Q&A
"What is the hardest thing about writing?"
"Making it interesting. And then, telling the story well."
Which writers inspire you?
I have always been a big fan of Hemingway—maybe to a fault, as I have fashioned my life around his. But I like his writing very much and I particularly like his novel The Sun Also Rises. I would put Fitzgerald right behind Hemingway. I have read The Great Gatsby many times.
Where can we buy or see them?
The first three chapters of 'The Star Gazer' are currently available for download on my website, and the full book can be purchased on Amazon.
What have you written?
To date, my writing includes my novel, The Star Gazer, and my two short stories, The Hairpin Turn and The Golden Muse. My next book will be about 9/11 and people going to work in the Twin Towers that morning. Other possible topics for other books include stories about boarding school in New England, and life in France and Africa as a foreigner.
When did you decide to become a writer?
I think it was when I picked up For Whom The Bell Tolls for the first time in boarding school.
Give us an insight into your main character—Jay Walker. What does he do that is so special?
The Star Gazer tracks Jay’s life from the time he is thirteen into his late fifties. The story of his adolescence and adulthood is unique—like most of us, he makes mistakes, but he also has his strong points. For many readers, reading about life at a private boys’ school, college time spent in France, and teaching in Africa and then back in New England are topics that they might not be familiar to them. And then, as the novel progresses and the scene in The Star Gazer switches to New York City, there are a series of events that are quite unusual for a young man to experience. The Hairpin Turn and The Golden Muse also have their one two punches. Hopefully, after reading my novel and short stories, the reader will stop and reflect back upon what was just read, and see how they have affected his or her life.
Why do you write?
First, I have stories to tell . . . stories that will affect anyone who reads them. Second, I love working with words. I try to make each sentence perfect. Most readers don’t know this, but as a writer, I can always cheat to make a sentence better by going back, time and time again, after I first write it. I am able to look at the sentence in conjunction with the words and sentences and paragraphs that I have written above it and below it, and go back and make it better before the reader reads it. It is said that Hemingway wrote 47 endings to A Farewell To Arms before he wrote the perfect one.
Where do the your ideas come from?
For the most part, my ideas come from my life and the things that surround it. I have been lucky, or maybe unlucky, to have lived in many different places, and at many different socio/economic levels. This has allowed me to see the different highs and lows in people’s lives around the world.
Tell us about the cover and how it came about.
The cover of my novel, The Star Gazer, is really why I wrote the book. I was driving out to my group beach house in the Hamptons early one Friday afternoon in the company car with the top down. Just before I swung on to Sunrise Highway on the south shore of Long Island, I saw the huge orange head of a reindeer coming out of the ground. The 50-foot-tall sculpture is called Stargazer by the late sculptress, Linda Scott, and is part of her Stargazer project. As soon as I saw the sculpture, I knew I had to write my novel.