Get Lit! is a opportunity for the community to enjoy authors from a wide range of genres, backgrounds, and cultures; and though these authors may share themselves with the audience through their literature, the audience may only capture a glimpse of the great 'inner anecdote' of these writers. So in the interest of understanding and sharing, several of the authors have submitted a questionnaire and these were the telling and rather humorous results:
Buddy Levy
Q: What would you like to be your epitaph?
A: Here Lies Buddy Levy—tell him to get up!
Q: Who are your favorite heroes/heroines of fiction and why?
A: Oh, perhaps the Old Man in Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea, because of his dogged single-mindedness and perseverance. Writers can learn a lot from his attitude and approach to life.
Charles Baxter
Q: If you could choose what or who to come back as, what would it be?
A: A hedgehog.
Q: Finish the sentence, “If I ruled the world ...“
A: I’d resign immediately.
Q: Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
A: “He looked off into the distance.”
Glenda Burgess
Q: What turns you on creatively, spiritually, emotionally?
A: Insomnia. I learned quite some time ago to keep a pad and pen on the nightstand. Lying awake in the dark, a complete prisoner of circular thoughts, has led to some fascinating break-out attempts by my inner creative.
Q: What would you like to be your epitaph?
A: I am wrestling with two. Having just finished a long manuscript editing cycle, the simple and declarative "STET!" appeals. Then again, so does...."WAIT! Hold the elevator!"
Ken Letko
Q: Can you describe yourself in three words?
A: I love wood.
Q: Do you have a good scar story?
A: I don’t really have a scar story, but when I was about eight years old, my best friend shot out one of my front teeth during a BB gun fight. There was no anger, hatred, or malice in the incident. We were just having a BB gun fight, and I should’ve ducked.
Oliver de la Paz
Q: What is your greatest extravagance?
A: Definitely my music collection. According to iTunes, I have 170 days-worth of music.
Q: Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
A: “Bird.” I have too many birds in my poems.
Laurie Notaro
Q: What is your motto?
A: "I can get it cheaper."
Q: Do you have a good scar story?
A: The scar on my pinky is from a fight I got into with my younger sister when I discovered she had eaten my piece of leftover pizza for lunch. We were in grade school, but her hands had the pinch of a lobster. Brutal. She's still mean to this day.
Martha Silano
Q: What turns you on creatively, spiritually, emotionally?
A:
a. kitschy old books like Chain Saw Savvy and How to Be fit and Healthy at 29
b. when one of my kids asks me a philosophical question ("Does the world end?"); my kids in general
c. the hodge podge of a second hand store
d. various theories/beliefs about the origin of the universe
e. most any nonfiction
f. poorly-translated-into-English restaurant menus
g. the button on my stove that reads, "Stop Time"
h. potentially anything except a beautiful sunset
Q: What natural gift would you like to possess?
A: I don't know if this is natural or not, but I would like to be able to run 8-minute miles without too much pain. It would also be nice to have a knack for learning languages, playing the guitar, and knowing how to sing.
Sherry Jones
Q: What would you like to be your epitaph?
A: "So many books, so little time."
Q: What is your favorite word, and why?
A: "Islamopanderer" is my favorite. Some conservative bloggers intended it as an insult against me for writing The Jewel of Medina, and I love it.
Q: Who are your favorite heroes/heroines in real life (dead or alive) and why?
A: Salman Rushdie, for living, and writing, courageously. Benazir Bhutto, for daring to dream a better world. Hillary Clinton. Oprah Winfrey. Gloria Steinem. A'isha, the protagonist of my first two novels, for defying the constraints of her culture to reach her highest potential.
Jane Smiley
Q: What would be your perfect day?
A: I have one at least three or four times a week. Writing, riding, reading, cooking, eating.
Q: What is your favorite word, and why?
A: My favorite word is "crisp." Don't know why. Because it's delicious, maybe.
Q: Choose three people, dead or alive, to invite to dinner. What would you talk about?
A: Harriet Beacher Stowe, Barack Obama, Oscar Wilde, Emile Zola--I have NO idea what we would talk about. That's why it would be interesting.
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