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[Closed] Author Q&A: Burt Weissbourd
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How did you come up with the idea for "Inside Passage?"Who inspires you to write?
Who are your favorite authors?
Do you have any tips for future writers?
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What is your favorite book?
When/How did you begin writing?
How often do you write?
How do you decide on character names?
Which of your characters is your favorite?
What's your favourite part of having a book published?Do you ever feel like you just run out of ideas?
Where do you get inspiration for your settings from?
How/When do ideas best come to you?
Here are the responses:How did you come up with the idea for "Inside Passage?"
I moved to Bainbridge Island, WA, and I learned about women who fished on purse seiners in Alaska in the summers. I was thinking about a screenplay, and I imagined what might happen if one of these very able fisherwomen was framed for a crime that she didn’t commit.
Who inspires you to write?
There is no specific person or people who inspire me to write, excepting the writers that I love (see below). I love writing and wish I had even more time to write.
Who are your favorite authors?
My favorite authors include: Ross Macdonald, Jim Harrison, Stieg Larsson, Scott Turow, James Welch and Ross Thomas.
Do you have any tips for future writers?
The best advice I’ve received as a writer is to keep writing. My experience writing novels has been that as I write more and more, I became a better writer. I feel more confident about my writing; I know when something is working and why, and I know to keep writing until I get there; and unlike screenwriting, when I do get there, the final product, good or bad, is what I want it to be. So my advice to an aspiring author would be – even though it is often difficult to get a first novel published, even though there are rejections from agents, even though there are days when you hate what you’ve written, keep writing.
Are your characters based on actual people?
My characters are not based on actual people.
What is your favorite book?
I don’t have a favorite book. Among my favorites are: Ross Macdonald’s THE CHILL, James Welch’s THE INDIAN LAWYER, Ross Thomas’ BRIAR PATCH, Jim Harrison’s THE WOMAN LIT BY FIREFLIES.
When/How did you begin writing?
I worked with writers for many years as a movie producer. I began writing screenplays because I had a very high comfort level with writing for movies. However, as a screenwriter, your work is not the final product, so I eventually went on to write novels.
How often do you write?
I try to write every day, 7 days a week.
How do you decide on character names?
Choosing a character’s name is generally an intuitive, trial and error process for me. I try out various possibilities and choose the name that feels right.
Which of your characters is your favorite?
Asking which of my characters is my favorite is like asking “Who’s your favorite child?” I don’t have a favorite.
How do you deal with writer's block?
When I’m stuck with something I just keep writing. Eventually, I work through it.
What's your favourite part of having a book published?
I think my favorite part of having a book published is reading galleys for the first time. It’s formatted like a book and suddenly it’s like you’re reading a new book and you discover things that you didn’t even realize that you’d done.
Do you ever feel like you just run out of ideas?
No, I’ve never felt like I just ran out of ideas. I think this is because of my background as a movie producer. As a producer, you meet constantly with writers to come up with ideas for screenplays. You learn how and where to look for fresh, authentic starting points and create a rich “stew” – that is to say, a situation with conflict, emotional intensity, and the potential to evolve in unexpected ways. For INSIDE PASSAGE, the situation was a woman – Corey Logan – coming out of prison who just wants to get her son back. She’s still in danger from the man who framed her. She falls in love with the psychiatrist who does her evaluation as part of the dependency adjudication to get her son back from foster care. The psychiatrist’s mother, a mover and shaker in Democratic party politics, is living with her candidate for State Attorney General, the same man that framed Corey Logan, and now, wants to kill her. That’s a rich stew.
Where do you get inspiration for your settings from?
The settings of my first 2 novels are based on areas that I know very well and love. INSIDE PASSAGE is set in Seattle and up the Inside Passage along the coast of British Columbia. I lived on Bainbridge Island and then in Seattle. I fished in the Inside Passage as far north as the Queen Charlotte Islands.
My second novel, IN VELVET, is set in and around Yellowstone Park. For 25 years I’ve fished 30-50 days/year in Montana and in Yellowstone Park.
Here is the synopsis:
Corey Logan was set up. She knows Nick Season’s terrible secret. Coming home from prison, all Corey wants is to be with her son. To get him back, she needs to make a good impression on the psychiatrist evaluating her. But Dr. Abe Stein doesn’t believe she was framed — until his well-heeled mother falls for the charming state attorney general candidate, Nick Season. As the dogs of war are unleashed, Corey and her son run for their lives, taking her boat up the Pacific Northwest’s remote Inside Passage. Inside Passage is the first in Weissbourd’s haunting, heart-stirring Corey Logan trilogy.
Please post by January 26.