Ask the Author: David Alexander Baker
Answered Questions (7)
David Alexander Baker
Hi Jenna, thanks for reading Vintage! No firm timeline on the second book yet, but it's getting close. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for the kind words, and cheers!
David Alexander Baker
It all started on a train trip in the late 90s or early 2000s. I visited the town of Beaune, where much of Vintage is set. I was really struck by that part of France. It's in a magical landscape of small villages of stone houses and manicured vineyards. I wrote half a page about it in a trip journal. Fifteen years later, it's a book. It's kind of a mystery how it all happens. I get a lot of ideas when traveling. Some of them stick.
David Alexander Baker
I rarely write when I'm inspired. Mostly it's a slog, a steady grind. If you wait for inspiration to write, you won't accomplish much.
But there are some tools you can use to help you through the long march: read, keep a journal, travel, cook and eat with people you like (and even some you don't, read some more. Repeat.
But there are some tools you can use to help you through the long march: read, keep a journal, travel, cook and eat with people you like (and even some you don't, read some more. Repeat.
David Alexander Baker
It's a book. It's about wine, food and family. Also, there's a touch of Delta Blues, Creole and Cajun cooking, rural Missouri, fishing, megachurches, celebrity chefs and reality TV.
David Alexander Baker
Keep at it, and eventually it'll happen. I'm living proof. I published my first book at youthful 44. Actually, as a member of the Slacker Generation, I'm doing pretty well. I might even qualify as a "fresh young voice."
There's a recipe you can follow: it takes a whole lot of work, a dash of patience, a few cups of persistence, some angst and hand-wringing and a touch of dumb luck. But the odds begin to in your favor if you work at it long enough.
There's a recipe you can follow: it takes a whole lot of work, a dash of patience, a few cups of persistence, some angst and hand-wringing and a touch of dumb luck. But the odds begin to in your favor if you work at it long enough.
David Alexander Baker
Stories are the currency of our existence. They are what make us human. They separate us from the plants, animals and minerals. They're ancient. And they'll persist as long as we're around. Long after civilization has collapsed, a few of us will still gather around a campfire to nibble on nuts and the roasted hindquarters of a gazelle and swap a tale or two just as we did in the Pleistocene.
It's wonderful to be able to contribute to that process in my own little way.
It's wonderful to be able to contribute to that process in my own little way.
David Alexander Baker
I used to say, with as much bravado as I could muster, that writer's block was a fiction. I think I was just trying to convince myself. Now I think it's real. Sometimes it takes me hours to just get a few words onto the page.
When the writing is slow, I give myself a low goal...150 words each day. I won't get up from the chair until I reach it. Sometimes I sit there for an hour or more. But then, once I start typing, windows will often open up. If I decide to climb through, suddenly I find I've written a page or two. And sometimes it's even pretty good. Often, though, I just delete it the next day and start from scratch.
Walking is helpful. I'll head to the woods and turn my phone off. Just me and the dog. The wheels start turning in the forest.
Cooking is also a good meditation and tonic. A meal that takes all day to plan. At the end of the process you have something delicious to consume and share that you've made with your own hands. It's another sort of creativity. It's more real and visceral than writing a few words on a long project. Add a glass of wine and a good conversation with friends or family, and then you have something that's a little bit magic. Get to bed early, and wake up in the wee hours and go for it again. It works for me more often than not.
When the writing is slow, I give myself a low goal...150 words each day. I won't get up from the chair until I reach it. Sometimes I sit there for an hour or more. But then, once I start typing, windows will often open up. If I decide to climb through, suddenly I find I've written a page or two. And sometimes it's even pretty good. Often, though, I just delete it the next day and start from scratch.
Walking is helpful. I'll head to the woods and turn my phone off. Just me and the dog. The wheels start turning in the forest.
Cooking is also a good meditation and tonic. A meal that takes all day to plan. At the end of the process you have something delicious to consume and share that you've made with your own hands. It's another sort of creativity. It's more real and visceral than writing a few words on a long project. Add a glass of wine and a good conversation with friends or family, and then you have something that's a little bit magic. Get to bed early, and wake up in the wee hours and go for it again. It works for me more often than not.
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