Ask the Author: Erich Hoyt
Answered Questions (8)
Erich Hoyt
The natural world, as we once knew it, is dying and nearly extinct. There is no human alive to try to fix it or even witness nature's last gasp.
Erich Hoyt
As a boy growing up in the Midwest, I promised myself I would always live near the ocean. I move out to Vancouver Island, British Columbia to a cottage on the beach when I was 18 and I've mostly kept that promise since then. When you look out at sea all the time, you start to wonder what's going on out there. I was lucky to be invited to help make the first film on orcas and after meeting 3 families or pods of orcas in the wild, I was hooked, returning for 10 summers and writing the book Orca: The Whale Called Killer. That led to many other adventures and books about whales, deep sea creatures and the mysteries of the ocean.
Erich Hoyt
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Erich Hoyt
My inspiration to write usually comes from what I experience on ships at sea or running along a cliffside path or hearing stories of new findings from scientists, artists or entrepreneurs.
Erich Hoyt
I am currently writing three books, a long magazine article, a scientific paper, a long journal entry and a song. However, I never talk about the content until the work is finished or published. I think a writer needs to let the ideas circulate and it is perilous to talk about the content.
Erich Hoyt
Advice for aspiring writers: write every day about something you love or that intrigues you. Put it away. Re-write. Put it away. Re-write. Show it to someone who you can trust to give good, fair evaluation, usually not family or close friend. Re-write. Then get it out there for the widest possible audience. Don't give up.
Erich Hoyt
The best thing about being a writer is being able to sit in a cafe, stop the clock, move inside your head and daydream until the words come.
Erich Hoyt
I don't believe in writer's block. If I start writing, loosen up the brain cells, the words start to make sense, and from that comes a sentence and a paragraph, and pretty soon a page. As Margaret Atwood once said, "A word after a word after a word....is power." The power to unlock writer's block, for one thing.
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