Ask the Author: Lisa Alther
Answered Questions (7)
Lisa Alther
Hi Suzin, Many thanks for your kind words. I'm happy you like Kinflicks and really appreciate your letting me know. I'm sorry to hear about your visual impairment. My books Kinflicks, Blood Feud, and Swan Song are available as audiobooks, but not the others. Though I think if you order the Kindle version of the others, you can enable a speech function. I've never tried this, so I don't know how well it does or doesn't work. Best wishes, Lisa
Lisa Alther
I do other things that I enjoy. I used to always go skiing. But I hurt my back and don't ski now. I find if I take attention away from my muse, she sometimes starts clamoring to try to get it back!
Lisa Alther
The flexible schedule! I can write when I feel like it. I also enjoy using my writing as a way to discover what I think and feel about various topics that may baffle me beforehand.
Lisa Alther
I think you have to just keep writing, no matter what kind of discouragements you may receive. Write for yourself, to answer your own questions, and then you don't have to care what anyone else says about your work. I received 250 rejection slips over the course of 14 years before getting any fiction published. It helps if you can take pleasure in watching yourself improve at your craft.
Lisa Alther
Every time I finish a book, I assume it's my final one. I put everything I have into a book and am pleasantly depleted afterwards. So that's where I am now since finishing SWAN SONG. In the past, the well has always started refilling at some point. I don't know if that will happen this time or not. I'm getting pretty old and lazy!
Lisa Alther
I usually write using the binge method. I go away somewhere for a week or two and do nothing but eat, sleep, and write. I find when I'm alone for that long, ideas start germinating to keep me entertained in my isolation. Because I don't have to keep breaking my concentration in order to participate in daily life, I can get a lot done. Back home I edit and rewrite and await the next chance for a few days of solitude.
Lisa Alther
I took a 6-week journey on the Queen Mary II from Hong Kong to Brooklyn and decided to write a murder mystery set on a cruise ship. I wrote an introductory chapter onboard, but once I got back home, I realized there were already so many great mystery writers and that I was maybe too old to learn that skill set. So I turned it into my favorite genre -- the Quest Novel!
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