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How has fatherhood impacted your writing?
I have a houseful of teenagers and aside from the normal teenage drama (running to the store to get tampons, Midol, and Ben & Jerry’s) they challenge how I think about writing and my place in the world.
By that I mean, I have a son who is majoring in music and a daughter majoring in art—and those are daunting careers, but it makes me think, “YES—someday the Rolling Stones are going to die and Ai Weiwei is going to die and dammit, someone is going to have to fill that cultural void when they’re gone!”
I get so immersed in the story that I’m writing at any given time that I occasionally forget how important the arts are.
What do you know now, after publishing your second novel, you wish you’d known before you published your first?
I wish I’d started taking Norwegian lessons. Seriously. For some reason I’ve had tremendous success in Norway where HOTEL was the #1 book for four months. (And I can assure you, at no time during the writing process did I ever pause, bask in the reflective glory and think oh, yeah, this is gonna rock it in Olso!)
I’ve been to Norway twice now, been to every major city, and even a few of the smaller fishing villages. And I do love ratfisk, which I’ve been told is less appealing to foreigners than lutefisk, so I have that going for me.
Final Words of Wisdom
Books are the written record of the human condition. Librarians, editors, and bookstores, curate that work. Retail websites, not so much.
So support your local bookstore.
