Ask the Author: Andrew Fox
Answered Questions (9)
Andrew Fox
In March 2023 I had a new book come out from Madness Heart Press/ Aggadah Try It called THE END OF DAZE, set in New Orleans like many of my earlier books. It is an eschatological fantasy that answers the question, "What if the end times arrive and the version that ends up being true is the traditional Jewish version?" I'm currently working on another fantastical novel with a Jewish theme, this one called KING AHAB: DECO AND DYBBUKS. King Ahab of Biblical infamy is hurled through time at the moment of his death in battle to Miami Beach of 1973, where he finds himself inhabiting the bodies of four different recently deceased persons, consorting with Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky and retired singer Frank Sinatra, and trying to foil a group of dybbuks from the dawn of mankind who have extremely malevolent plans for the Jews of Miami Beach. His only guides in this strange new world are the infuriatingly unhelpful dybbuks of two his associates from ancient Israel, the prophet Elijah and his pagan wife Jezebel. I grew up in North Miami Beach and remember the Miami Beach of the early 1970s very well (then known as "God's waiting room" because of its population of elderly Jewish retirees), so this has been a very fun book for me.
Andrew Fox
I get inspired to write by waking up in the morning. I try to write at least a thousand words each day, excluding Shabbat (Saturday), whether I'm excited about what I intend to write or not. If I'm not excited, I bulldoze my way through in the expectation that eventually I will reach a point at which I am excited and fully engaged again.
Andrew Fox
The standard advice is to read a whole lot of good writers and to write regularly and in quantity, the idea being that every writer has about half a million words of crap in them to get out, so the faster you write, the quicker you get through your crap period. I would add that, given the present-day economics of writing, which have regressed back to the era more than a century ago before the pulp magazines and quality weeklies provided a steady paying outlet for one's writing, it doesn't make any sense to devote much time and effort to writing unless one has a deep love and need for the intrinsic benefits of the act of writing. I refer to the intellectual stimulation of putting words together in satisfying ways and the gratification that comes from solving story problems and creating and evolving rounded characters.
Andrew Fox
It's not the pay (hardly any for most of us). It's not the fame or acclaim (ditto). It's the work itself. Don't bother taking up writing if you don't find tremendous intrinsic worth and satisfaction in the work itself. I use my writing time the way some people use their daily meditation or daily mile run -- to generate some endorphins, clean out some of the mental garbage floating through my head, and occupy my brain with interesting challenges. Writing helps provide a framework for my life and thought, and mentally working through my writing challenges and puzzles helps get me through boring and/or otherwise dissatisfying phases of my days.
Andrew Fox
Jane spent every waking hour searching for the meaning of life. Then she died.
Andrew Fox
How do I deal with writer's block? Generally try to bulldoze my way through it... get words on paper, even if I fear they aren't much good, and tell myself I'll go back and fix them later. Another handy remedy is to lie down on the couch or in the hammock for an hour or so and just let my mind wander. I've been very fortunate that usually my subconscious can be relied upon to supply me with ideas and solutions when needed, so long as I'm patient.
Andrew Fox
The decadent, far future world portrayed in Robert Silverberg's NIGHTWINGS (Rome about a hundred thousand years from now, after Earth has been colonized by a not-too-harsh alien race) has always appealed to me, ever since I first read the book as a very young teen. I think it would also be fun to visit the Greenwich Village of the Beat 1950s portrayed in several of Jack Kerouac's novels and in John Clellon Holmes's GO. What would I do there? Drink lots of espresso, hang out in swinging jazz joints, listen in on some hip poetry, and chase those crazy Beat girls in their black berets!
Andrew Fox
I've recently gone back to George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series, having read the first one (FLASHMAN) and just finished the fourth, a great favorite (FLASHMAN'S LADY). There are twelve in the series, so that should keep me busy for a while. I also want to read more by William T. Vollmann, having been pleasantly astounded and bowled over by his EUROPE CENTRAL. And I have tons of graphic novels sitting on my pile that I need to work my way through... my "junk food" reading.
Andrew Fox
When I was in eighth grade, my former best friend Ritchie was killed by a shotgun trap while breaking into the bathroom window of a neighbor's house while the neighbor was out of town. At the time, no one ever learned why Ritchie had broken into this man's house or why the man had chosen to boobytrap all of his windows and doors; Ritchie was a Boy Scout and the neighbor was his scout leader. Turns out the scout leader was into sadomasochism with teens and children and had been moving around Florida to avoid detection and arrest. He left my neighborhood not long after Ritchie's death, for which he was not charged; however, he finally got nabbed in his next neighborhood, where he was caught with a van loaded with S&M implements and a room full of sex tapes involving his Scouts. I've always wondered whether Ritchie broke into his house in order to retrieve the tape that had been made of him and perhaps those made with his friends; the Scout Master kept those tapes as a form of blackmail to prevent the Scouts from informing on him.
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