I’d like to welcome Don Sawyer to the blog for #WriterWednesday!
Things you never want to run out of:
Diet Dr Pepper, although my doctor tells me I should drink more water, so I guess water?
Things you wish you’d never bought:
Televisions. Life is too short.
A few of your favorite things:
Saxx underwear, a good imperial stout, any book by Ursula LeGuin, mixed nuts (no peanuts)
Things you need to throw out:
Half of my clothes and all of my university essays
Things you need for your writing sessions:
My computer, quiet space, inspiration, focus
Things that hamper your writing:
AC/DC (though I love them at other times), feeling unmotivated, time, fatigue
Hardest thing about being a writer:
Moving a reader toward identification with your characters and their conflicts when all you have to work with are clumsy, limited words. Sometimes it feels like trying to build a fine watch while wearing heavy work gloves.
Easiest thing about being a writer:
Finding things to write about.
Note: both of these were provided by my eldest daughter, who knows me pretty well. (Though I did think she went a bit overboard with the second question!)
Words that describe you:
Focused, serious, principled, committed, caring, sensitive, persistent, passionate.
Words that describe you, but you wish they didn’t:
Impatient, judgmental, obsessive, stressed, grouchy (only sometimes)
Favorite music or song:
Werewolves of London
Music that drives you crazy:
Anything that doesn’t have a beat and is easy to dance to.
Favorite beverage:
Toss up: Dr Pepper and a good stout (that complies with the Bavarian Beer Purity Law) Something that gives you a sour face:
Sour beer. They shouldn’t be allowed to call these things beer.
Something you’re really good at:
Socio-political analysis
Something you’re really bad at:
Making small talk
Last best thing you ate:
Fresh peach pie with whipped cream
Last thing you regret eating:
Too much peach pie with whipped cream
The last thing you ordered online:
David Samson’s book Our Tribal Future: How to Channel or Foundational Human Instincts Into a Force for Good
The last thing you regret buying:
Shoddy woodworking set for my grandsons
Things you’d walk a mile for:
A great English pub
Things that make you want to run screaming from the room:
A bar with Fox News on the ubiquitous TVs
Things you always put in your books:
Empathy, ethics, justice, passion, compassion, friendship
Things you never put in your books:
Overt eroticism
Favorite places you’ve been:
The Gambia, Ghana
Places you never want to go to again:
Florida
Favorite books (or genre):
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Left Hand of Darkness, The Poisonwood Bible
Books you wouldn’t buy:
Anything by Ayn Rand
Favorite things to do:
Explore human diversity through travel and interaction with other cultures
Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing:
Attend a Trump rally
Best thing you’ve ever done:
Have kids
Biggest mistake:
Not having my OCD diagnosed earlier
Most daring thing you’ve ever done:
Riding on the back of a crocodile at the Paga Crocodile Pond in northern Ghana
Something you chickened out from doing:
Not a lot
The nicest thing a reader said to you:
(Letter from a student): I would like to acknowledge how much I really enjoyed your novel, Where the Rivers Meet. This novel was the first book I’ve ever read and actually finished.”
The craziest thing a reader said to you:
I don’t think I’ve had many crazy comments. Some are naïve or reflect a lack of knowledge of writing and the writing process, but crazy? I can’t think of any really.
Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done:
Developing the West African Rural Development training materials for grassroots development workers and training a brilliant group of facilitators in both Ghana and The Gambia.
A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it:
Jamaica Climate Change Action Training for Youth. Ending of funding and change of government meant this promising program was never fully implemented.
Some real-life story that made it to one of your books:
Watching an elderly Native Indian woman who could not pay for groceries be humiliated in a grocery store in Lytton, BC. That scene was incorporated in my YA novel Where the Rivers Meet.
Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not:
One of the main characters in Running loses his father in a hunting accident he blames himself for. The trauma affects him deeply. This was not me but based on the experience of one of my good friends, Bob Garrison.
