The  stranger asks:

 
The author answers:You’re a novelist? Have you published anything?>You’re a surgeon? Have you ever operated on anyone?Have you written anything I might have read?>Do you read novels?Um….>Then, no.Any bestsellers?>

I read a couple every year.

Still haven’t figured out the formula.

Literature or fiction?>Yes.Any of your novels made into movies?>Only in my nightmares.Who do you get compared to, as a writer?>

My brother com...