Ask the Author: Jim Bennett
Answered Questions (8)
Jim Bennett
Life is hard. Then you die.
Jim Bennett
I might choose the world in Ursula K LeGuin's The Disposessed. One of the main characters ?Shevak? was named after a woman who invented a tool, some sort of wrench. Anyway, that world is a study in what it would be like Not to be driven by money and large corporations and governments. I'd look around for awhile to learn more about such an alternative. Also Shevak was a mathematician, and I think we think alike. I'd like to see how I'd adapt to his world. But not for long: I'm a bit privileged here.
Jim Bennett
I've been given a few paperbacks. The Track. The Kill List. Mostly I read Kindle Book Review submissions. These are fairly eclectic in genres and some are quite rewarding. I also do informal reviews under request.
For serious reading, the science journal Nature and Scientific American. I read BBC News and DPreview.
I have lots to read.
For serious reading, the science journal Nature and Scientific American. I read BBC News and DPreview.
I have lots to read.
Jim Bennett
There are many. Why did both my cousins commit suicide? How did my father survey a plot of land in the middle of a forest with no geometry? And why? Why does a poet decide to take Math, Physics, and Chemistry at university? Who does he meet there? What stock advice did I receive while working as a runner at a brokerage company, and what personalities and life lessons were involved?
Jim Bennett
In Mila 18, by Leon Uris, the couple Rachel and Wolf. In the midst of the Warsaw ghetto they find each other, growing up fast in terribly difficult circumstances.
Jim Bennett
I know several acoomplished writers. They each have their own style and their own 'method' (or lack of it) for writing. So don't believe as gospel all the good advice you will be getting.
That said, find a writer you really admire, and see how they do what they do. Analyze work you like and respect. Then customize that style for yourself.
That said, find a writer you really admire, and see how they do what they do. Analyze work you like and respect. Then customize that style for yourself.
Jim Bennett
This is an unanswerable question, so of course I will try. It varies a great deal: sometimes an idea will come 'out of the blue'. Sometimes a line will say itself in my head - sometimes I don't even know what it is really about until later. For example, the poem Alzheimers, which occurse in Cold Comes Through, came to me in a line almost exactly like one in the poem: Slope planted fields cast shadows on themselves. I had no idea what that meant until four days later. Maybe I'm insane, but I think a lot of writers begin 'for no obvious reason.' Rachael Preston seemed to begin every book with a powerfully done scene, which started a character's existence, and quite likely never ended up in the final book. Her novel, The Wind Seller, definitely started that way. So maybe we're both insane.
Jim Bennett
Each book is a collection of poems. Each poem had its own reason for coming into existence, and then being polished. My collection, Retirement Clock, was gathered around the experience of being offered a package to leave a major Canadian company. The theme is the passage of time, and of the combination of discouragement and opportunity that brings.
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