Ask the Author: Gary R. Lowell
Answered Questions (8)
Gary R. Lowell
Lord of the Rings (3rd and probably last reading), the Complete Works of Dostoyevsky and My Antonia. I hope the summer is long enough.
Gary R. Lowell
Jim Burden and Antonia Shirmerda in Willa Cather's nostalgic memoir, My Antonia are my favorite couple even though they fall into the category of "Star-crossed lovers" destined not to consummate, or even acknowledge, the love they share for each other and the native prairie they roamed as children. Yes, it is bubble-gum love, but so poignant, so heart-breaking, so tragic, that it brings me tears thinking about it. The reasons this romance fails to blossom include differences in social class, language, culture (Antonia is from Bohemia), religion, and age (Antonia is four years older than Jim), but, mostly Jim's introspective/passive character. The adult Jim, a successful New York lawyer, finds it impossible to return to his native home in Black Hawk, Nebraska for Antonia and impossible to escape his memories of her and their shared piece of the "incommunicable past". I promise I will write a review of this book one of these days.
Gary R. Lowell
It usually begins with the geographic setting, a place that I have been and loved. Then, I select the time period and compose a tentative list of characters (not necessarily human). That part is easy enough and may take only an hour or two. Then I wait till the story comes to me (waiting for this is the hard part). This may take a month or more but it always does come to me. When I have the story in my head I do the writing very quickly and usually have a first draft in less than a week. I am quite compulsive about editing and always spend more time with it than in constructing the story itself. Often good ideas come during the editing stage and the story evolves, or even changes substantially, during this process. At a certain point I will get the feeling that my editing is beginning to make the story worse, not better. That is the time when I submit it to a publisher.
Gary R. Lowell
I am currently working on a short piece of fiction entitled "Burnt Corn". In this story we will consider the question "Is love and happiness possible between a wild male jack rabbit (a hare not a true rabbit) from Socorro, New Mexico and a domestic female chinchilla rabbit raised in a cage in Burnt Corn, Alabama?" What do you think?
Gary R. Lowell
Get used to the word "Rejected" or it's slightly less odious synonym "Declined". I would suggest you write each word 500 times on the blackboard and keep some alcohol within reach. You will need to be very resilient to survive in the dog-eat-dog world of publishing for money. There are uncountable thousands of would-be writers out there and all of them would like to enjoy the success of J. K. Rawlings, but almost none will. You will need the competitive spirit of an Olympic athlete and luck bordering on magic. Perhaps voodoo would be helpful.
Gary R. Lowell
I have not experienced this yet, but if I did, I would first try changing my underwear. If that fails, I would try to wait it out on an island in the Caribbean with a planter's punch in hand and a conch salad on my lap.
Gary R. Lowell
Seeing your name in print, of course! And then there is the day that you see your book on the shelf of an actual book store. The other side of this coin is the necessity for self-promotion which I do not like at all.
Gary R. Lowell
I spent six weeks on Kupreanof Island, directly north of Zarembo Island (yes, it is a real place) doing geology work for a mining company. Tent life on Kupreanof was tough due to nearly constant rain but things appeared worse on Zarembo. I never wanted to step on it's shores and I haven't, except with this fiction story.
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