Ask the Author: James R. Chiles
Answered Questions (4)
James R. Chiles
It helps to just plug away for at least two hours a day, even if you're not satisfied. The perseverance will pay off, at least in producing a manuscript.
James R. Chiles
Come up with an idea that's new. My foot into Smithsonian Magazine's door was a proposal for a feature that would interview engineers on how three great structures in America would age if abandoned to "deep time" by a collapsed civilization. At the time, 1983, that subject was quite novel.
James R. Chiles
The best thing is the people you get to interview and get to know along the way. The second best thing is access to fascinating (and sometimes risky) locations.
James R. Chiles
I got the idea for The God Machine, which is about helicopter history, while touring the wreckage of the World Trade Center in March 2002 with an engineer named Pablo Lopez. No helo rescue occurred on 9/11 and I wondered what helicopters are capable of doing, in the right hands.
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