Authors Electric

  In Part 1, we survived the history of feuds and rivalries among writers, the literary minefield of conflicting egos and ambitions. Is it possible, we wondered, for even the strongest alliance to avoid ending in flames. Young Leverett Butts approached Richard Monaco, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, as a fan of the older author's Parsival series and entered into a creative relationship and partnership that lasted for over a decade. Today LB answers questions about the power of becoming both student and teacher. And the importance of choosing the right mentor. 1 .  First Models: All writers start with a model in mind—someone whose work deeply resonates with them. Many even attempt to emulate that writer before finding their own vision and voice. Who was your first model? When I first seriously started writing, I was greatly inspired by John Irving and Robert Penn Warren. A lot of my earlier attempts at "literary" fiction draw deeply from those two writers. As I began to write mo...

It's taken a while to get here, but here we are: the last stage of my countdown of the top ten books and and series that have stayed with me thoughout my life. For those of you just joining me, this whole thing started a few months ago when a former student tagged me in one of those Facebook status games asking you to rank the top ten somethings that are important to someone somewhere. Admittedly "stayed with you" is open to interpretation. I mean there are some truly horrible pieces of writing that, try as I might, I cannot erase from my memory: The Bridges of Madison County , Twilight ,  Moby Dick . It could also refer to books I just can't get rid of no matter how many times I try to give them away: the Gideon bible, I'm Okay, You're Okay , Moby Dick . In the interest of being interesting, I chose to interpret the phrase as books that have had a significant influence on my life. It has taken me a while, far longer than I expected when I began, but this...

The photo shows yours truly adding a pen to a fine collection in Highgate Cemetery. I didn't want my partner to take this photo, but he took it anyway and I'm quite pleased that he did. It was my first visit to Highgate and the tub of colourful pens caught my attention as I passed what was otherwise a rather unassuming headstone. Stopping to look, I saw it was the grave of one of my greatest heroes and favourite writers, Douglas Adams. As for the connection to this blog... well, The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy - not Douglas Adams's book but the original (and fictional) work upon which is it based - is arguably the Milky Way's first electronic book, though of course there may be others as yet unknown to our civilisation. It was certainly the first one to reach Earth. This revolutionary piece of technology predated the web and most of the internet, foreshadowing it while Tim Berners-Lee was probably still wrestling with BBC Basic. The entry in it for Earth de...