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Mercer taught because she needed a salary.
One of Mercer’s more pliable rules for writing fiction was to keep quiet about your work. She had long since tired of windy writers going on and on about their current projects, most of which were never finished. Writers, especially when drinking, which was most of the time it seemed, liked to try out their new material over dinner or cocktails, as if they needed the approval of their captive audience.
“Once the story is finished, then you have something to talk about.”
He had retired to Santa Rosa for health reasons but, like Steven, had found retirement to be unhealthy.
I flunked retirement.
A successful writer needed a sounding board, a first reader, a cheerleader, a person who loved them and wanted them to succeed.
Even for a bigmouth like Gifford, there were some things that should be kept quiet.
She was worried about writing too much, always a concern for her because she believed, and taught her students, that most books were too long. No one can tell a writer when to quit or what to cut. A strong editor can make changes or even reject a book for its length, but generally speaking, a writer is on her own with few limits.
