Comments on: Writers what know writers

By: shamelessreading

shamelessreading — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:21:02 +0000

I’m not surprised that writers know other writers, but I suspect some of the surprise in question comes from writing being a solitary (and somewhat mysterious to non-writers, possibly) occupation that requires no formal training. Doctors work with other doctors and go to medical school together. Lawyers have to lawyer against each other, retail drones have to work at the mall together. While there’s no reason one writer might not be friends with another, there’s nothing throwing writers together like there tends to be with other professions (either school or the work itself.)

By: Alyxandra

Alyxandra — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:39:03 +0000

i envy your proximity and caffeinated hanging out! i’m a YA author too but i live on a farm currently under several feet of snow…not a lot of writers around here!

By: Diana Peterfreund

Diana Peterfreund — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:01:20 +0000

Even though I know how much it would upset the author, Libba Bray.

By: Diana Peterfreund

Diana Peterfreund — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:00:45 +0000

Curses! I was hoping to check into Suite Scarlett and trash that.

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:13:23 +0000

Diana: Once your YA is published you’re going to have to stop those kind of shenanigans! We YA writers are pure and non-hotel-room trashing kinds of people. We are not debauched like you adult writer types.

By: Diana Peterfreund

Diana Peterfreund — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:43:53 +0000

We are like rock stars in that many days, we sit around in our pajamas.

Also, the hotel room trashing thing. One of my favorites.

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:20:35 +0000

Kadie-Wa: Who knows what goes on in Maureen’s brain? All I can do is humour her.

Gabrielle: Okay, I see what you mean. (And, yes, most YA writers are so pure they can’t even spell sxo, drags and rocc ‘n’ rile.) Though I think we are more like Off-Broadway theatre people with a small but loyal following.

I wish I had a good dentist! I’m jealous of your Dr. Trinh!

By: Gabrielle

Gabrielle — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:20:53 +0000

Heheh. Maureen, Justine, you amaze me.

Justine: I didn’t mean rock star as in the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll living (because YA writers are all pure). I meant that you have fans. You have fans who buy your books (CDs), and you have fans who go to your signings (shows), buy every edition of your books (albums) and spend way too much money on your book T-shirts (same thing) (you should make those, by the way). Whereas no, I don’t buy T-shirts saying “Dr. Trinh, best dentist ever!” Although I could argue that she is the best dentist ever.

By: Kadie-Wa

Kadie-Wa — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:11:02 +0000

That conversation with Maureen and Justine was very hard to follow…

By: Herenya

Herenya — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:49:35 +0000

I think it’s because we know who these other writers are. If I started talking about who my friends are, people would look at me blankly because none of my friends have done anything to warrant that sort of recognition (yet!) But you talk about your friends, and I think “oh, yes, I know who they are, I was reading one of their books yesterday.” It’s a bit like the same sense of surprise you get when you find you and a friend / acquaintance “know” someone in common, but with the awe factor involved, because we only know them through their writing and not personally.

And I agree with Camille about the distance thing – since it is possible for writing to be such a solitary and isolated thing, it doesn’t seem like such a “granted” situation that writers know other writers like some other professions.

By: Dave H.

Dave H. — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:17:38 +0000

I get this a lot – people are always shocked that I know athletes or people in the media. I’m a sportswriter, so isn’t it kind of obvious that I would know them?

“Do you REALLY know Mitch Albom?”

“Yes, I sat next to him at every Lions home game for 10 years.”

“But did you ever meet him?”

By: maureen johnson

maureen johnson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:28:15 +0000

I thought YOU wrote Harry Potter! That’s why I keep coming to your house. I think it’s Hogwarts.

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:27:12 +0000

Harry Potter, wasn’t it?

By: maureen johnson

maureen johnson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:26:14 +0000

Scott Westerfeld who wrote Wicked Lovely also wrote Twilight? Wait . . . what did *I* write?

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:24:01 +0000

No, silly, Scott Westerfeld wrote Twilight!

By: maureen johnson

maureen johnson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:17:53 +0000

Cassie Clare who wrote Twilight?

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:14:35 +0000

I did NOT kill Zane! That was Cassandra Clare!!

By: maureen johnson

maureen johnson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:02:38 +0000

You killed Zane!

By: maureen johnson

maureen johnson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:01:08 +0000

WAIT! I DO know you! You wrote A Great and Terrible Beauty!

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:43:06 +0000

Maureen: Don’t you remember me? We met in Atlantic City? I was telling you how much I love your books? I’m Australian. Long hair? Really? You don’t remember me? Sorry! Never mind. Go back to your life. And I’ll return to talking to my other imaginary YA writer friends . . .

By: maureen johnson

maureen johnson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:09:45 +0000

who are you?

By: Justine

Justine — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:03:29 +0000

Gabrielle: We are like the very opposite of rockstars. Truly!

Deb: Do you know how Mr T is doing?

Has he written a book? If he had I could answer your question.

By: Camille

Camille — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:02:48 +0000

I think, too, it’s because you can write from anywhere. With lawyers and professors and the like, generally you have to congregate in a place to get anything done. (Less now, with the Internet, but still, predominantly people go TO work.) You HAVE to physically associate with your colleagues. Writers can live anywhere and yeah, somebody above said we think of writing as being a solitary exercise. (I tend to think of writing as being a solitary exercise. In a cabin. In the woods. The woods of IRELAND. Which is funny because I’ve never written under any of those conditions, really. Well there’s solitude, but where I live, solitude is relative — even when I lived alone in an apartment my next door neighbor was mere feet away…and audible… *sigh*)

Plus, the Internet tends to trick people into thinking they know each other better than the really do. You can actually chat with authors you read and are awed by, even if they’re in different countries and time zones — people who get to meet the “greats” face to face are, like, a step up.

I hope that made even a LITTLE sense, I’m half-asleep!

By: deborahb

deborahb — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:00:51 +0000

Which is odd, because I remember seeing someone (David Duchovny, perhaps) on Letterman once, complaining that ‘when you’re famous, people think you know all the famous people — like we all live in the same house’.

He said people kept asking him if he knew how Mr T was doing. For some reason.

… Do you know how Mr T is doing?

By: Gabrielle

Gabrielle — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:54:58 +0000

I guess writers are sort of rock stars, while dentists, are not. Heh. But we fans are closer to writers than we are to rock stars, what with blogs and emails and whatnot. I don’t know. I’m just musing.