Nearly buried this week under the shuffle of election coverage and tea parties and such was the official release of a fun new book — one that literature lovers are sure to enjoy.
The book is called Writers Gone Wild. It’s a collection of brief tales of authors, novelists, poets and journalists and some of the crazy, unbelievable and just plain ol’ weird stuff they’ve done over the years. Let’s just say they’re a colorful bunch.
The book was officially released Tuesday. I read an advance copy and I’m strongly recommending it to you. In addition, you’ll find it reasonably priced — Amazon is currently selling the softcover for $10.76 and the Kindle version for $9.99.
The wild writer of Writers Gone Wild is Bill Peschel, a copy editor for the Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa., and longtime book reviewer and blogger. A 1982 graduate of the University of North Carolina, Bill spent his career at small- and medium-sized newspapers, including 11 years at the Herald of Rock Hill, S.C. — where, I might add, we worked together. Bill has been with the Patriot-News for ten years.
Despite his busy book publicity schedule and his Election Day duties, Bill took some time to answer a few questions for us…
Q. I’ve always thought of writers as an honorable professionals — that novelists, poets and journalists represent some of the best, most articulate minds of their times. But many of the tales you bring us show us writers who have engaged in plagiarism, theft, fisticuffs, sexual deviancy… all sorts of shenanigans. Was my mental picture of these folks just completely out of order, or what?
A. Why can’t degenerates be great artists too? Writers draw on their experiences, so it makes sense that the ones who live the more extreme lives have the deepest well to draw from.
That doesn’t mean that they will have great stories to tell, or will remain healthy long enough to tell them well. William Faulkner was a great artist in spite of his alcoholism — which left him so debilitated that he suffered from the DTs and had to brace his hand against the wall so he could pour his morning drink — not because of it. It’s known that Eugene O’Neill’s greatest plays came after he gave up drinking.
Researching Writers Gone Wild also cured me of the pretty notion that art can Improve Your Life. True, it can widen your horizon and make you see the world in a new way, but only if you’re already open to that notion. Art is full of great works created by unhappy bastards — Ernest Hemingway, John O’Hara, Picasso, Jean Rhys — and it didn’t improve their lives one bit.
Q. Likewise, your book contains a number of stories of unsavory journalistic practices: Newspaper articles that were hoaxes, critics who took cash for good reviews. I knew journalism didn’t always have the high ethics that most of us strive to have today. But good grief, was it really THAT bad?
A. We’ll never know, will we? We only find out about the scandals that were exposed, such as the newspaper hoaxes, the fake reviews or the “pay for play” stories such as Alexander Woollcott taking money to pump Faulkner’s Sanctuary on his radio show.
Remember that, at one time, journalism was a disreputable profession. No one with a college degree would have been caught dead in the newsroom. Now, it’s practically a requirement.
Bill is just one of the many, many copy editors who have
saved this poor graphics geek from looking really, really
stupid over the years. And this graphics geek is grateful.
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Q. You’ve obviously been collecting quotes and anecdotes for years. How long has this book been in the making?
A. I started in 1994. I wish I could say I had been slaving away on it, but I’d pick up the project, work on it a bit, then put it away. Or, I’d get into a fever and collect a bunch of newspaper articles — especially from the British papers such as the Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian — about writers and file them away. And then I’d go away and get divorced, get married, move, change jobs, write some bad novels, have some kids. Up until three years ago, it was a quarter-assed effort.
Q. Why authors? As opposed to, say, athletes or musicians or politicians?
A. I’ve always been fascinated by writers, because I’ve been a longtime reader and longtime wannabe writer. Looking into their lives was not just a search for great stories, it was a search for inspiration, for best practices, for a better understanding of how I can be a better writer. But I am collecting material on musicians, politicians and movie starts, in hopes of writing more books.
Q. One of my favorite nuggets in the book is the San Francisco Chronicle telling Rudyard Kipling: “you just don’t know how to use the English language.” I’m sure it’s difficult to choose, but what might be YOUR favorite tale?
A. Samuel Beckett joining the French Resistance during World War II.
He was living in Paris during the occupation, and when he saw his Jewish friend being taken away or harassed, decided to fight back. For a year, he helped type reports on the disposition of German troops that were sent to England.
A Catholic priest betrayed the ring, and Beckett and his companion, Suzanne Deschevaux-Dumesnil, fled Paris barely in time. They made it to the south of France and stayed there until the war was over. For his work, Beckett was awarded two medals by the French government. He rarely spoke of his Resistance work, and even his friends didn’t know about the medals.
I didn’t expect Beckett to take such a moral stand, especially when you think of all the writers who took immoral stands, such as Nobelist Knut Hamsum welcoming the Nazis to his native Norway and Ezra Pound supporting Mussolini and fascism.
