Ask the Author: Mark J. Mitchell
Answered Questions (12)
Mark J. Mitchell
I'd like to visit whatever world it is that Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next calls home. I'd visit the well of lost plots among other things, but mostly I would wander around and make sure canonical fiction doesn't get ruined by dilettantes.
Mark J. Mitchell
The Magic War started with finding a name on the back of a donation envelope in Saint James Catholic Church in Redondo Beach in 1971 or 72. From the day I found that name I wanted to write something about that character name. When I realized that the moon landing took place on the anniversary of Clarence Darrow's interrogation of William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes' trial, I had my jumping off place.
Mark J. Mitchell
For fiction, every few years I just sit down and write a story I'd like to read. Usually these have been building themselves in the back of my mind for a while. For poetry, a line comes to me and I follow it wherever it might want to lead me.
Mark J. Mitchell
I'm cleaning up the manuscript for a sequel to The Magic War. Then there's about half a historical novel I started that I'd like to get back to one day.
Mark J. Mitchell
Just keep writing whatever you have to write.
Mark J. Mitchell
When you're just looking out a window your wife thinks you're working (and you are).
Mark J. Mitchell
I never really had writer's block but I do go through fallow periods. I do think maintaining a discipline helps. I spend six weeks a year writing a poem every day. When I'm working on a novel I demand three mornings a week before heading to my day job.
Mark J. Mitchell
Mostly, I want to get back to finish John Elliot Gardner's big book about Bach. I recently picked up "Silk Roads", another big history book which I will pretentiously carry with me on the bus to work. I'd also like to go through Dante's Paradiso again. It's been a while. On a lighter note, there's a new Lindsey Davis Flavia Alba mystery out, and I'll be getting to that soon.
Mark J. Mitchell
When I write poetry, I get inspired a couple of ways. First, there is a season of the year (Lent) where I write a poem every day, so that puts a fire under the kettle. Usually, however, a line comes to me and I have to follow it. When I write fiction, every now and then I sit down to write a story I'd want to read.
Mark J. Mitchell
Even when you're staring in to space, you're working.
Mark J. Mitchell
A sequel to The Magic War, a lot of poetry and a novel about the Albigensian Crusade.
Mark J. Mitchell
Forty years ago I found a name on a church donation envelope. I had to write about someone with that name. The rest, the plot, the other characters came later, in a very slow build up
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