Professor Crazy, a very kind and gracious gentleman, interviewed me at BSC, a website that reviews books, movies, etc. It was a really delightful interview, because he asked the kinds of questions I always wish people would ask, questions about the story, the writing process, etc.
If anyone is interested, it is here.
Also, for weird technical reasons, I am reposting the beginning of yesterday’s Wright’s Writing Corner: Relentlessly Cheerful. To make up for the trouble, I added one extra line.
Theophrastus Prospero firing the Staff of Devastation
To quote Mephisto (sung to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers)
Gates of Hell can never
Against Prosperos prevail;
we have Theophrastus,
and that cannot fail.
This week is a short one, and I do not have time to do justice to the next installment of Good vs. Evil, which is on writing about villains. So that will be next week. This week, I thought I would write a bit about being a writer.
One of the side effects of being a published writer is that one has achieved something others desire. People come up and express envy that I have reached the Horeb Heights of Authordom, while they are still farther down the slope, perhaps slogging through the marshes of revisions, or mired in the Swamps of Publishing Uncertainty. I laugh and express the desire that they will soon join me. Usually, they are satisfied.
Occasionally, however, the person merely expresses more envy. Then, I pull out the big guns. I explain how I came to be where I am. I tell them about the 17 years it took from the time I began my book until it came out; about the eight years I waited, once I had finished it; about going to conventions, year after year after year, and having to face, bookless, friends whose novels had already been published. How, for so long, I walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Never Being Published. That kind of thing.
About this time, most people realize that I did not get up to the published heights by catapult. Nor did I win some kind of get-published-quick lottery. Usually, that is sufficient to assure them that all is still right with the world.
Once in a while, however, this is not enough. The person’s envy is palpable. Perhaps, they say they have been trying to get published for even longer. At this point, I try to say something helpful or encouraging. Probably, I merely say something dumb. If they seem receptive, I say something about God.
But, sometimes, I wish I could say to them was I am really thinking. If I could, it would go something like this:
“Are you relentless?
