Ask the Author: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Answered Questions (10)
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Hi Jake,
We feature writers of traditionally published literary fiction, mystery/crime fiction, and memoir. We are backed up now with guests but will open bookings in the new year. Best to listen to an episode or two to get the vibe of the show.
Thanks for asking!
Barbara
We feature writers of traditionally published literary fiction, mystery/crime fiction, and memoir. We are backed up now with guests but will open bookings in the new year. Best to listen to an episode or two to get the vibe of the show.
Thanks for asking!
Barbara
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Even before the pandemic, I know of authors doing all their research online. There's so much you can find. Not ideal, but workable.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
There are so many places, but one would be the New York City circa 1939 in the novel, Rules of Civility. Seems that was the best time in NYC, before the s*#*%t hit the fan with the war and Germany and all that awful stuff Hitler was doing.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
So many: The Nix, because last month (April, 2017) it won the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Debut Fiction, and Abandon Me by Melissa Febos, because she will be an author with us at my Pen on Fire Writers Retreat next month (2017) in Palm Springs, and Testimony, by Scott Turow, because he's on my show the last week of May (is the end of May considered summer?), and Beartown, by Fredrik Backman (loved A Man Called Ove), and Ninety-two in the Shade by Tom McGuane, The Virgin of the Flames by Chris Abani, and Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. That's a good start, anyway.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Pen on Fire is not my most recent book, but it keeps being reprinted so let me talk about that. I wrote it for a student, Robin. She'd come to workshop and do all kinds of great writing but when she went home to write, she couldn't write. This happened over and over. Finally she said, "Will you come and live with me? I'm sure if you lived with me I would be able to write." I said, "I can't do that, but I'll write a book for you." That's how Pen on Fire began: for one student.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
I have to start writing to get inspired. Once I'm in the chair (or on the sofa, as it were), and I start working, I'm inspired to continue. Inspiration is rarely flung at me from some unnamed source. Writing begets more writing.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
A novel called Just Close Your Eyes, about a woman whose past catches up with her. Genre: Women's fiction.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Read, read, read and write, write, write. Read beyond your comfort zone. Read good poetry, too. More important than you know.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Having something to do with all this material that life gives me. And being able to work while lying down on the sofa.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
I do freewriting. I pick a couple of words, set the timer, and don't stop until the timer goes off. Works every time.
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