By Joanna Campbell Slan
“If there is a key to writing success, it’s this…You go into a room alone and leave behind those you love and you do your work without excuse,” said Randy Wayne White to a crowd of about 100 at a book signing event at the lovely Vero Beach Book Center in Vero Beach, Florida. The presentation coincided with the release of his latest (and greatest) thriller in the Doc Ford series, Harvest Moon.
Thanks to White, the rest of us have a succinct response when people say, “I want to write a book. But how do you start?”
Better yet, we can quote White when folks look at us balefully and say, “Ah, but I’ve got so many ideas. I can’t pick one.” The author of 14 books in this series suggested if you are dallying around trying to pick just one idea, you are coming up with excuses. After a pause, he added, “If you are waiting for that magic combination of events, (it won’t happen).”
Of course, most of us won’t find such dramatic inspiration for our work as White has. White found his central idea for Hunter’s Moon when a former president and his family spent New Year’s Eve with the author and his family. When White’s son needed a knife to open something, the former Chief Executive pulled one from his pocket and grinned. “One of the best things about being president is that I can carry a knife anywhere and never get searched.”
White admitted he felt chills when he wrote the final scene in the book. “It’s my favorite thriller of the group,” he said, as an almost-schoolboy blush colored his already sunburnt face.
Chills? I sat beside a pool surrounded by noisy children and cried as I lowered the book to my lap.
Seriously…it’s that good.
“If there is a key to writing success, it’s this…You go into a room alone and leave behind those you love and you do your work without excuse,” said Randy Wayne White to a crowd of about 100 at a book signing event at the lovely Vero Beach Book Center in Vero Beach, Florida. The presentation coincided with the release of his latest (and greatest) thriller in the Doc Ford series, Harvest Moon.
Thanks to White, the rest of us have a succinct response when people say, “I want to write a book. But how do you start?”
Better yet, we can quote White when folks look at us balefully and say, “Ah, but I’ve got so many ideas. I can’t pick one.” The author of 14 books in this series suggested if you are dallying around trying to pick just one idea, you are coming up with excuses. After a pause, he added, “If you are waiting for that magic combination of events, (it won’t happen).”
Of course, most of us won’t find such dramatic inspiration for our work as White has. White found his central idea for Hunter’s Moon when a former president and his family spent New Year’s Eve with the author and his family. When White’s son needed a knife to open something, the former Chief Executive pulled one from his pocket and grinned. “One of the best things about being president is that I can carry a knife anywhere and never get searched.”
White admitted he felt chills when he wrote the final scene in the book. “It’s my favorite thriller of the group,” he said, as an almost-schoolboy blush colored his already sunburnt face.
Chills? I sat beside a pool surrounded by noisy children and cried as I lowered the book to my lap.
Seriously…it’s that good.
