~~~Lara Zielin~~~

STATUS: Showed up to work and Bill Clinton’s book, GIVING, was on my chair. I’m freaking ecstatic!

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND:  Seth Green’s take on Britney’s biggest fan.

I had the great privilege of interviewing Laura Kasischke last Friday, and it was so fabulous to talk with a writer of her caliber who is completely and total real about … being a writer of her caliber. Without scooping my own article on the subject, I’d just like to point out that when Laura is on a plane and someone asks her what she does, she tells them she’s a professor. And if they ask of what, she says writing. And only then, if they ask her if she writes, she says yes, she does. Even Laura, who has won awards and whose books have been made into movies, says that being a writer “doesn’t feel like what I am.” Because there’s still something that eludes her – something that she hasn’t yet obtained even with all her success.

And that thing? Well, my thinking is that it looks like what a lot of us writers face. We think, oh, if I could just get ONE book published, I’d be SO happy. Then we get that one book published and we’re onto the second work, saying, OH, if I can just make this SECOND book sing, I know I’ll be satisfied. And although it nearly tears us up, we make the second book sing and then we’re onto the third book thinking … we’ll, you get the point. Where’s the end? How do we rest? When are we satisfied?

Sorry to say, I don’t have the answer. I’m on book two (see above) and I daresay, I don’t know ANY writers who have the answer. Not even Laura.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 1:43 pm and is filed under other writers, writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.