Here areTom's answers to a recent set of questions submitted to him
by members of the AFTRLife Discussion List. (Click on "Discussion"
in the menu to the right to find out more about the list.) Update November
18, 2002.
Q: Do you ever find writing difficult -- to the point of serious avoidance?
If yes, how do you force yourself to charge onward? And what was the
most difficult segment of a book you've ever written?
-- Paula Adamski
A: Writing is always frustrating and difficult, but it's also always
exciting and fun, so it would never occur to me to "avoid"
it. At some social function or other, a woman complained to the renowned
pianist Van Cliburn, "I know that my son could be a great concert
pianist, but I just can't get him to practice." Whereupon Van Cliburn
replied, "Madame, if your son has what it takes to be a great concert
pianist, you could not keep him from practicing." Agreeing with
this, I'm always a bit leery of would-be writers who go out of their
way to avoid the act of writing. I'm compelled to write and simply could
not think of doing otherwise. The most difficult passages to write,
at least for me, are the philosophical passages. It's tricky to express
complex ideas without having them sound pedantic. Personally, I find
repartee is the easiest to create. That's why I'm not a playwright.
There's no challenge in taking the easy way out.
Q: Were there ever any major depression points at any particular point
in any particular novel? Where you had to take a character somewhere
and knew you had to but got depressed over it?
-- Anise
A: I'm not easily depressed, having learned long ago that most depression
has its roots in taking oneself too seriously, so I can't say I've ever
been depressed by anything I've found myself having to write in a novel.
There were, however, writing chores that have made me sad. For example,
I was quite saddened when, in EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES, I realized
that Jellybean was going to be killed. It also disturbed me when Maestra
suffered a stroke in FIERCE INVALIDS -- I was afraid she might be going
to die -- but the tough old bird survived.
Q: If memory serves, you traveled with Joseph Campbell in South America.
If
that is true, would you be so kind as to tell us a little (or a lot)
about your trip?
-- Eddie Proietti
A: Some years ago, I did travel with the great mythologist Joseph Campbell.
We toured the ruins and ceremonial sites in Mexico and Central America:
Mayan, Aztec, Toltec, Olmec, Zapotec, etc. We had wonderfully informed
local guides who took us through each of the sites. Then, that evening,
we'd sit on the veranda of a tropical hotel, sipping (in my case, gulping)
gin-and-tonics while Joe (that's what he liked to be called) took what
we'd learned that day and wove it into the whole tapestry of world history
and mythology. It was, as you might imagine, entirely wonderful. One
day at some ruins in the Yucatan, a coral snake suddenly shot out from
under a pile of ancient Mayan rubble, slithered through the grass for
about 10 yards, directly up to the tip of Campbell's conservative black
shoe. It paused there and seemed to lick his shoe tip, then abruptly
turned and disappeared again into a pile of stones. It had paid no attention
to anyone else in our group. Campbell had been talking a lot that week
about serpent symbology, and that incident struck me as supernaturally
synchronistic, an example of genuine magic. I looked to see if the end
of one of the great man's shoelaces had been transformed into green
jade or something, but I couldn't get a clear view. I found myself fantasizing
that later that evening, Campbell and the Plumed Serpent God would meet
in a secret underground chamber to trade stories and drink translucent
cactus juice from a virgin's skull.
Q: So really, what I'm asking, is for your views, or some words on your
personal involvement with music, either as musician, or at least tell
us what your favorites are. -- Quaabird
A: If you exclude certain bodily appendages, the only instrument I've
ever been able to play at all well is the typewriter. In the 60s I was
host of an "underground" show on one of America's first non-commercial
radio stations, playing album cuts by Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix,
the Doors, Country Joe & the Fish et al., six months to a year before
they were ever heard on AM radio. A couple of years ago, I recorded
some spoken-word lyrics with the Italian rock group, Gang. Aside from
that, my personal involvement with music other than as a listener has
been to MC benefit concerts for Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Danny
O'Keefe and a few other admirable activists. My musical taste is extremely
eclectic, although I've yet to fall under the spell of hip hop. If I
had to make a list of current favorites, I suppose Leonard Cohen and
Perez Prado would be near the top, Prado being the 50s Cuban mambo king.
I love Latin dance music (even Ricky Martin) and mambo is simply the
best.
Q: The only question I have is that
I seem to recall a line in FIERCE INVALIDS when you, and I don't know
what the proper term is here, call into question the validity of what
the revisionist school of historians are doing? So I guess my question
is what do you think of the revisionists?
-- Mandy Sue
A: I guess it depends on who is doing the revising and what their motives
are. Is it the result of ongoing scholarship or some ploy by commercial,
nationalistic or religious entities to bamboozle and manipulate the
masses? It's important to "revise" history when we discover
that it wasn't history at all but mythology. For example, those of us
who pay attention to such things have known for a long time that no
such person as "Abraham" ever existed. Recently, a number
of archaeologists, including Israeli archaeologists, have concluded
that "Moses" was never a real person, either. Moreover, they
have found archaeological evidence that the Hebrews were never in exile
in Egypt, so the hallowed Exodus never actually happened. The jury may
still be out on this one, but it's an example of history being revised
as a result of scholarship rather than hype or propaganda.
Q: What is your favorite meditation technique?
-- Mike Snyder
A: Do you remember Transcendental Meditation? It was a technique that
was propagated in the late 60s, attracting such luminaries as the Beatles,
and a lot of entrepreneurs jumped on the bandwagon, making money selling
mantras. Despite its sordid history, I've found TM to be the most effective
method of meditation. If you can avoid buying a mantra from some charlatan,
you'll find that it produces marvelous results. Recently, I've been
working on a yoga technique that when perfected will allow me to blow
in my own ear. If I'm not careful, pretty soon I'll be following myself
home at night.
