Ask the Author: John Copenhaver
Answered Questions (4)
John Copenhaver
I’m polishing up a novel manuscript, set in post-WWII DC, about two teenage girls, one of whom is (perhaps) a budding sociopath. They work together as amateur detectives to unwind the mysterious connection between an assault on their favorite teacher and the brutal murder of a classmate. I like to think of the novel as a femme fatale’s coming of age story.
John Copenhaver
Write a book that matters; don’t write just to publish. We don’t need more books; we need more good books. Hard work and perseverance are essential to being a published writer. If you don’t like to work or think writing is easy, this isn’t the right field for you. If you have a vision for what you’re writing, that vision will see you through the gauntlet of rejection you’re sure to experience. Read deeply (not just broadly) and, when you write, remember your readers: What are their needs? How can you be clearer for them? How can you entertain them? How can you challenge them? How can you move them?
John Copenhaver
All the free booze. No, there’s no free booze. In truth, after a long journey with DODGING AND BURNING, it’s profoundly satisfying to have readers engaging with it. It feels validating: Look, folks, all that time I was telling you I was writing, I really was. It wasn’t just wishful thinking. I made something. It’s real.
John Copenhaver
Many years ago, I took a class in graduate school called “Photography and Modernity.” It was a literature course about how photography, particularly the mass reproduction of images, changed modern life and literature. We spent a lot of time discussing the power of the photographic image to communicate and miscommunicate. At some point, I wondered what it would be like to tell a story that pivoted around an evocative crime scene image that served as the primary evidence for a murder that couldn’t be verified. With photography, the enticement is always to focus on what the photograph confirms, not what is just beyond its frame. Also, I was fascinated with the way photos gather meaning when provide context. In other words, it’s not just the photo, but the story that’s told about the photo that has power. The question is: Is that story the truth?
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