Ask the Author: William Sirls
Answered Questions (9)
William Sirls
December 15 2020
William Sirls
I would love to visit Maycomb, Alabama ... the 1930's setting of "To Kill a Mockingbird." Minus the story's core racism, it seems like a place where life is simple and a place where values are on the family.
William Sirls
"The Outsider" by Stephen King, "Ghost Ship" by Clive Cussler, "Flamingo Coast" by Martin Jay Weiss, and "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt.
William Sirls
When I was a child, we had a neighbor that was intellectually challenged. He was in his late teens and walked around with a wooden ruler that had a wire curler attached to it. He called it his "microphone" and talked to it all the time. I frequently wondered what he would do if it ever talked back. This gave me the idea for God talking to Andy through his broken iPod in "The Sinners' Garden." It was a lot of fun to write and we are very pleased with how it turned out.
William Sirls
Beyond the creative experience, I really enjoy interacting with readers. Hearing that something I've written has had a positive impact on someone's life is truly gratifying.
William Sirls
I think new writers rarely understand the work that goes into a book. I also think many of them have a hard time keeping realistic expectations about the commercial success of their work. Everybody wants to be a New York Times Bestseller, but our first goals should be sharing the right message with readers while trying to please God. If we do those two things, rarely will we be disappointed.
William Sirls
There's no inspiration like real life. We all take part in it and all have stories to tell.
William Sirls
Co-authoring the screenplay for my first book, "The Reason." It's so much fun!
William Sirls
I don’t experience writer’s block all that often, mostly because I write my endings first. That way my characters already know where they are going, so when I stumble or slow down, they tell me what to do instead of the other way around. But for those times when writer's block truly rears its ugly head, I usually switch to a different scene or pick up a good book and start to read. An author friend of mine told me that when he gets writer’s block, he opens a separate word document and actually writes about his writer’s block. I tried this once and it works surprisingly well.
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