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Douglas Carlton Abrams
Aug. 20th, 2009 12:55 amI have two special guest posts for you. They're not authors I know, but they're celebrating books and are exploring blogland, both at the same time. My first guest is Douglas Carlton Abrams, and his new book is Eye of the Whale. I'm especially interested in how he does that balancing act between fiction and non-fiction.
I’ve been writing fiction since I was eleven years old. I grew up in a publishing family, so perhaps I was destined to write. I’ve also had the opportunity to work in publishing, so I experienced the Editor’s Life as well as the Writer’s Life. But the truth was that writing did not come easily. I grew up with dyslexia and had a very difficult time reading. I had an English teacher who told me that I could never be a writer, but I also had some marvellous mentors, like Frank McCourt, who believed in me. I still break out in a cold sweat when I go into a bookstore, and I remain a terribly slow reader. But I love books, words, and ideas—I love the worlds that they open up.
I am passionate about helping make the world a wiser, healthier, and more just place to live. I first followed that passion as an editor, agent, and co-author of non-fiction books. In my work as a literary agent, I have had the privilege of working with a number of scientists and moral leaders, including Desmond Tutu, on non-fiction books that address these issues, and many of their insights have informed my fiction.
In my own writing, I attempt to create fact-based novels that inform and entertain. I’d like to successfully straddle the divide in modern literature between plot-driven commercial fiction and character-rich literary fiction. Can’t we have heart-racing, entertaining stories with living, breathing, three-dimensional characters?
I am particularly interested in the power of fiction to address the inevitable questions of being human. Although quite different, all of my novels attempt to tell dramatic stories that also convey some of the ancient insights about how we can live on this planet with greater joy and wisdom.
I start by asking a question I need to know about life, and then create a fictional world filled with real characters to discover the answer. Eye of the Whale began with a question that is both deeply personal and universal, a question so many of us are asking today: can we survive as a species, and if so, how?
I love writing non-fiction, but there is nothing like the enchantment of writing fiction. You could say, writing non-fiction is like walking; writing fiction is like ballet. Non-fiction writing requires clarity and fluidity; fiction writing requires the conjuring of an entire world and the approximation of life itself.
I hope in reading Eye of the Whale that you will find I have succeeded in conjuring the many worlds in which the book takes place, from the underwater world of whales to a whaling island in the Caribbean to the Transamerica building in San Francisco. If I succeeded, it is because I entered into those worlds and was led by some incredible guides. I had no idea how this story would consume me, and how the story I would discover was much more terrifying and important than I had ever imagined.
I’ve been writing fiction since I was eleven years old. I grew up in a publishing family, so perhaps I was destined to write. I’ve also had the opportunity to work in publishing, so I experienced the Editor’s Life as well as the Writer’s Life. But the truth was that writing did not come easily. I grew up with dyslexia and had a very difficult time reading. I had an English teacher who told me that I could never be a writer, but I also had some marvellous mentors, like Frank McCourt, who believed in me. I still break out in a cold sweat when I go into a bookstore, and I remain a terribly slow reader. But I love books, words, and ideas—I love the worlds that they open up.
I am passionate about helping make the world a wiser, healthier, and more just place to live. I first followed that passion as an editor, agent, and co-author of non-fiction books. In my work as a literary agent, I have had the privilege of working with a number of scientists and moral leaders, including Desmond Tutu, on non-fiction books that address these issues, and many of their insights have informed my fiction.
In my own writing, I attempt to create fact-based novels that inform and entertain. I’d like to successfully straddle the divide in modern literature between plot-driven commercial fiction and character-rich literary fiction. Can’t we have heart-racing, entertaining stories with living, breathing, three-dimensional characters?
I am particularly interested in the power of fiction to address the inevitable questions of being human. Although quite different, all of my novels attempt to tell dramatic stories that also convey some of the ancient insights about how we can live on this planet with greater joy and wisdom.
I start by asking a question I need to know about life, and then create a fictional world filled with real characters to discover the answer. Eye of the Whale began with a question that is both deeply personal and universal, a question so many of us are asking today: can we survive as a species, and if so, how?
I love writing non-fiction, but there is nothing like the enchantment of writing fiction. You could say, writing non-fiction is like walking; writing fiction is like ballet. Non-fiction writing requires clarity and fluidity; fiction writing requires the conjuring of an entire world and the approximation of life itself.
I hope in reading Eye of the Whale that you will find I have succeeded in conjuring the many worlds in which the book takes place, from the underwater world of whales to a whaling island in the Caribbean to the Transamerica building in San Francisco. If I succeeded, it is because I entered into those worlds and was led by some incredible guides. I had no idea how this story would consume me, and how the story I would discover was much more terrifying and important than I had ever imagined.