Alma Katsu

How did you become a writer?

Like many writers, I started when I was young. Pre-teen, in my case. I wrote to amuse myself and my friends. Since writing was what I enjoyed the most, it made sense to try to make a living at it. I was a newspaper stringer for a while but just as I was entering the workforce as an adult, I decided to try something completely different and took a job in intelligence, with the National Security Agency (and later CIA). I thought I’d stay for a couple years for the experience of doing something so different and ended up with a 30+ year career.

I stopped writing shortly after I joined NSA because at the time the Intelligence Community didn’t like you doing anything that got your name out there.

I got back into writing fiction later in life, sold my first novel at 50 and now, in my early 60s, have published seven novels, and have a property in pre-production for a TV series. It’s been a wild and unexpected ride.

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

I was lucky early in life to study as an undergrad with John Irving. I loved literary fiction but also liked genre, particularly speculative fiction (Poe, Shirley Jackson). I think that’s resulted in my writing being a mix of the two.

I also studied fiction at Johns Hopkins. It’s a great master’s program but I wouldn’t say you need a master’s degree to write.

When and where do you write?

Now that I’m retired from my career, I have the luxury of writing full-time from home. We recently built a guesthouse for visitors, and I use it as an office. I try to be disciplined and keep to a schedule, but you need to learn to be flexible in order to stay productive. Generally I work seven days a week.

What are you working on now?

I’m about to hand in the second book in my spy novel series, RED LONDON (GP Putnam’s Sons), which will be published in 2023. This is the property that is being turned into a TV show. My next historical horror, THE FERVOR (also Putnam) is six weeks from publication as I write this, so my time is split between working on promotion for the new book, polishing up a couple small projects, and thinking up the idea for the next historical horror.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Luckily, I can’t say that I have. I have a strong fear of not getting another contract and that serves as great inspiration.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Treat it like a job because that’s what publishing is. Writing is great, but it takes discipline to turn a love of writing into a business.

What’s your advice to new writers?

The standard: write, write, write and read, read, read. Read books that will inspire you to be a better writer. Write through the hard parts until you get them right.

Alma Katsu is the award-winning author of seven novels. Her latest is The Fervor (GP Putnam’s Sons), a reimagining of the waning days of WWII with a horror twist. It’s been called “a stunning triumph” (Booklist, starred) and “a must-read for all” (Library Journal, starred). Red Widow, her first spy novel, was a NYT Editors Choice and is in pre-production for a TV series with FOX. 

Sara A. Mueller

How did you become a writer?

My family moved a lot, and I wasn't a robustly healthy kid - for about three years I spent more time sick on the couch in our living room than I did in school. I had all my work from school, of course, but one of my mom's rules was no tv if you were home sick. Even with older siblings willing to forage in libraries for me, there were only so many books my family had time to lug around; and I'm old enough that there were no ebooks. I didn't feel good enough for active play, but I could write down my make-believe. When we moved, when friends were scarce, I always had books and writing. By high school I was carrying a notebook or clipboard everywhere. I didn't start writing toward publication until I was in my 20s, but I've been working toward that ever since.

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

The list is looooong! It amounts to almost fifty years of reading across pretty much every genre, plus a degree in English lit; so far too many to list here. Reading across a broad range of styles helped me hone in on the things I wanted to write. 

When and where do you write? 

If I'm at home, I draft at my desk on a good ergonomic keyboard. If I'm out and about, there are equal chances I'll write longhand - I love fountain pens - or work on my tablet with a flat keyboard. I wrote The Bone Orchard largely at night, though now my best hours tend to be very early in the morning when no one is up and around.

What are you working on now?

A dark fantasy with a setting drawn from the Early Modern period instead of the 19th century Modern Era. I love it madly, and I can't talk about it quite yet!

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Sort of. Sometimes I can see a plot isn't working, and I have to stop beating my head on the wall for a bit to get a better perspective. And sometimes the well is just dry. Sometimes life takes so much out of you that you don't even have the energy for escapism, and that's okay. Read some books, watch some shows, take some walks. Let the well refill.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Success in writing comes from a variable ratio of skill, persistence, and luck. You can only affect the first and the second terms. Honing your craft, and keeping at it makes the best of your odds.

