We asked Joe Finder a few questions to learn a bit more about him. Check out his 'Featured Writer' page to see his biography. He also has some great 'Writer Tips' to help out current and future authors. You can also Click here to visit his personal website.
What inspired you to start writing?
Like most writers, I started as a reader. Even now, I read a lot; any good writer should. As a kid, I fell in love with Eleanor Cameron’s Mushroom Planet series — The Wonderful Voyage to the Mushroom Planet, Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet, and so on — and I wrote Ms. Cameron a letter. To my amazement, she wrote back. I must have been about nine years old, and that was the first time I truly understood that books were the product of a single person’s imagination. We wrote back and forth for years, and I asked her all kinds of questions about where she got her ideas, how she wrote, and so on. That was where I first got the idea that this might be something I could do, too.
Describe your journey to becoming a well-known author.
Once I grew up, I realized I would need to make a living, and that writing books might not be the easiest way. So I went to graduate school and I started teaching, which I loved, and wish I still had time for, but never really settled into. The idea of writing a novel never went away. I had written a non-fiction book that was very controversial, and it occurred to me that that material might be better suited to fiction. My wife and I agreed that I’d have three years to see whether I could write a book and sell it — and The Moscow Club sold just before that deadline expired. Since then, the key to it has just been to keep writing. Every day’s work isn’t going to be good, but if you put in enough days and you keep writing and revising and looking for ways to improve, that persistence pays off. VANISHED is my ninth novel. Every new book has brought a new milestone: first movie sale, first time on the New York Times bestseller list, first award nomination, and so on. I hope it’s a trend that continues, but no matter what, I’ll keep writing.
Who is your favorite author? Why?
That’s an impossible question to answer; it’s like asking what your favorite food is. Some days I like steak, some days I like brownies. I’d have to give you a list. It would start with Eleanor Cameron, of course, and include Frederick Forsyth, Robert Ludlum, William Goldman, Nelson De Mille, John Le Carre, David Morrell, Harlan Coben, Lee Child . . . the list goes on and on, because I don’t want to leave anyone out. I have, however, gotten to the point that I can’t read within my own genre while I’m writing. If I’m plotting a thriller, I need to know that the ideas are mine, and not something I subconsciously absorbed from one of my colleagues.
What intrigues you about the Blackwing?
Ah, the Blackwing. I’ve rhapsodized about the Blackwing in print before, but it’s hard to improve on the original slogan: “Half the pressure, twice the speed.” Who wouldn’t want that? They glide on the paper; they make a great, dark, smooth line that feels assertive and strong, not like the pale gray you get from a No. 3, nor scratchy like most #2’s. And of course, for the past several years, part of what’s made the Blackwing so desirable is the fact that it hasn’t been available. It’s been out of production for 12 years, and the ones still in existence — I still have a few — have become almost mythic in their importance. Kids in junior high right now have never lived in a world with the Blackwing, can you imagine? So the news that it’s coming back has been reason for celebration, at least in my house.
No comments:
Post a Comment