Today an interview I did with Marie A Bailey is live on her blog. Catch it here.
It dovetails nicely with a 99 cent Bargain Booksy promo for Eternity Began Tomorrow, so treat yourself to a twofer: Read Marie’s interview, then get your copy of EBT at the lowest price you’ll ever see it for.
Marie and I get into the origins of the novel, what its confounding title means, and why I persist in writing in female points of view. Good stuff. You’ll also hear what I’m working on now.
Here’s a little snippet:
I don’t think writers should be forbidden to write from their opposite gender (or one of the many genders available these days) any more than should be forbidden to write about any “other.” In fact, I just read a great piece by Zadie Smith in The New York Review of Books, lamenting that there seems to be a trend lately toward absolute “correctness” about identity in fiction. To my mind, fiction offers an eye-opening approach to empathy, so telling a black woman, for instance, that she can only write about black women would shut the door to her exploring what the world is like for other identities. I’m with Zadie on this. Fiction is really about individuals, not types.
Now run on over to Amazon and get your copy of Eternity Began Tomorrow while supplies last!
Nice interview – agree completely with the take on ‘forbidden’ to write – either you do it well, or ya don’t – but ‘forbidden’?!? smacks of censorship – :). Lord knows, if an author gets it wrong, they’ll ‘pay’ for it by being roasted publicly – so what gives with the ‘forbidden’ ? Didn’t even realize that was a ‘thang’ – :). As usual, the minute someone wants to ‘set up such a rule’ I’m of the mind to say, “Hold my beer, and watch this” – just for the pure fun of it – :). Tell others how to write?!? sigh – don’t like it? don’t read it – is the reader’s option – ‘oops! learn better, try again’ is the writer’s option – 😀