Blogfest 2009

My books have been banned in several places, and mostly what it makes me feel is sad. As a lifelong reader I believe strongly in the power of books, and that power primarily comes from their honesty – the honest sharing of experience and thought and feeling. To me, to be an honest writer is a solemn vow. That’s what writers are here for – to be truth tellers. It’s not my job to portray a cleaned-up world, a perfect world, a world free of whatever certain people think it should be free of. My job is to create a real world. If I don’t do that, I don’t do my job. That some people think a writer’s job is to be dishonest seems shameful. Much more shameful than anything I could think to write in a book. To limit creativity and information because the truth makes you nervous – to have the POWER to do that – it makes me less sad than very, very uneasy.

So often that it would be impossible to actually assign a number. And if you count all the rewrites you do in your head while in the shower and while driving and in the grocery store – endless. I love editing though. We don’t get the chance in real life to try again and make something better. Second (and third and fourth) chances are a great thing.

I think I was tempted to give up many times – I wrote FIVE books before I was first published. Even if I sometimes thought I might want to give up the pursuit of publication, though, I don’t think I truly considered giving up the writing itself. For me, writing has never just been the act of setting down words. It’s the way I see the world all the time, the way I have of understanding life and the human beings in it. I am continually trying to describe and understand things, even if just to myself in my own head. You don’t give that up – it’s who you are, and probably who you’ve always been.

Flying. Sometimes I have flying dreams when I sleep, and it’s amazingly cool. (It also gets me neatly away from the bad guys.)