The Muse and the Marketplace, a conference for emerging writers, kicks off on May 1st at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston. In anticipation, we collected micro-interviews written by authors, agents and editors who are attending the event.
Interview with Mary Carroll Moore, Author of Qualities of Light
1.What’s the best book you’ve read in the last year?
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, because it showed me how to weave two very disparate stories in a very elegant way. I’m working on a novel with four narrators, so this was a great book to study for structure.
2.When do you feel most like a writer?
When I write. When I am able to put my writing first, do it before my paid work and my other obligations, even if it’s just an hour in the morning.
3. Do you listen to music as you work, or do you need the sweet sounds of silence to concentrate?
It depends. If I’m line editing, I can often have non-word music in the background. If I’m struggling to birth a new scene, it has to be pretty quiet.
4. What’s one piece of advice you’d like to give to writers?
Take your time. The media, our lives, even the publishing industry is about rush right now. Louise DeSalvo says it so beautifully in her writing guide, The Art of Slow Writing. All art has apprenticeship time. A violinist would not expect to give a concert at Carnegie Hall after practicing for six months. You have time to do it well.
Mary’s #Muse15 session is now full! But there is still time to register for a whole host of craft classes, industry talks, and advice on all things writing from those tentative first drafts to scoring that book deal. Hurry–sessions are filling fast!
Mary Carroll Moore, MA, MFA, is the award-winning author of thirteen books in three genres and a formerly nationally syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times and 86 other newspapers. Her novel, Qualities of Light, was nominated for a PEN/Faulkner award. Your Book Starts Here: Create, Craft, and Sell Your First Novel, Memoir, or Nonfiction Book won the People’s Choice Award for the New Hampshire Literary Awards. She teaches for the Loft Literary Center, Madeline Island School of the Arts, and GrubStreet. Over 300 of her articles, essays, short stories, and poetry have appeared in literary journals, magazines, and newspapers around the U.S. She’s been featured in The New York Times and USA Today, among other publications, and on Lifetime Television Network and WNPR.
