I'm always intrigued by writers who post on how they write. I don't think in a very technical way about writing. My thesis (the first long project I completed) was written in a very episodic way and I sort of carried over that "small chunk" method to the books I've written since. There are some overarching themes to both the memoir and flying novel but no plotting or outlining or anything like that. I imagine if I was writing a conventionally formatted novel I would do that although I'm not entirely sure. I just kind of write the way I write and let the rest of it take care of itself.

But I do like reading how other people do it just so I can enjoy the differences.

Jenny D. has a very interesting post up about her book The Snow Queen which is sort of done in first draft stage - although she has to type in about 45,000 words, and do some research to fill in gaps here and there. (This is something else I do also. I told my husband the other day that we needed to figure out the airspeed of the plane Russ Merrill was flying in 1929 when he disappeared so we could plot his final course and get an idea for how much more he was planning to fly that day when he took off.)

When I read Jenny's entry I wondered why George Orwell and why The Snow Queen? What led her to characters/figures like those. This is not a question of inspiration but choice; I wonder sometimes how authors make their choices. (Mine thus far have been obvious - I worked in Alaskan aviation thus I write about Alaskan aviation. When the conversation turns to Joan of Arc and WWI it will get much more interesting.) Lauren Groff's recent essay at Powells has a host of explanations for the short stories in her new collection and Samantha Hunt drop several clues about her interests in her Q&A over there. At The Bostonist though she explained directly when Tesla first appealed to her:

"I stumbled onto Tesla accidentally long after I’d finished school. My only familiarity with the name was from the metal band and so I was duly surprised when I learn that he is the father of not only radio but our modern electrical system. I was forever enamoured after learning that he created an engine powered by Junebugs when he was only a boy of 8."

That's the kind of information I love as it is exactly how so many odd and disparate facts and figures have ended up as big parts of my life. Ray Bradbury, Peter Beard, St Joan, Lawrence of Arabia and a whole host of female travelers from the 19th century are just examples of people who have intrigued me for decades.Taking that fascination and then turning it into a novel or story (or song or poem or painting) that further explores that person strikes me as very very cool. It is a creative and valuable use of someone's time and imagination and what draws me again and again to a craft and past time that allows this sort of activity - that in fact even celebrates it.

This is what draws me to the literary field and compels me to continue to review books and interview authors and constantly and continuously write about wonderful books.

One of the better examples of how truth can inspire great art is one of my all time favorite songs by Rodney Crowell. It recalls the first time he heard Johnny Cash sing "I Walk the Line". This is a song about how a song can infuse your whole life and set you on a certain path forever. I can't imagine music without Crowell and yet if he had not been in that car that day, who knows what would have happened. I'm glad that he was there, that Hunt found Tesla, that Goff spent time in each of the places she mentions in her essay. I'm glad I heard a story about a great uncle in a trench in WWI and what he saw in the sky that changed everything I thought I knew about religion.

I'm glad I noticed when something wonderful came my way and I look forward to hearing from Jenny D. just how The Snow Queen first entered her life and when she "met" George Orwell the first time.

[Behind the cut, Rodney Crowell and Johnny Cash in "I Walk the Line Revisited". It's awesome.]