Like to write poems? Want to win books?

Like to write poems? Want to win books? My friend Sage is doing her Amazon Spike Day on March 17 for her new book, “Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry” (Writer’s Digest Books). You can also win a a consultation with Sage. All this is on top of the fact that you’re getting a FABULOUS book! Here’s all the info:         http://tinyurl.com/aezbo5

10 QUESTIONS FOR…humor novelist Sybil Baker

Author interview with Sybil Baker, humor novelist

I lived in South Korea for twelve years before returning to the States in July 2007. I’ve traveled a lot and can’t wait to do more. I teach creative writing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Tell us about your latest book.

In THE LIFE PLAN, Kat’s preplanned world is derailed when her husband decides he must go to Thailand to learn massage, and she decides she must go with him to save her marriage.

2. How did you get started as a writer?

I started writing stories in the first grade and have been writing ever since.

3. What does a typical day look like for you? I don’t have typical days but almost all involve coffee, email, and writing.

4. Describe your desk/workspace. I was writing from an antique bed in our office, but my back started hurting, so now I write from our kitchen table.

5. Favorite books (especially for writers)

Craft books: Burning Down the House by Charles Baxter, Reading Like A Writer by Francine Prose, Alone With All That Could Happen: Rethinking Conventional Wisdom About the Craft of Fiction Writing by David Jauss Fiction: In addition to the usual suspects—Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Faulkner, Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, etc., two writers who are not well-known in North America who I love are Janet Frame, a New Zealand writer, and Thomas Bernhard, an Austrian writer.

6. Tell us 3 interesting/crazy things about you

I stayed in a yurt in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia

I rode a raft made of tires down a river in Sumatra (Indonesia)

I paid a guy $100 US to carry an AK47 and take us to see an ancient temple in Ankor Wat Cambodia because tourists had been killed on the route and we technically weren’t supposed to go.

7. Favorite quote “If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?” Rabbil Hillel

8. Best and worst part of being a writer

Best: entering another world

Worst: getting sucked into that other world at the expense of your own

9. Advice for other writers

The usual drill: read, write, persevere, dream but be realistic

10. Tell us a story about your writing experience.

In 2005 I won $3000 in an essay contest sponsored by Seoul’s city government. I used part of the money to pay for LASIK surgery, which is one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Where can people buy your book?

You can see my book trailer on youtube and on my website www.sybilbaker.com I have a blog on writing, traveling, reading, and teaching at: http://sybilbaker.blogspot.com/ You can by my book in March 2009 at Amazon and at www.casperianbooks.com