Ask the Author: Marcia Meier
Answered Questions (9)
Marcia Meier
This answer is two years late, but I'll tell you what's on my winter reading list for 2021: Anthony Doerr's latest novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land; Meg Waite Clayton's The Postmistress of Paris and The Last Train to London; Louise Erdrich's The Sentence; Stanley Tucci's Taste, My Life Through Food (I adore his show Searching for Italy); and Lisa Genova's Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting.
Marcia Meier
That's easy. Tolkien's Middle Earth! I'd probably fall in love with some handsome Elfen guy, and live in the deep forest.
Marcia Meier
My childhood accident, which disfigured my face and required 20 surgeries from the time I was five until I turned 20.
Marcia Meier
The tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012 moved me to write about mass shootings, mental illness and gun restrictions. I have a brother with schizophrenia, and I have written about mental illness for many years. The Newtown shootings spurred me to tackle a topic that, sadly, seems to divide and confound otherwise reasonable people.
Marcia Meier
I sit down and start typing. (See previous answer on writer's block.)
Marcia Meier
Two books: One on mass shootings and mental illness, and an anthology of essays written by women on sex and intimacy after fifty. Both are with my agent. Fingers crossed!
Marcia Meier
I had a professor in college tell me, when I expressed interest in freelancing for magazines, to get a full-time job with a newspaper and write on the side. "When you're making more money freelancing, quit your day job," he said. It never happened. Sadly, it's harder today to make money writing than at any time in the recent past (meaning the past 30 years or so). Six years ago, I made a pretty good living freelancing.Today, I support myself as a developmental book editor and write on the side.
Marcia Meier
The freedom to be creative. The worst thing? Few of us make any money.
Marcia Meier
I don't believe in writer's block, per se. I think one can get stuck occasionally, but in the end, a professional writer can't afford to not be writing. When I was a newspaper journalist, I learned to push through blocks in a nanosecond. Deadlines are very motivating. If I didn't have an idea for a lede (the first paragraph of a news story), I'd begin with "Blah, blah, blah..." or just begin writing anything about the story to get going, and then go back and rewrite the beginning after I'd finished. Today, when I feel uninspired, I take a long walk on the beach, or wander downtown for an ice cream. It seems to clear the psyche and energizes me to write again.
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