What’s your advice to new writers?

I know this is where one is supposed to say “Keep going, you'll get there,” and that's true, but my honestly best advice is please, while you're getting there, be nice to your hands and wrists. You're going to need them.

A seamstress and horsewoman, Sara A. Mueller writes speculative fiction. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family, numerous recipe books, and a forest of fountain pens. In the course of a nomadic youth, she trod the earth of every state but Alaska and lived in six of them. She’s an amateur historical costumer, gamer and cook. The Bone Orchard is her debut novel from Tor, coming March 22, 2022.

Adrian Nathan West

How did you become a writer?

The writing part began early, when I was a kid. But if you consider a writer someone who is publicly recognized for writing, that really began, apart from a short story published in 2006, with critical essays about translated fiction I started writing in around 2013: initially, these were for online journals, then the Times Literary Supplement and eventually any number of other magazines. My first book was published in 2016 thanks to the odd coincidence of a very unusual publisher being founded just as I had written a very unusual book.

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

My Latin teacher when I was in eighth grade told me if I wanted to be a writer, I needed to get a journal and write every day. I don’t stick to that anymore because I’m too busy, but it was good advice. I’m not naive enough to think that I can claim the writers I like or admire as influences, but I love Samuel Johnson, Celine, Malaparte, Natalia Ginzburg, the philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch, Ilse Aichinger. Sam Sacks classed my novel with the Dirty Realists in his recent review; I like those writers, but I think what similarities there are exist because I come from the same place as some of those writers. My sentences I think are quite different from theirs.

When and where do you write? 

I just write when and where I can. My translating schedule is pretty brutal––I translate around four books a year, but I do just as much or more work for Spanish publishers and the occasional commercial or film client, anything from book chapters to subtitles to catalogue copy––and in addition to this, I do a fair bit of reviewing. My idea is to change that this year: For the first time in ages, I have the prospect of an extended period of leisure before me, and I would like to go back to maintaining my journal more regularly and writing the next book in a more disciplined fashion.

What are you working on now?

I’ve just finished two fairly long essays, one on the Spanish writer Rafael Chirbes and one on Catalan separatism viewed through the work of a wonderful untranslated writer, Jordi Ibáñez Fanés. I now have a little bit of annoying work to get through and I will be turning to my next novel, which will be about a lot of things but will center on dementia.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

Not really. I don’t think there’s a great need for more writing in the world, so if people can’t write or feel reluctant to, they shouldn’t do it. You have to distinguish between having something to say and wanting to have something to say. It’s true that when I write criticism, especially if it’s a longer piece, there is a lot of anxiety at the beginning, but this can be cured by reading more. But if I had an idea for a story about a conflict between a young dissolute heir and his rich religious aunt and I couldn’t get it off the ground, I’d just quit. There are already more good novels than a person can read anyway, and there’s much more to life than writing.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Other than the above-cited counsel from my Latin teacher, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten good writing advice in the general sense. A recommendation to fill out this part of the text or change this adjective, sure. But knowing why you want to write and how and if you can and if you should, all that is very private and it’s unlikely someone can really guide you there.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Just question everything you do. Question why you want to be a writer: if you think it’s because you’re smarter or your experience is richer or you have something to say that’s never been said, you need to figure out whether or not you’re right about that, because if you’re not, you’re just going to spew a bunch of cliches and cultivate an unjustified self-regard that will then turn you bitter when readers ignore you. You need to know what you think of the opinion of the public: there are lots of people who scorn the public as ignorant while ranting and raving that the public doesn’t give them the praise they believe they deserve. You can’t have it both ways, though. You should ask yourself whether writing really matters to you: writing, I mean, not publishing, because your own writing is the only thing you can actually control––everything else is in someone else’s hands. If you write because the act of doing so is pleasurable or enlightening or relaxing, it will make you happier, but if you do it because you think it will get others to love, respect, or admire you, you’ll probably be disappointed. Writing is not something to stake your self-esteem on.

Adrian Nathan West is a literary translator and author of My Father’s Diet and The Aesthetics of Degradation. He has translated more than thirty books, including Hermann Burger’s Brenner and the International Booker and National Book Award-shortlisted When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut.