Ask the Author: Patty Friedmann
Answered Questions (6)
Patty Friedmann
It doesn't happen when I'm writing. When I'm in the throes of putting out a book, I never have to stop.
When I'm between books, and I'm not writing, I wouldn't call it writer's block. I'd call it, "not in the mood." If I decide I'm tired of goofing off, I'll go take a long shower until I come up with an idea, and then I'll start writing again. I mean a really long shower.
When I'm between books, and I'm not writing, I wouldn't call it writer's block. I'd call it, "not in the mood." If I decide I'm tired of goofing off, I'll go take a long shower until I come up with an idea, and then I'll start writing again. I mean a really long shower.
Patty Friedmann
I'm going to be brutally honest. I write for two reasons, vindication and vindictiveness. There's an autobiographical element in all fiction, and mine is no exception. For me writing is a therapeutic process. I get even, and I get well. No matter who knows it. (My version of "well" is cuckoo for cocoa puffs in everyone else's estimation, but I feel terrific.)
Patty Friedmann
I once was on a panel with a blowhard writer. He held forth at length about workshops and MFAs and support groups and so on. When a member of the high-school audience turned to me and asked what I'd recommend to young writers, I said, "Misbehave."
No one is going to write well without some hard living and squalor and introspection under his or her belt.
No one is going to write well without some hard living and squalor and introspection under his or her belt.
Patty Friedmann
The book is titled DO NOT OPEN FOR FIFTY YEARS. It's in production. I've just finished getting my backlist into electronic format, and the final book will be up soon. Then I plan not to write. But I always say that.
Patty Friedmann
I get a character. That's all I need, and the book writes itself. In the case of my most recent book, I've known this character since she was born, and she's sixty now.
Patty Friedmann
It's the third in the trilogy that starts with TOO JEWISH. It had to be written. But I enjoyed getting into it because I had places I wanted to go. TOO JEWISH is a family saga that starts in the Holocaust. This book ends with Hurricane Katrina.
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