Ask the Author: Seymour Grufferman
Answered Questions (7)
Seymour Grufferman
To me the best thing about being a writer is my creating new worlds in which I can live. I strongly envision the scenes I write and feel like I'm in a movie in these scenes. So, it is extreme escapism that I can enjoy.
Seymour Grufferman
I don't often have writer's block. I deal with it by putting the writing aside for a few days. I take long walks and do what I call "head writing." I envision scenes while I'm walking with my dog. Another trick I use is to take advantage of the hypnogogic state--the transition from wakefulness to sleeping at bedtime. It can lead to hallucinations, great ideas, new insights, etc. If I think of the novel as I'm going to sleep, I often get great new ideas.
Seymour Grufferman
I am currently halfway through a fourth novel, another bioterrorism thriller (The Superbug Jihad). This one is about al-Qaeda attacks on the US and Israel using highly antibiotic-resistant micro-organisms to spread terror.
Seymour Grufferman
After I retired to Santa Fe, NM, I got the idea for my first novel by the confluence of several factors. I had read about a Chinese-American nuclear scientist at nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory who was falsely accused of spying for the Chinese. I also was collecting ancient Chinese ceramics and was fixated upon the Warring State Era of Chinese art (the bowl on the cover is a ceramic piece from that Era). And third, I was struck by the huge number of art galleries in Santa Fe and the numerous eccentric people living there. The title "The Warring States Conundrum" is a pun: it deals with pottery of that era and it deals with an espionage conflict between the two modern warring states--the US and China.
Seymour Grufferman
I don't know exactly how I get inspired to write. My first foray into writing was in the fourth grade when because of my severe AD/HD, my kind teacher had me write short mysteries for her husband instead of attending to my lessons. I always wanted to someday get back to writing. Many years later, I was doing a tutorial (Oxford style) with a medical student. I used a lot of colorful examples from my overseas experiences as anecdotal examples in teaching. The student said I ought to write a book about my experiences and the seed for writing novels was sown.
Seymour Grufferman
If I could travel to one fictional world, it would be to James Hilton's Shangri-La (in his novel "Lost Horizon"). The novel was written in 1933 and was the first paperback novel ever published. It was made into a film in 1937 starring Ronald Colman and Jane Wyatt. The story is about Robert Conway (Ronald Colman), writer, soldier and diplomat, who is hijacked by plane on his way back to England. The plane crashes in the Himalayas. He is taken to Shangri-La, an idyllic land sheltered from the cold by mountains on all sides. The place is one of incredible beauty, peacefulness, and happiness. It is governed by a Lama whom Conway is to replace. I have been intrigued by the Shangri-La I read about and saw in the old movie ever since. It's no wonder that so many beautiful or tranquil places have been named Shangri-La.
Seymour Grufferman
On my summer reading list is M.M. Kaye's "The Far Pavilions." It too is a re-read. This is a huge, monumental book that took the author many, many years to write. It is a romance and adventure set in the Himalayas. It's hard to put this book down, all 947 pages of it. Curiously, General James Mattis recommended this book to his staff for its tactical lessons. It explains why Afghanistan will never be conquered.
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