Which Three Authors would you Like to Spend An Evening with ?

[Sean, Moderator]

An evening with three authors , dead or alive..

Who would you pick....

Mine Alistair Mac lean with Tom Wood and Simon Kernick...

Ladies Angela Marsons, Karin Slaughter, Clare Mackintosh

[David]

Easy one. Mac Lean, Kernick, Mackintosh

[Raymond]

James Lee Burke, Stephen King, Samuel Langhorne Clemens

[David]

Oh, I thought it was from the list.

[David]

Asimov, McMurtry, John d. MacDonald, and if we have a director it would be David Lean.

[David]

Men: Ed McBain, Robert B. Parke, & Michael Connelly.

Women: Hank Phillippi Ryan, Virginia Thompson, & J. A. Jance

[Kandice]

Stephen King, Joe Hill and Neil Gaiman!

[Raymond]

Kandice wrote: "Stephen King, Joe Hill and Neil Gaiman!"

That's a pretty good group.

[Kandice]

Raymond wrote: "Kandice wrote: "Stephen King, Joe Hill and Neil Gaiman!"

That's a pretty good group."

And they all know each other, so they might be happy withe the group as well. ;-)

[Christine]

BA Paris, Francine Rivers and Stephen King. I know there is a lot of genres here but that what makes it interesting!!

[W]

George Orwell,Oscar Wilde,Samuel Beckett.

[P.K.]

W wrote: "George Orwell,Oscar Wilde,Samuel Beckett."

Now that is an evening when I would like to be the drinks waiter - but I think we would have to have securiy standing by.

[W]

Sorry,no drinks.I don't drink.Maybe you'd like to settle for being the soft drinks waiter.

[W]

I also thought about spending an evening with Agatha Christie,Dick Francis and P.G.Wodehouse.I've read so many books by each one of them,but then I watched their interviews on youtube,and they sounded boring in person.

[Kandice]

W wrote: "I also thought about spending an evening with Agatha Christie,Dick Francis and P.G.Wodehouse.I've read so many books by each one of them,but then I watched their interviews on youtube,and they soun..."

I think it's so enlightening to watch authors interviewed! Some of them are so animated in life (part of why I chose my three), while others seems so bland. It's hard to imagine them coming up with the stories they set to paper.

[P.K.]

W wrote: "Sorry,no drinks.I don't drink.Maybe you'd like to settle for being the soft drinks waiter."

Then you wouldn't get Oscar Wilde there; Champage or nothing.

[P.K.]

W wrote: "I also thought about spending an evening with Agatha Christie,Dick Francis and P.G.Wodehouse.I've read so many books by each one of them,but then I watched their interviews on youtube,and they soun..."

You're a very eclectic reader, W - and film-goer

[P.K.]

Kandice wrote: "W wrote: "I also thought about spending an evening with Agatha Christie,Dick Francis and P.G.Wodehouse.I've read so many books by each one of them,but then I watched their interviews on youtube,and..."

I'm seldom enilightened, Kandice. I think that mostly writers of fiction write because they don't communicate verbally very well. and are often introspective - another reason for having to write - and when they are forced to answer questions about writing per see they trot out the same stuff about the mechanics of it that one reads in any 'how to write a great novel'. If it was that easy we would all be great writers. The process, as we know, relies on sub-conscious experiences and how we deal with them. It's quite the same as actors talking about acting.

[Kandice]

P.K. wrote: "- and when they are forced to answer questions about writing per see they trot out the same stuff about the mechanics of it that one reads in any 'how to write a great novel'. If it was that easy we would all be great writers. The process, as we know, relies on sub-conscious experiences and how we deal with them. It's quite the same as actors talking about acting...."

I think that in most case that is true, but in the case of the three I picked, they have each talked about writing in what I feel is an honest way. None of them say they can tell you where the ideas come from, King wrote On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft which is very helpful to ANY writer, Gaiman's Master Class is fantastic, and Hill admits to writing long hand (at Gaiman's suggestion) because he also doesn't know where the idea pool is and it helps keep him focused and from over thinking.

I have definitely listened to some very boring author discussions, but there are exceptions.

[W]

P.K. wrote: "W wrote: "Sorry,no drinks.I don't drink.Maybe you'd like to settle for being the soft drinks waiter."

Then you wouldn't get Oscar Wilde there; Champage or nothing."
Oh,I wasn't aware of that.Thanks for telling me,in that case,no evening with him,then.

[W]

P.K. wrote: "W wrote: "I also thought about spending an evening with Agatha Christie,Dick Francis and P.G.Wodehouse.I've read so many books by each one of them,but then I watched their interviews on youtube,and..."
Yeah,I guess so.

[P.K.]

Kandice wrote: "P.K. wrote: "- and when they are forced to answer questions about writing per see they trot out the same stuff about the mechanics of it that one reads in any 'how to write a great novel'. If it wa..."

