MYLA GOLDBERG is the author of the bestselling Bee Season, which was named a New York Times Notable Book in 2000 and made into a film, and, most recently, of Time's Magpie, a book of essays about Prague. Her short stories have appeared in Harper's and McSweeney's and on Failbetter.com. Her new novel is The False Friend.
1. How would you summarize your book in one sentence?
The memory of a childhood bad deed drives a woman back home to make amends, only to find that no one remembers things the way she does.
2. How long did it take you to write this book?
Five years.
3. Where is your favorite place to write?
My study.
4. How do you choose your characters’ names?
On impulse; generally, a name just comes to me and feels right.
5. How many drafts do you go through?
Within any given draft I am constantly rewriting, but according to my computer files, fifteen.
6. If there was one book you wish you had written what would it be?
I’m torn between Blindness and Baron in the Trees…hey, as long as I’m making wishes, let’s make me a combination of Saramago and Calvino with a prehensile tail! I’ve always envied prehensile tails.
7. If your book were to become a movie, who would you like to see star in it?
Buster Keaton. Bring him back to life, and I’ll change the whole thing into a silent comedy.
8. What’s your favourite city in the world?
New York to live in, Barcelona to visit.
9. If you could talk to any writer living or dead who would it be, and what would you ask?
Alfred Jarry. I’d ask him to make me a pataphysical sandwich.
10. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what kind?
Nope. It’s got to be quiet, quiet, quiet.
11. Who is the first person who gets to you read your manuscript?
My husband.
12. Do you have a guilty pleasure read?
Whose idea was it to link guilt with pleasure, anyway?
13. What’s on your nightstand right now?
Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad.
14. What is the first book you remember reading?
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl.
15. Did you always want to be a writer?
Yup. I used to sit at an electronic typewriter and pretend I was writing novels.
16. What do you drink or eat while you write?
Decaf coffee, almonds, and seltzer.
17. Typewriter, laptop, or pen & paper?
Desktop, with notes scribbled into a spiral notebook.
18. What did you do immediately after hearing that you were being published for the very first time?
Buy real bookshelves.
19. How do you decide which narrative point of view to write from?
I generally start in first person and then end up shifting to third.
20. What is the best gift someone could give a writer?
MYLA GOLDBERG is the author of the bestselling Bee Season, which was named a New York Times Notable Book in 2000 and made into a film, and, most recently, of Time's Magpie, a book of essays about Prague. Her short stories have appeared in Harper's and McSweeney's and on Failbetter.com. Her new novel is The False Friend.
1. How would you summarize your book in one sentence?
The memory of a childhood bad deed drives a woman back home to make amends, only to find that no one remembers things the way she does.
2. How long did it take you to write this book?
Five years.
3. Where is your favorite place to write?
My study.
4. How do you choose your characters’ names?
On impulse; generally, a name just comes to me and feels right.
5. How many drafts do you go through?
Within any given draft I am constantly rewriting, but according to my computer files, fifteen.
6. If there was one book you wish you had written what would it be?
I’m torn between Blindness and Baron in the Trees…hey, as long as I’m making wishes, let’s make me a combination of Saramago and Calvino with a prehensile tail! I’ve always envied prehensile tails.
7. If your book were to become a movie, who would you like to see star in it?
Buster Keaton. Bring him back to life, and I’ll change the whole thing into a silent comedy.
8. What’s your favourite city in the world?
New York to live in, Barcelona to visit.
9. If you could talk to any writer living or dead who would it be, and what would you ask?
Alfred Jarry. I’d ask him to make me a pataphysical sandwich.
10. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what kind?
Nope. It’s got to be quiet, quiet, quiet.
11. Who is the first person who gets to you read your manuscript?
My husband.
12. Do you have a guilty pleasure read?
Whose idea was it to link guilt with pleasure, anyway?
13. What’s on your nightstand right now?
Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad.
14. What is the first book you remember reading?
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl.
15. Did you always want to be a writer?
Yup. I used to sit at an electronic typewriter and pretend I was writing novels.
16. What do you drink or eat while you write?
Decaf coffee, almonds, and seltzer.
17. Typewriter, laptop, or pen & paper?
Desktop, with notes scribbled into a spiral notebook.
18. What did you do immediately after hearing that you were being published for the very first time?
Buy real bookshelves.
19. How do you decide which narrative point of view to write from?
I generally start in first person and then end up shifting to third.
20. What is the best gift someone could give a writer?
Time.