This blogger was in her home place of Ireland for a month….and each time I read another ‘Country Doctor’ book by this author, I revisit the home of my heart. Patrick has given me this opportunity to interview one of my top favorite authors!
AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR, PATRICK TAYLOR
Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing?
A. In my study when at home. In rented accommodation when we winter in California.
Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (a neat work space, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)
A. No. I usually sort out the admin stuff like e-mail then edit what I wrote yesterday and then get on with the new stuff.
Q. What is your mode of writing? (long hand? Pencil? Computer? Etc.)
A. Computer. I used to be a doctor. Nobody can read my handwriting—including me.
Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?
A.I write every day seven days a week if I’m not on holiday. Get going on the new stuff about 10:30 break for lunch and quit about 4–4:30
Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?
A. I’ve no idea. I just get on with it. If you are a bit stuck go for a walk, but at the end of the day writing’s a job not religious orders. People get on with their jobs unless they hate them in which case they should look for another job. One cause of procrastination is lack of self confidence. Tell yourself, if an old gynecologist can do it, a single mother on state support can do it and become billionaire I can do it and then simply go for it
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing and for how long?
A. Even when I’m not typing unless I am actively involved in something my mind is usually somewhere that I’m writing about.
Q. Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment ?
A. I don’t work on anything as lofty as inspiration. I’m a simple storyteller. Having a substantial mortgage can be highly motivating too.
Q. When did you begin to write seriously?
A. When I was about sixteen then after medical school, see my bio, I had to write research papers and textbooks. I did humour columns about 25 years ago and “serious” fiction beginning in about 95.
Q. How long after that were you published?
A. Two years.
Q. What makes a writer great?
A. Not being a great writer myself I can’t tell you from personal experience, but the great writers first and foremost understand and control their language of choice with the skill of a true artist and are constantly refining their choice of words, sentences, and paragraphs. They also can balance character plot and setting in a seemingly effortless manner so that as a reader, and in my case a very critical reader, I am unaware of the writing but entranced by the story. I think that probably as with any skill constant application to their trade is also a prime requirement.
Excerpt from his Biography: www.patricktaylor.ca Born in 1941 and brought up in Bangor, Co. Down, Northern Ireland Patrick Taylor managed to hoodwink the examiners in Belfast in 1964 and London in 1969 to become a physician and then a specialist Ob/Gyn. He spent 37 years in Canada, working in the field of human infertility, teaching at a series of universities and churning out a string of texts and research papers, more remarkable for their quantity than quality. These led to a misapprehension that his chosen genre was science fiction…at least according to scientific peer reviewers. Because so many people laughed at his research (take Infertility Treatment in the Lowland Gorilla, [Gorilla G. Gorilla] as an example) in 1989 he turned his hand to writing humour columns for medical and sailing magazines, a pastime he follows to this day. A keen offshore sailor his account of his 2000 Victoria to Maui race is his most prized race report.
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Don’t miss Part 2 of this wonderful interview ** November 7th.
And at the request of Patrick’s publicist I was pleased to REVIEW his latest book,”Fingal O’Reilly, Irish Doctor” released October 15th.
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! “The Writer’s Corner”
In addition to my twice weekly blog I will also feature an interview with another author once a month. These authors have already responded and you can read their interviews by clicking on their name: Ann Purser, Susan Elia MacNeal, Karen Robards, Mark Childress, Rhys Bowen, Dean Koontz, Tasha Alexander, Patrick Taylor, Sheryl Woods, Jo-Ann Mapson, Jeffrey Deaver, Cathy Lamb, Elizabeth Gilbert, Amber Winckler, Raymond Benson, Andrew Grant, Heidi Jon Schmidt, Robert McCammon, Sue Grafton, Walter Mosley, and many others.
So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Jeffrey Deaver was October’s author and Patrick Taylor will join us in November. Slick mystery writer, Andrew Grant will join us this winter. Loretta Chase will be featured later this year. Raymond Benson is my January author.
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