, but I don’t
remember the exact titles. I always wonder if the books are really popular
classics or just popular in a certain circle that I happen to step into. Kind
of like the Saturday morning cartoons of the 80’s and 90’s. A lot of those are
known to only a handful of people because there were so many.
18. You build a secret passage
into your story. Where?
I would have the passage bring me to Visindor Forest
19. Facing the prospect of writing
erotica, you decide on a racy pen-name. And that would be…
Richard Longfellow.
20. On a train a fan praises your
work, mistaking you for another author. What happens next?
I politely mention that I’m not the author they think I am
and work to cover the embarrassing situation. I’d take a picture with the
person and post it on-line with the story to try to get that author’s
attention.
My answers to my own questions can be found on the Windemere blog here...TWENTY QUESTIONS.
Blog - www.legendsofwindemere.com
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/CharlesYallowitz
"The book I'm putting into Read Tuesday is Legends of Windemere: Beginning of a Hero, which is the first of a series. Third book is coming out December 1st, so I'm driving myself nuts with hype."
I'm ready to read that twin story. :-) These Q&A sessions have turned out even better than I had been anticipating. You guys (and the many others I've read) are really good at this.
ReplyDeleteThe evil twin/luggage thing comes from watching too many movies. Asking writers for variations on the theme was my way of trying to inject a bit of life into dead fictional ideas. As I keep answering my own set of questions in different ways, I struggle to vary the replies. Question three is just killing me. Answering that twice was okay... ;)
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