Deborah Blum

How did you become a writer?

Oh, I was always one of those kids who was writing short stories (mostly mysteries based on my early Nancy Drew addiction). And then in high school, I wrote reams of poetry, which I still won't let anyone see. But it wasn't until I was a sophomore in college that I got serious about writing as a career and decided to major in journalism. I think I finally realized that while my other interests had ebbed and flowed, this was just a constant. I got my first paid internship when I was 19 so I've been a working writer for almost 40 years.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Aside from Nancy Drew? Most of my first writer influences were novelists: I've been a Jane Austen fan for years -- she's just such an elegant -- and funny -- writer. When I was in high school I went through a Russian novelist stage, in college an existentialist stage. I loved the pure emotional power of those works. After I'd been working as a writer for a while, I started reading more for craft - how did this writer achieve such a strong voice, a seductive rhythm, a sense of place? So I was enormously influenced by the very stylish journalists of the mid-20th century: Joan Didion and Hunter Thompson, Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese. And then when I became a science writer, it was really the gorgeous natural history writers -- John McPhee, Lewis Thomas -- who made me see that you could combine all of the above -- poetry and emotion, style and power into science writing if -- and this remains my big if -- IF you are good enough.

I should mention my middle school English teacher, Lois Player, who was the first person to tell me that I had writing talent -- and who actually came to a Poisoner's Handbook reading a couple years ago! My high school chemistry teacher, Joseph Clark, who could persuade anyone that this was the world's most fascinating science. And my grad school advisor, Clay Schoenfeld, who taught me to love history of science so influenced in fundamental ways the stories I like to tell. I've been lucky in all of them -- as we are with good teachers.

When and where do you write?

Mostly in my home office. When I've been there too long, when it starts to just close in, I pick up my laptop and go to a coffee shop or even a bar. I wrote some of the best parts of Poisoner's Handbook in a nearby bar called Otto's, and they gave me champagne when the book came out!

What are you working on now?

A book about the history of poisonous food -- more evidence of my current fascination with toxic substances and tales from our past.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Often. Hence my visits to Otto's Bar! Sometimes I just take a break -- walk off my frustration. At my first newspaper job, I used to just walk the perimeter of the building. My editor said he always knew I was really stuck when I saw my head go past his window more than once.

What’s your advice to new writers?

To take advantage of the opportunities available in the digital era to start building a writer's profile early. Write a blog. Write often, read often, read your work out loud so that you can hear the rhythm. And be nice -- it's an underrated quality. Don't let your ego get in the way of being better at what you do.

Deborah Blum, a Pulitzer prize-winning science journalist, author and blogger, is the Helen Firstbrook Franklin Professor of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Author of five books and a popular guide to science writing, her most recent publication, The Poisoner’s Handbook, was a 2011 New York Times paperback best seller; the hardback was named by Amazon as one of the Top 100 books of 2010. Previous books include Ghost Hunters: William James and the Scientific Search for Life after Death (2006); Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection, a 2002 finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Sex on the Brain (1997), and The Monkey Wars (1994). She is also co-editor of a Field Guide for Science Writers, published in a second edition in 2006.

Blum writes a monthly environmental chemistry column for The New York Times called Poison Pen. She also blogs about toxic compounds at Wired; her blog Elemental was named one of the top 25 blogs of 2013 by Time magazine. She has written for a wide range of other publications including Scientific American, Slate, Tin House, The Atavist, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times and Discover. Before joining the university in 1997, she was a science writer for The Sacramento Bee, where she won the Pulitzer in 1992 for her reporting on ethical issues in primate research. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Science Writing, Best American Nature Writing, and The Open Laboratory: Best Science OnLine.

She has been a speaker at events ranging from the World Science Festival in New York to Bergamoscienza in Italy, book festivals and book clubs, scientific and professional conferences and, of course, high school classes. She has appeared as a guest on The Today show, Good Morning America, and NPR’s This American Life, Morning Edition, and Talk of the Nation/Science Friday, among others.

For her work in science communication, Blum has been named a lifetime associate of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is a past-president of the National Association of Science Writers (USA) and serves as vice president of the board of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing. The former North American board member of the World Federation of Science Journalists, she was program chair for the Seventh World Conference of Science Journalists, which was held in Doha, Qatar in June 2011, and served on the program committee for WCSJ-2013 held in Helsinki, Finland in June 2013.

Blum is currently at work on a book for Penguin Press on the history of poisonous food.

Harry Shannon

How did you become a writer?

Truthfully, I don't remember when I wasn't writing or dreaming about doing it. Poems, songs, stories, novels, thoughts in a diary. I used to make up my own comic books as a kid. Good writing by others has always filled me with a crushing envy and a desire to try my hand at it. Writing is an itch I cannot quite scratch, a skill that remains elusive and un-mastered, a goal never completely attained. Now I realize that the relentless pursuit of becoming a decent author is actually the whole damn point. It's about the process of becoming, not the finish line.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

My first English teacher Dennis Kelly urged me to take it seriously. I was 12 years old. Another teacher named John Ax. Novelists and short fiction writers too numerous to mention, but among the most well known Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, John D. MacDonald, James Lee Burke, Stephen King, Cormac McCarthy, Ambrose Bierce, John Collier, Poe, Shakespeare and a host of others. I'll remember more when I've hit Send.

