IFOA Notes 8
Now Playing: Rahsaan Patterson
Topic: Writing Outings
More notes and quotes from the International Festival of Authors

Edmund White
- wrote to keep my head above the water - a life saving activity
- no distinction between work and play
- never wanting to give away my freedom as a writer
- began writing to make money.
- staging questions or issues to work your way around it until you figure it out or come up with your opinion on it.
- learned not to be word proud
- when you write for a living you can't afford to have writer's block
- real interest in the world, how things get done.
- writing is a total liberty to create
- archeology of sentiments

Nancy Huston
- people who perform the unthinkable in society
- the story of my life that I would rather have happened - the tragedies
- when paranoia becomes reality

These entries are from other sources like the newspaper or the Writing Life on Bravo.
Philip Marchand
from a review in the Toronto Star, I believe...
Hardy was an author who seemed to love unhappy endings for their own sake. In his novels, he made sure that hings turned out badly for his protagonists. the reason for this, apart from his personal temperament, was his belief that the world was inherently opposed to human beings. we humans, alone among creatures, possessed consciousness and therefore the faculty of hope, which was certain to be thwarted by a blind, indifferent universe.

Jackie Collins
main ingredient - feisty heroine
two men to choose - one good, one bad
exciting story - something that drives the story (stalker, kidnapper etc)
character changes throughout the novel
great sex!

- Live your life and if the great man comes along good. You can do whatever you want to before marriage but once you get married that's it - be faithful.

George P. Pelecanos
my method is simple: to present the world as it is, rather than the way readers want it to be.

Erica Jong
- the act of writing always made me feel centred and whole. It is my meditation, my medicine, my prayer, my solace. If you are relentlessly honest about what you feel and fear, you can become a mouthpiece for something more than your own feelings.

Writers in the News
I don't have the date of this!
The Wall Street Journal reported in February that Brazilian Ryoki Inoue had just written his 1,039th novel since he took up the craft 10 years ago. For the benefit of the reported, Inoue started the book around 10p.m., and by 5:30am had put the finishing touches on a 195 page story of drug traffickers and corrupt cops.