Alan’s Interview with Norm Goldman of Book Pleasures

Posted on 03.29.08 4:44PM under Interviews

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Norm: How did you get started in writing? What keeps you going?

Alan: I started out doing precocious, irritating social commentary for my high school paper. Many years later, after songwriting, journalism and law careers (and finally teaching myself to type properly), I decided to start writing the kind of stuff I’d always liked to read. With my blog and the books (number two is half done), I’m happy to be finding my own voice as a (hopefully) cuddly curmudgeon. What keeps me going is knowing there are stories worth telling around every corner. The trick is finding time to tell them without going broke.

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Norm: How did you decide you were ready to write Landmark Status? As a follow up, how did you know when your book was finished?

Alan: I had a picture in my mind of Benjy literally running into Delia in the breakdown lane. After a while, the places where they were going (and why) started to come into focus, and I created a fairly detailed outline, with bits of dialogue and text. It took a few months to get up the courage to start writing the thing, one word, one sentence, and one page at a time, but I got through the first draft quickly. I wanted it to hang together like a performance from one moment in time, and I was afraid to destroy any individuality it might possess with excessive manicuring. I knew it was done when I blew everything up. But months later, I realized it wasn’t and wrote a new ending.

Read the entire interview at Bookpleasures.com

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