Ask the Author: A.M. Pfeffer
Answered Questions (11)
A.M. Pfeffer
Ha! More like all of my 'free time' reading, Merri. It invigorates me to write, and writing is the life we have chosen, so yeah, I read everything I can whenever I can.
A.M. Pfeffer
This is a very personal answer, but the best way to start MY day involves an 18 month old screaming at me for more Cheerios/Baba/Eggs/Book Reading. Who am I kidding? That's the best way to start ANYONE'S day.
A.M. Pfeffer
Wow, I have to choose just one? 'Cause "sandwich" is a broad word. Label's Table on Pico has the city's best corned beef. Greenblatt's on Sunset has its best roast beef. Cole's downtown is all French Dip, and then some. Bay Cities in Santa Monica has the best meatball. But if we're going for who has the best quality sandwiches (plural) overall? You have to take the trip to Brent's in Northridge.
A.M. Pfeffer
Not that I spend much time in Murray Hill, but I'm partial to Brick Oven 33. Brooklyn? Grimaldi's. Westchester? Sal's, hands down.
A.M. Pfeffer
Five ideas, two of them viable, and both relative to the 21st century. Actually, a third idea is a passion project, so it will be worked on in the spaces between. Few as they may be.
A.M. Pfeffer
It came to me in a dream. Okay, that's not true. Then again, it's not that far off either. The short of a VERY long story is this...I initially wanted to write a book about being a liberal landlord (which I find is rare among many other landlords I know), and I wanted to use that book to also assault readers with my views on the world via numerous personal anecdotes. But that basic idea wasn't quite strong enough, and then a chance meeting forced me to think harder about a better idea, which led me to realize I have many other contradictions than just being a liberal landlord. This then led me to discover the prophecy of the Hanged Man. Though, an even shorter answer to your question is this...perspective. I wrote the book to put today's world in perspective. And my aim was to do that in less than 60,000 words.
A.M. Pfeffer
I think of writing as the one piece of chocolate Novak Djokovic allows himself when he wins a major tennis tournament. First I put in all the work (running my own business, tending to family, endless micro administrative tasks), and then I get to have my chocolate (to sit down and write, free of responsibility). This way it's a joy to write. It's a true pleasure to get it all out of my head and put the puzzle together. Granted, Djokovic's one tiny piece of chocolate only if he wins an entire tournament is extreme, but so is any form of inspiration, no? I never want writing to be the grind. I want life to be the grind (which I also enjoy) so that writing may be the reward.
A.M. Pfeffer
Oh, only about five things at once, and all of them specific to what it is to move forward with living in the 21st Century. It's pretty much all I can think about now -- what does it mean to be human in the face of gargantuan technological changes coming down the pike soon enough. Once you hop on that train of thought it's somewhat hard to hop back off. At least for me it is.
A.M. Pfeffer
I may be a little too neophyte in the profession myself to be doling out advice to anyone else who considers themselves "aspiring." Then again, I've been through enough writing failures to help others recognize a few pitfalls. Here are a few pitfalls to avoid:
- listening too hard to anyone else but yourself
- being anywhere at any time without a notepad or recording device
- keeping your work only to yourself
- being unwilling to rewrite, followed by more rewriting, promptly followed by oodles of even more rewriting
- not taking yourself too seriously while at the same time learning to take yourself just seriously enough to finish your work
- listening too hard to anyone else but yourself
- being anywhere at any time without a notepad or recording device
- keeping your work only to yourself
- being unwilling to rewrite, followed by more rewriting, promptly followed by oodles of even more rewriting
- not taking yourself too seriously while at the same time learning to take yourself just seriously enough to finish your work
A.M. Pfeffer
One more day under the sun. Huh? Right, I'll explain. As most writers/authors/poets know, to write is to live. Or, to put that in opposite terms, to go without writing is terminal to your health. Ergo, the best thing about writing is that it means I'm still here. Doing what I can't live without. I'm here, on this side of the dirt, enjoying yet one more day under the sun.
A.M. Pfeffer
Showers. The longer the better. I know, I know, California is always teetering on red-level drought...and we're instituting statewide mandates to limit daily gallon use soon enough...but standing under a stream of hot water for as long as I can is what cures my writer's block. What can I say? There's just something about the most vulnerable of places (naked, alone, limited weapons available for protection) that gets the creativity flowing again.
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