I think you are a scholastic reader, Kandice so I will bow to your better experience. I'm afraid I did most of my reading many years ago and as I got older I found less time to read and less inclinaion when I should be doing something more useful, like writing, although that has proved less useful also so far. But as the years fly by the contest between 'doing' and 'enjoying' becomes more critical and the choice more difficult. But, it is true that it is never too late to learn and that there is always too much to learn so one has to devide one's time between guilt and necessity.
I have to confess I have never read a Stephen King book - the genre does not interest me - but I will now go to your link and see what he has to say and get back to you. And thanks for your recommendations.

[P.K.]

I suppose this choice is like making up a dinner-party; those rules are usually that the guests should be socially amenable. On that basis I would choose; Evelyn Waugh, P G Wodehouse and Jerome K Jerome with Dorothy Parker as their hostess. But if I didn't mind the party getting a bit boisterous it would be Hemingway,Nabakov, Oscar Wilde, Alistair Maclean and Graham Greene and I don't think it would be wise to have a female present. I could probably make dinner parties for every week in the year but I had to start somewhere.

[Sandysbookaday (taking a midwinter break)]

Kandice wrote: "Stephen King, Joe Hill and Neil Gaiman!"

Oh,lovely! Can I also come to your dinner party please?

[Kandice]

Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* wrote: "Kandice wrote: "Stephen King, Joe Hill and Neil Gaiman!"

Oh,lovely! Can I also come to your dinner party please?"

Absolutely!

[Kandice]

P.K. wrote: "I have to confess I have never read a Stephen King book - the genre does not interest me - but I will now go to your link and see what he has to say and get back to you. And thanks for your recommendations. ..."

Which genre? Fiction?

[Sandysbookaday (taking a midwinter break)]

Kandice wrote: "Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* wrote: "Kandice wrote: "Stephen King, Joe Hill and Neil Gaiman!"

Oh,lovely! C..."

Thanks. Currently reading The Fireman by Joe Hill

[Raymond]

Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* wrote:
Thanks. Currently reading The Fireman by Joe Hill "

First of Joe Hill's books that I read. I enjoyed it.

[Sandysbookaday (taking a midwinter break)]

Raymond wrote: "Sandy *The world could end while I was reading and I would never notice* wrote:
Thanks. Currently reading The Fireman by Joe Hill "

First of Joe Hill's books that I read. I enjoyed it."

Draco Incendia Trychophyton. Covid-19..... the reactions the same.

[P.K.]

Kandice wrote: "P.K. wrote: "I have to confess I have never read a Stephen King book - the genre does not interest me - but I will now go to your link and see what he has to say and get back to you. And thanks for..."

Horror and sarcasm

[P.K.]

Kandice wrote: "P.K. wrote: "- and when they are forced to answer questions about writing per see they trot out the same stuff about the mechanics of it that one reads in any 'how to write a great novel'. If it wa..."

Thanks for link, Kandice. I paid my money and read the book. Here to my review
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Aditya]

I will go for three writers who will be among the best in their respective fields - crime fiction authors or dramatists. James Lee Burke (always speaks his mind in the interviews I have read and has an unique perspective), Raymond Chandler (has not managed to say anything good about any of his contemporaries and is absolutely scathing about Hollywood) and Tennessee Williams (I almost read crime fiction exclusively but I have always enjoyed his plays).

Plus Chandler was homophobic and Williams was gay. Burke is a huge supporter of AA, the other two are as famous for their drinking as for their writing. (Billy Wilder made the Oscar winning The Lost Weekend about an alcoholic author after working with Chandler). Put these three together, the insults will be mind blowing, they are the best dialogue writers in human history. What good is a party where people don't want to kill each other. Basically everything goes except political correctness.

And with Chandler, Williams and me I think we can knock back ten liters of beer or a couple of liters of vodka. So you know if the guests kill each other, they die happy.

[P.K.]

Aditya wrote: "I will go for three writers who will be among the best in their respective fields - crime fiction authors or dramatists. James Lee Burke (always speaks his mind in the interviews I have read and ha..."

I think you could have added Hemingway to that trio, Aditya. Last Man Standing would have been the call. But I don't think writing would have got a look-in.

[Kandice]

Aditya wrote: "And with Chandler, Williams and me I think we can knock back ten liters of beer or a couple of liters of vodka. So you know if the guests kill each other, they die happy...."

The ultimate sign of a good dinner party? Ha ha!

[Aditya]

P.K. wrote: "I think you could have added Hemingway to that trio, Aditya. Last Man Standing would have been the call. But I don't think writing would have got a look-in."

Have not read Hemmingway but he would fit right in. This is what Chandler had to say about him "A guy that keeps saying the same thing over and over until you begin to believe it must be good." Might be paraphrasing but you get the gist.

Kandice wrote: "The ultimate sign of a good dinner party? Ha ha!"

: )

[P.K.]

Aditya wrote: "P.K. wrote: "I think you could have added Hemingway to that trio, Aditya. Last Man Standing would have been the call. But I don't think writing would have got a look-in."

Have not read Hemmingway ..."

A great story-teller but the quality of his writing did not withstand second readings from my youhful days. But to read Hemingway is to witness the process of a writer from poor t o great. Read The Old Man And The Sea, it won him the Pulitzer and deservidly so. It is a lesson to us all in just writing what is required, no more and no less.

[Heather]

James Herbert, Jo Brand & Ruth Ware