The following is a brief QNA I conducted with Indie Lit god Nelson Pahl in August.
JG: Why do you write?
NP: To get things off my chest; to create a better world, to live in a better world, if only for a moment.
JG: Good answer. I like that.
NP: Thanks. (Deadpan) I thought long and hard about that one.
JG: (Laughs) OK. Question #2: Is Mia (Bee Balms & Burgundy) real?
NP: Not that I know of. If she were, she’d be sharing my bed.
JG: (Laughs) I bet so. OK then, is Manny (Two for Tuesday) real?
NP: (Smiles) Not that I know of. But if she were, I’d be sharing her bed.
JG: Ah, an affair, huh?
NP: No, never. If one existed, the other wouldn’t. The world would never be kind enough to avail both. This is the same world that’s given us the last two presidents, you know? A couple of baby boomer stooges. There’s no way it would give us both Mia and Manny.
JG: You’re very fond of both women, huh?
NP: I’m madly in love with both. I think subconsciously you can see what type of woman a man is innately drawn to if that man happens to be a fiction writer. Even a guy like Vince Flynn, in his last couple books, we get a glimpse of women I think he’s probably attracted to. He plays out that attraction through Mitch, but we see it. In fact, one might be his wife in disguise. But, that doesn’t mean a writer can’t be innately drawn to a couple types of women, you know? It would be kind of sad to think that only one type of mate can satisfy you.
JG: I understand. I agree too. So, I’ll ask this: Which one would you rather share your life with, Mia or Manny?
NP: (Smiles) I could never choose. I love them both, dearly. I created each from scratch, you know? Thus, they’re both utterly perfect in my eyes. Both qualify as my dream woman. How can they not? They’re my hand-made heroines.
JG: Yeah, I see your point. That makes so much sense. How cool, to be able to do that. And if they were your villains—
NP: They’d probably be based on a couple of past girlfriends.
JG: (Laughs) Like Sonja and Linda?
NP: (Smiles) Precisely. Actually, Linda’s based on my former neighbor.
JG: God no!
NP: (Laughs) My thoughts exactly.
JG: (I shake my head in pity.) OK. Now I need to ask this, so I’m sorry if you’ve answered it a million times. I love your dialogue. It’s so real and right on target. You use a lot of it to move us through the story, and I love that. But you’re also a great descriptive writer. I feel and hear and smell and see things in your writing that I don’t find in anyone else’s. Is that a gift or did you work really hard to become that, you know, imitate another writer?
NP: First of all, thank you. I appreciate what you said very much. To answer your question: Dialogue comes easier to me, no quesiton. But that’s only because dialogue allows me to write at a pace closer to what I’m thinking, at the pace my mind works. I can rip a story out in dialogue. Descriptive writing, on the other hand, is, to say the least, tedious; it’s labor intensive and more labor intensive. It’s almost painful at times. The truth is, most writers are too lazy to pen effective descriptive writing. Or, some go the other way and get far too bogged down it minute details. I do that sometimes and catch it in editing. But the only person I’ve styled my descriptive writing after whatsoever is a woman named Frances May. She’s not a great writer, per se. She isn’t lean enough for me to consider great. I’m always paring and rearranging her sentences in my head when I read her. But she is a great descriptive writer. In that department, I’ve never read anyone better than her, honestly. Hemingway comes close at times, but he'll use some lazy, cliche word in the middle of this beautiful passion, and I'm like, "Dude, what are you doing? Why didn't you spend another three minutes of your life trying to find the proper descriptive word for this item?" Frances May, on the other hand, always uses the right word when describing things. She can make dust sound intriguing. She's the best I've read in those terms.
JG: Other than yourself.
NP: (Smiles) I don’t know about that. I don’t look at it that way.
JG: You’re writing always gives me such an incredible sense of place. I always feel like I’m somewhere special, and I love to read books like that.
NP: Thank you.
JG: Is Cannon Valley (Two for Tuesday) a real town? I couldn’t find it on the map. But it sounds so cute; it sounds so damn adorable! Even with the tragedy in the story.
NP: No. It’s a real area, but the town is fictitious. I took a town where I own a home and added elements to it, mixed other towns into it, a couple of mountain towns out west, then changed the name.
JG: I love it. I want to live there!
NP: (Laughs) And I want to meet Manny, but…
JG: (Laughs) But we can’t always get what we want, right?
NP: Isn’t that a song?
JG: (Laughs) OK. Next question—hey, I forgot to mention it earlier, but congrats on the Bronte Prize win, and on the Maurier Award nomination.
NP: Oh, thank you, very much…was that a question?
JG: (Laughs) No. This is my next question, and my last for the day. Last question: What woman would you most like to meet?
NP: (Laughs) The right one—for a change.
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If you enjoy Nicholas Sparks, Nora Roberts, Richard Paul Evans, or Sara Gruen, (or want to read a writer better than all of them!) you’re sure to love the Bronte Prize-winning Bee Balms & Burgundy. You can find it here, where you can also read a free chapter! You can find the Maurier Award-nominee Two for Tuesday here, where you can also read a free chapter.
