Dissecting Writers                                   Pishashee

The following questions are taken from a profile of Scottish author Ian Rankin for bookshop chain Waterstone's:
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/pages/content/1285/
Now all but two have been posed to the lovely Pishashee

http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poets/Pishashee/


-What was your favorite childhood book?

Cricket in Times Square, George Selden
 

-Which book has made you laugh?

Too many to mention, and so I’ll choose all or any by Erma Bombeck; long live her laughter of motherhood that’s felt so deep in my heart to this day. I couldn't have done it without her smile there with me.


-Which book has made you cry?

You’d get much of the same response as the question above, yet & College Algebra, Eighth Edition, by Aufmann & Nation, is certainly good for a tear or 2.

-Which book would you never have on your bookshelf?
The Late Great Planet Earth, by Hal Lindsey


-Which book are you reading at the moment?
 
Jesus for the Non Religious, John Shelby Spong
 

-Which book would you give as a present to a friend?
 
The Demon Haunted World – Carl Sagan
 

-Which other writers do you admire?

I love the Philosophers and all those who write for Science. Thomas Carlyle, Isaac Asimov. One of the most influential for me has been Arthur Schopenhauer, but please don’t think me a pessimist. His antecedent was Immanuel Kant. (yet I don’t know that word) Many of the Psychologists have also written greatness is ways that I now understand myself: Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being, and I admire the philosophy of William James very much. Oh, and I love Marcus Chown and Richard Dawkins.  They’re all universal thinkers.  

-Which classic have you always meant to read and never got round to it?

East of Eden
 

-What are your top five books of all time, in order or otherwise?

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
What Do You Care What Other People Think? Richard Feynman
The Demon Haunted World, Carl Sagan
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll
Cosmos, Carl Sagan
 

-What is the worst book you have ever read?

The Tenth Insight, James Redfield. That’s the trouble with sequels.  I loved the Celestine Prophecy, but I just couldn't hold the vision.


-Is there a particular book or author that inspired you to be a writer?

Noah Webster, and then there is a book: What Is Man? Mark Twain
 

-What is your favorite time of day to write?

Four in the morn and in the evening around 5:10
 

-And favorite place?

I love to go to the woods and write; that and I've set the ambiance in my living room to relax my mind when nature is not practical. Which is usually the case.
 

-Longhand or word processor?

This is something that I doddle with in both realms. I love to write long hand; my mind is less distracted, but then going back and getting it in type is another challenge for a procrastinator such as me; I have stacks of notebooks to reckon with, and so there are times that I will just sit and type out thoughts - actually getting more accomplished.

I've been experimenting with Dragon Naturally Speaking; now that I've got it trained – training my Dragon has been a challenge to say the least.  Example: no words, no words, where’s the words…? And then all of a sudden it starts cussing like a sailor. Basatrd!

In my experience it doesn't work unless it’s prewritten. I have to listen for the quiet in my mind to surface the thoughts, and if you’re talking then you can’t hear yourself and the whole train of thought becomes a shamble. I would love to hear others insights on that.
 

-Which fictional character would you most like to have met?

Ponyboy, The Outsiders


-Who, in your opinion, is the greatest writer of all time?

I’m reminded each month of the lying cheat, but I’ll quote him anyway. “An average American loves his family. If he has any love left over for some other person, he generally selects Mark Twain.” - Thomas Edison.  At least his words are free.  For me, the greatest writer of all time is Sam Clemmons.
 

Which book have you found yourself unable to finish reading?

Basically, any Romance novel that I have dared to start, and there are many one night stands.  Over the summer it was Fifty Shades of Grey.  I got right up to a line that was snatched straight from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner; it was right after the ice cream sex and in the middle of the asparagus dinner.   I vomited spectacularly, and then slug it over me shoulder.


What is your favorite word?

Fortuitous!