Ask the Author: Jan Maher
Answered Questions (8)
Jan Maher
My reading list for the summer is very eclectic.
First, I intend to re-read:
Kinship of Clover, by Ellen Meeropol because I want to write a review of it and I generally read a book twice when I write a review.
The t/b/r pile breaks down into a few different categories. The first two represent my interest in reading books by people I've met, either online or in person.
Books by local (MA) authors whom I’ve met at readings, book fairs, open mic events, or via email:
Sticks and Bones by Richard Horton
Waving Back by Gail Thomas
May We Be Like the Penguin by Marian Kelner
Learning in Mrs. Towne’s House by Tzivia Gover
Lillian in Love by Sue Katz
Books by online friends:
Soul Doubt by D. Hart St. Martin
Amber’s Ace by Taryn Kincaid
Then there's the books people have recommended to me:
Books friends have mentioned on Facebook:
Sister Gin by June Arnold
Kind One by Laird Hunt
Click Song by John A. Williams
Books recommended by my sister, who is/was a librarian:
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Books recommended by friends (including my spouse) and colleagues:
The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnerman
A book on the list because I liked his earlier book and am fascinated by recent research in innovative ways to help people recover from stroke and other brain insults:
The Brain’s Way of Healing by Norman Doidge
First, I intend to re-read:
Kinship of Clover, by Ellen Meeropol because I want to write a review of it and I generally read a book twice when I write a review.
The t/b/r pile breaks down into a few different categories. The first two represent my interest in reading books by people I've met, either online or in person.
Books by local (MA) authors whom I’ve met at readings, book fairs, open mic events, or via email:
Sticks and Bones by Richard Horton
Waving Back by Gail Thomas
May We Be Like the Penguin by Marian Kelner
Learning in Mrs. Towne’s House by Tzivia Gover
Lillian in Love by Sue Katz
Books by online friends:
Soul Doubt by D. Hart St. Martin
Amber’s Ace by Taryn Kincaid
Then there's the books people have recommended to me:
Books friends have mentioned on Facebook:
Sister Gin by June Arnold
Kind One by Laird Hunt
Click Song by John A. Williams
Books recommended by my sister, who is/was a librarian:
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Books recommended by friends (including my spouse) and colleagues:
The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnerman
A book on the list because I liked his earlier book and am fascinated by recent research in innovative ways to help people recover from stroke and other brain insults:
The Brain’s Way of Healing by Norman Doidge
Jan Maher
Right now, I'd have to say it's Charlie/Charlene and Minnie, in my novel Earth As It Is. If I went into detail about the "why" of my response it would be a spoiler, I'm afraid.
I've been thinking of other fictional couples for the past week, since this question was posed. None so far has risen to a "favorite" level, but I'll keep mulling it over!
I've been thinking of other fictional couples for the past week, since this question was posed. None so far has risen to a "favorite" level, but I'll keep mulling it over!
Jan Maher
Reading good literature inspires me to think about important questions and themes in human experience. Reading history and contemporary non-fiction inspires me to ask "what if?" questions. Being in the company of writers--attending readings, participating in readings and writing groups--inspires me to write.
Creating the conditions for inspiration--making the time to people watch, hear and read stories, think about what is important to me and what piques my curiosity--all these are precursors to the actual inspirations, as is taking the time to not think. To meditate, take walks, dabble in visual arts, bake bread, look out the window, even scrub a pot bottom or floor...
Creating the conditions for inspiration--making the time to people watch, hear and read stories, think about what is important to me and what piques my curiosity--all these are precursors to the actual inspirations, as is taking the time to not think. To meditate, take walks, dabble in visual arts, bake bread, look out the window, even scrub a pot bottom or floor...
Jan Maher
Read what you love. Read it again. Notice a particularly effective passage and analyze how it is structured. Make yourself a writing exercise from it (much the way aspiring painters sit in museums and copy details from the master painters).
Buy books for writers that include writing exercises. Do them.
Join a writers group in which the focus is on positive, honest feedback. Practice being able to give such feedback to others. Apply it to yourself.
Be patient with yourself, but be demanding. When you think you are finished with a piece, if you can afford to, hire an editor or writing coach to push you to improve what you've done.
Buy books for writers that include writing exercises. Do them.
Join a writers group in which the focus is on positive, honest feedback. Practice being able to give such feedback to others. Apply it to yourself.
Be patient with yourself, but be demanding. When you think you are finished with a piece, if you can afford to, hire an editor or writing coach to push you to improve what you've done.
Jan Maher
A writer gets to be curious about absolutely everything. All of life is "research."
Jan Maher
If it's a first draft, I move. Go into a different room, go out to a coffee house, sit outside in good weather. Just changing my location a little bit seems to nudge me out of a rut or dead end. If that doesn't work, I put aside whatever it is that has bogged down and turn my attention to a different project. I've also found it helpful at times to write dialogues with my characters, asking them questions. If I'm in the re-writing/editing phases, running into a block usually means there's a small detail that I'm obsessing over, or a plot inconsistency I haven't solved. Then it is often a matter of re-reading what I've already written, aloud if possible, and listening for where the story should go next.
Jan Maher
I am working on a sequel to my first two novels.
Jan Maher
In my first novel, Seese, the hairdresser in Heaven, Indiana, tells one of her customers a story of the previous hairdresser. In my most recent book, I focus on that merely mentioned character and tell her story fully.
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