Q. The cover illustration is VERY cool. How did that come about?
A. Penguin arranged that. It’s by Barry Blitt, the artist who created the New Yorker cover of the Obamas fist-bumping in the Oval Office.
Q. You’ve spent most of your professional life as a copy editor. What was it like being copy-edited yourself? Any horror stories for us?
A. None. My editor, Meg Leder, was a pro and comfortingly efficient. Considering that I wrote about how a manuscript by Piers Anthony was butchered by no less than four copy editors — he got his revenge by publishing the complete manuscript, complete with their snarky comments and his response — I was expecting something, anything. But not a problem.
Bill reviews books on his web site. Plus, he gets automatic street cred for using the typeface from the original Star Trek TV series. You gotta love that.
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Q. As a longtime book reviewer yourself, you’re now having your own book reviewed. Has that been a painful process? What have the reviews been like, so far?
A. Only a few have shown up on blog sites, but they’ve all been positive, even enthusiastic. Same with the radio and blog interviews I’ve done. It might be that with a title like Writers Gone Wild, people are anticipating a downmarket book, a National Enquirer-type book. Instead, I was shooting for People magazine: gossipy, but well-sourced and always entertaining.
Q. There are a LOT of folks out there in newspaper land who are either a) working on a book idea, or b) HOPING to write a book one day. What quick advice can you give them?
A. You have to commit yourself to getting it done. That’s where it begins, and when trouble strikes, that’s the place you have to return to, to begin again.
The second key is not to commit to the book — that’s too daunting. Instead, commit only to write for that day. Terry Pratchett has said he committed himself to writing 300 words a day, no matter what. Grandfather dies, go to the funeral, write 300 words. Get sick, skip a day, make it up the rest of the week. Do that for five years, and you’ve got eight books. And the time will pass anyway, so why not use it for something you’re passionate about?
Believe me, I dithered over this project for 16 years and frequently thought I would never finish it. Someone looking on would have kindly suggested that I might not be cut out for a writer. So, if I can have those doubts and work it through, you can, too.
Bill, at his desk at the Patriot-News, this past July.
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Q. What has been the reaction at the Patriot-News about your writing a book? Have they had any trouble with the idea?
A. Uniformly positive and enthusiastic. Also shocked. I had kept the project quiet until a few months ago. Not from fear, but it feels like I’m bragging. I worry I’ll bore people with the minutiae from my Fascinating Life of a Writer: “Well, I sat at the computer and wrote. Then I played Zuma. Then I listened to iTunes and drummed that neat solo from ELO’s ‘Do Ya’ on the back of the chair.”
See? Enthralling.
Bill’s official publicity photo.
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Q. What the hell is that thing you’re wearing in your official publicity photos? [The typographical shirt] That is so COOL…
A. That’s exactly what it sounds like, a shirt with giant letters on it. My wife sewed it from fabric she bought. She also does the children’s Halloween, quilt-like comforters for the bed, and medical scrub shirts. Those are my favorites, because I’ll go to the fabric store with her and discover all kinds of cool designs. My favorite now is a collage of Three Stooges photos and movie one-sheets. A real guy’s shirt.
Q. Are you working on your second book yet? What’s it going to be about?
A. I’m annotating the first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers, Whose Body? and will self-publish it as an e-book and trade paperback through Amazon. I’ve posted a number of guides to her novels and short stories on my website, but this will be the first time I’ll be able to combine those notes with her text. The copyright to her first two novels were not renewed, so they have fallen into the public domain.
As for the Gone Wild series, I want to do one on Hollywood, and have done some research and even written the proposal for Penguin. Whether that happens will depend on the sales for Writers Gone Wild, so if anyone wants to see a Hollywood version, run to your bookstore and buy Writers.
It’s just like voting, except you do it as many times as you want legally.
The book is called Writers Gone Wild. The stories are presented as briefs and they’re grouped into logical categories. It’s a fun, breezy read and one that will most definitely enthrall you, no matter how deep or shallow your knowledge of the great writers and authors throughout history.
This week, Bill is posting book excerpts on his blog. Besides, Bill’s blog is a great place for any book lover to spent time. Find it — and bookmark it — here.
Find more information about Writers Gone Wild, including wallpapers for your computer, an offer of bookmarks for librarians, a podcast and other goodies, click here.
Read Lynn Vehl‘s review of the book in the Paperback Writer blog.
Writers Gone Wild was released by Penguin books, a mainstream publisher. Therefore, it’s available nearly anywhere you normally buy books: Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. If you pay more than $11 for it, you’re not trying hard enough.