When and where do you write?

In a man cave off my garage, whenever I can steal the time. Often very early in the morning before dawn, or on Monday's when I have time away from my counseling office. I work best with ear plugs in a few hours at a time, though I can rewrite in shorter bursts.

What are you working on now?

The Hungry 4, The Hungry 5, a novella for the Limbus series. Also four different collaborative novels with Joe McKinney, the legendary Ed Gorman, The Hungry partner Steven W. Booth and an old friend, journalist Joe Donnelly.

 Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Sure, but I think of it as creative exhaustion or even a kind of temporary depression. I learned years ago as a songwriter to get out of that by walking away for a bit. Also just changing directions--listening to new music, trying another unrelated creative activity, taking a break to read something new, re-reading an old favorite. Sometimes the batteries need charging. The impulse always returns eventually.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Write a lot. Read even more. Read widely, biographies and books out of your favorite genre. Value constructive criticism, even when it stings, and especially when it comes from an editor or a well intentioned colleague. It takes a lot of focus and effort to suggest specific changes in a work, the same kind of effort it takes to write. That dedication deserves to be taken seriously. We learn to write by writing, and no one is ever through learning. You may as well be dead.

Ania Szado

How did you become a writer?

I took my first creative writing class in art college, but it wasn't until a few years later that I put aside painting and drawing in favor of writing. I think that my brother's sudden death, when we were in our 20s, jolted me into pursuing my lifelong dream. When I began to work at it, I found that I was more willing to take risks as a writer than as a visual artist; the results felt truer to myself and my vision—or my voice. I started out writing flash fiction. Then the stories grew longer and longer, until I found myself with a novel in progress.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

My visual art background definitely influences my writing; I think it helps me see things more sensitively than I would if I hadn't devoted years to looking closely at subjects and making art. Other than that, my influences are always changing. Studying under Nino Ricci, Anne Michaels and Catherine Bush strengthened my commitment and helped me hone my writing process. Books like Gunter Grass's Dog Years and Annie Proulx's Accordion Crimes made me think about the pervasive pull of structure—I'm very intrigued by repetition in stories. I find that I gain some insight into craft from most novels I read, though with the best ones, it can be difficult to separate sheer awe from actual lessons to be learned. East of Eden is a favorite, so I devoured Steinbeck's Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters. Reading about other writers' experiences and struggles helps me persevere.

When and where do you write?

I have several regular writing spots. At home, I often write in bed. Much of my daytime writing happens at the Toronto Writers' Centre, where I have a desk. It's a membership-based facility with a large silent room for writing and a separate lounge where great discussions take place. I also do regular immersive writing retreats, lasting a week to a month, at a small house I own outside of Toronto, or at my cottage. When I'm on retreat, I work on average about 17 hours daily; I think of nothing else and do nothing else—except drink coffee, water, and wine, and eat the same simple things every day.

What are you working on now?

I'm researching an artist as a possible subject for a historical novel. But I've been on tour for Studio Saint-Ex, so the writing is getting short shrift these days.

Have you ever suffered from writer's block?

I have. At one point, I decided I had to give up writing, figuring that it would be less painful to call it quits than to try to write, to need to write, but to not write. I was wrong, of course. I've since found two ways to break a block. One is to take regular writing retreats, and—this is critical—to begin each retreat exactly as you wish to continue. The door should hardly be shut before you've got your computer on or notebook open and you start spitting out words. As for figuring out what those words should be, and the related blockages that come on a smaller scale, I believe the trick there is to dig deeper into one's characters. Get to know them deeply, as though they are full human beings, not just figures to carry forward a plot.

What's your advice to new writers?

Of course you should read widely. And of course you have to write—a lot. Write through and past the awkward stages in which your words clunk and your characters embarrass you. Write past any fleeting illusions that you might be a minor genius (ha!). Write into the muck of not knowing what you're doing, and write out the other side. Now and then, step back from your story and consciously identify the not-quite-resolved things that have been gnawing at you. Pick up your notebook. Write down questions and ramble on in the answers, exploring all the possibilities until something strikes you as so right that it propels you back to work on the story. Ask anything and everything. Why do I want character A to have this profession; what opportunities and challenges would this present? Why is character B such a wimp; do I need her to be stronger or is her mild manner serving a purpose? How can I get C and D together in a way that feels right and natural? Hurry back to the story as soon as something you've noted in your Q and A makes you eager to get going again. This is a good way to achieve breakthroughs that might take forever to reach if you were simply writing forward in the story. Injecting some objectivity by stepping away from the manuscript, now and then, can help keep alive the flow of immersive, intuitive writing that is so satisfying and occasionally magical.

Bio: Ania Szado is the author of Studio Saint-Ex, a historical novel about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry writing The Little Prince in WWII Manhattan, and the ambitions and passions of two creative women who love him. She lives in Canada, where Studio Saint-Ex debuted as a national bestseller. It has sold to five countries to date.