Ask the Author: Clem Richardson
Answered Questions (6)
Clem Richardson
I am working on an as yet untitled autobiography/biography of the Dow Twins with the surviving twin, Harold Dow.
Chubby twins for much of their time growing up in St. Albans, Queens, Harold and Norman Dow threw their first promoted party when they were 16 years old - and unknowingly started careers that, in New York City, made them the party planners of their generation.
Chubby twins for much of their time growing up in St. Albans, Queens, Harold and Norman Dow threw their first promoted party when they were 16 years old - and unknowingly started careers that, in New York City, made them the party planners of their generation.
Clem Richardson
Read and write. Then read and write some more. Keep reading, keep writing.
Clem Richardson
As a journalist, it's the ability, with no elected or appointed power, to get those with power to answer for their actions. They may not tell the truth, and to tell the truth often a journalist doesn't suspect the depth of the answers they seek. But still there is an accounting of sorts that might not have occurred if the questions had not been asked.
In fiction, it is the incredible freedom to create a world, populate it, establish its rules and then be bound by them; to create your own logic.
In fiction, it is the incredible freedom to create a world, populate it, establish its rules and then be bound by them; to create your own logic.
Clem Richardson
I find working several projects at once helps circumvent most writer's blocks. When the ideas don't come for one piece, switch to another. It also helps if the pieces are of different genres - if the magazine article hits a wall, go to the poetry. It helps to read a writer whose work you admire. Inspiration can be found in many places.
Clem Richardson
One of the first things you learn as a reporter is you can't wait for inspiration to write. You sit down, you write. What you find is that inspiration comes while you sit there, staring at the blank screen - most times at least.
I once interviewed the writer Walter Dean Myers (Monster)who told a great story about the first time he met Dick Gregory - Myers was running a few laps around a New York track during his lunch hour and Gregory out ran him. Afterward, Myers told Gregory work made it impossible for him to run regularly. Gregory said "if you can spend eight hours working for someone else why can't you spend two hours a day doing something for you?" Myers said he spent at least two hours a day since then writing, six days a week. He sat there even if the words did not come. I followed his advice - sat there, inspired or not - and Gowanus got done.
I once interviewed the writer Walter Dean Myers (Monster)who told a great story about the first time he met Dick Gregory - Myers was running a few laps around a New York track during his lunch hour and Gregory out ran him. Afterward, Myers told Gregory work made it impossible for him to run regularly. Gregory said "if you can spend eight hours working for someone else why can't you spend two hours a day doing something for you?" Myers said he spent at least two hours a day since then writing, six days a week. He sat there even if the words did not come. I followed his advice - sat there, inspired or not - and Gowanus got done.
Clem Richardson
I live not far from the Gowanus Canal and would see the houseboats slipped there when I would drive across the Carroll Street Bridge. This was a decade Whole Foods moved in, before Toll Brothers announced plans to build luxury housing along her banks. Then it was warehouses, scrape yards and over grown lots bordered at night by the occasional hooker.
Something about the urban loneliness of it appealed to me.
It was a good setting for a novel.
Something about the urban loneliness of it appealed to me.
It was a good setting for a novel.
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