Ask the Author: Paul H. Raymer
Answered Questions (10)
Paul H. Raymer
Doors. Doors are extraordinary objects. Think of the closed doors in movies you have seen. "Don't open that door!" There is a door in the space station that opens from the confined and relatively safe space of the station to the universe! Astronauts say it's like opening the door of your bathroom and finding the view from the top Mount Everest on the other side.
I live in an old house that has lots of doors (about 38 of them (I lost count)). Big doors, little doors, doors with glass in them, doors with sloped tops to fit under the eaves, a short door for the closet under the stairs, narrow doors to spaces beside the chimney. The mystery here are the two doors that don't go anywhere. I don't know why they're there. I don't know why someone thought it was necessary to put them there. If I open them, where will I be? And will I be able to get back to where I am now?
I have been in other people's houses with rooms they have never been in. These are not just wardrobes as C.S. Lewis imagined. They are rooms.
So what would be the harm in opening that door? Particularly on Halloween?
I live in an old house that has lots of doors (about 38 of them (I lost count)). Big doors, little doors, doors with glass in them, doors with sloped tops to fit under the eaves, a short door for the closet under the stairs, narrow doors to spaces beside the chimney. The mystery here are the two doors that don't go anywhere. I don't know why they're there. I don't know why someone thought it was necessary to put them there. If I open them, where will I be? And will I be able to get back to where I am now?
I have been in other people's houses with rooms they have never been in. These are not just wardrobes as C.S. Lewis imagined. They are rooms.
So what would be the harm in opening that door? Particularly on Halloween?
Paul H. Raymer
In the crazy 'real' world we are living in, I would love to retreat to Robert McCloskey's Centerburg so that I could hang out with Homer Price. I'd sit on the porch and whittle a stick.
Paul H. Raymer
Elizabeth George: Mastering the Process
Paul H. Raymer: Death at the Edge of the Diamond
Dewey Lambdin: A Fine Retribution
Denis Lehane: Mystic River
Keith Yokum: Color of Blood
Paul H. Raymer: Death at the Edge of the Diamond
Dewey Lambdin: A Fine Retribution
Denis Lehane: Mystic River
Keith Yokum: Color of Blood
Paul H. Raymer
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. They have fun, solve problems, and enjoy life.
Paul H. Raymer
Recalculating Truth sprang up out of thinking about trials. The judge and the jury have to listen to witnesses tell their version of some story. Then they have to apply the law. Wouldn't it be simpler to just have a machine that knew all the laws and could access them instantaneously and at the same time determine if the witness was telling the truth? We wouldn't need juries and we should be able to get perfect judgements every time!
The more I researched it though, the scarier it became. A lot of the stuff in the book is really happening. Some of the organizations that make equipment to read human tells are pretty scarey. And the fact is that we don't always want to know the truth.
The more I researched it though, the scarier it became. A lot of the stuff in the book is really happening. Some of the organizations that make equipment to read human tells are pretty scarey. And the fact is that we don't always want to know the truth.
Paul H. Raymer
Part of it is discipline - getting up at 5:30AM for a quiet time in front of this bright, colorful screen. Part of it are the people all around. I "collect" people. Lives intersect and touch and untouch. It's fascinating. I think I would have to be 'inspired' not to write!
Paul H. Raymer
I am writing a new novel, the beginning of what I plan to be a series that will take place over thirty or so years. This one is a coming of age story that involves uncovering a murder using a house as the weapon. It takes place on Cape Cod in 1979, in a fictional town called Tilley. I am fascinated by the changes in technology that have happened over the past thirty years and I love houses.
I am also working on home guide, information for buyers and owners and improvers of homes. What's the difference between cellulose and closed cell foam insulation? When should you use a tankless water heater? What is the best application for a mini-split air-conditioner? What's a HERS rater? What's Manual J? Ships have log books. Why don't houses? How about an operating manual?
Homes are complex beasts and there are a million questions. I'm going to try to sort it out.
I am also working on home guide, information for buyers and owners and improvers of homes. What's the difference between cellulose and closed cell foam insulation? When should you use a tankless water heater? What is the best application for a mini-split air-conditioner? What's a HERS rater? What's Manual J? Ships have log books. Why don't houses? How about an operating manual?
Homes are complex beasts and there are a million questions. I'm going to try to sort it out.
Paul H. Raymer
As in any craft or skill, learn the fundamentals. Learn the tools. I mean LEARN the tools. A hammer in the hands of a skilled craftsman is very different from a hammer in the hands of a monkey. I write in English. It is the only language I am fluent enough in, and it surprises me every day. There are so many wonderful words, and they can be so craftily altered by slight changes in spelling or punctuation. Good writing is an art. Bad writing is a crime.
Paul H. Raymer
The wonderful thing about story telling is to watch the characters and the scenes that you create blossom in another mind. You can see them turning the characters real, the way they are in the writer's mind and now they are in the reader's mind too. An actor transforms a two dimensional bunch of words into a living, breathing, loving, hating human being. Readers do that as well. My goal is to be riding on a NY subway and see some random person reading my book.
Paul H. Raymer
My daughter drew me a picture of a woman's face. She is a graduate fashion designer so she knows how create carefully crafted figures. But this time she just let her fingers and her hand and her arm go: no restraint. "Just let go," she said. I have found that 'writer's block' comes from trying to restrain your writer's hand. The words are in there - on the page or on the screen. You just have to let them out. If you try to force characters to do the things that you want them to do, they will stop you one way or the other. "Just let go!"
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