Ask the Author: Michael de Guzman
Answered Questions (11)
Michael de Guzman
The world of The Catcher in the Rye, the world of Holden Caulfield. I came of age in New York City in the 1950s. It was a bumpy ride. I wouldn't trade it for anything. So, I'd be sixteen again in 1954, as weird as it was.
Michael de Guzman
One morning I woke up and nobody was there. I was alone in the world.
Michael de Guzman
Walter Mosley's ROSE GOLD, Per Peterson's I REFUSE, Jim Harrison's BROWN DOG, Fredrick Backman's MY GRANDMOTHER ASKED ME TO TELL YOU SHE'S SORRY, and whatever I can get my hands on of Alan Durst's. As the summer unfolds I'll add to this. Whatever strikes my fancy when I'm in need of a new book.
Michael de Guzman
Why my parents got divorced?
Michael de Guzman
Addie Moore and Louis Waters in Kent Haruf's, OUR SOULS AT NIGHT. We seek and need love no matter our age, no matter our circumstances. Loneliness is a killer. These two characters demonstrate courage and strength by defying convention. After their triumph comes sorrow. But that is not of their doing. It is the fault of others who do not yet understand love.
Michael de Guzman
Michael de Guzman
Michael de Guzman
"Searching for a Place to be," my new book, evolved over time. It began as one thing and became something entirely different. This happened during the writing. I'm sure I absorb stuff from my reading, and from listening to the radio, and from observing life on the streets. These things, and what I like to call my peculiar imagination, eventually formed the characters that led to the story. Mostly it's a mystery.
Michael de Guzman
I don't think inspiration is the word. I pretty much write every day. I start a new book when I have characters I care about. I don't know the ending of their story when I begin. I don't outline. I discover as I go. I see where it takes me. Somebody once said that it's ninety percent perspiration and ten percent inspiration.
Michael de Guzman
I'm currently revising a book I wrote in 1981, The King and Queen of Moonlight Bay. I also wrote the movie version which was on the Hallmark Channel in 2003. I'll publish the new version of the novel before the end of the year.
Michael de Guzman
I'll tell you what my father told me. "Read every day," he said. "Write every day. Maybe, if you get enough bad words out of your system, enough good ones will float to the top and you'll have something worthwhile." What he didn't tell me was that I'd have to go through that every time I started a new book. Write enough to find your voice.
Michael de Guzman
Working for myself. Working at home. Saying what I feel and think through the characters I create, through the telling of their stories. But most of all, it's the writing itself.
Michael de Guzman
I'm fortunate not to have experienced writer's block in any substantial way over the nearly fifty years I've been a writer. There have been some tough times, a week here, a week there, when I couldn't get my act together. I read when that happens. I write letters. Then I go back to work. It's a compulsion, I fear.
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