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About the Author
Charles J. Shields is the author of Harper Lee’s New York Times bestselling biography Mockingbird, the Kurt Vonnegut biography And So It Goes, and the biography of John Edward Williams, The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel. Shields has spoken to hundreds of large audiences in schools, libraries, museums, and historic theaters and appeared in newspapers and magazines worldwide, including the Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, Huffington Post, and New York Times.
A Conversation With the Author
Where are you from? I spent most of my life in Chicago. Currently, I live in Virginia. Who are your favorite writers? Truman Capote, Christopher Hitchens, James Boswell, Claire Tomalin Which book/books have had the biggest influence on your writing? I tend to read classics because I read slowly and I analyze what the author is doing as I read. Style and structure are everything to me.What are your hobbies and outside interests?I read a great deal of history. Other than that my interests are literary criticism, culture, psychology, science, engineering, technology, math, and robotics. I'm a generalist. I work on tabletop projects related to science, technology and robotics, too. What is the single best piece of advice anyone ever gave you? "Do it at the time."-my father What is your favorite quote? "The great goal in life is to take your destiny out of the hands of others."-mine What is the question most commonly asked by your readers? What is the answer? Q: How does someone become a writer?A: Writing is a craft that can be learned like anything else. Practice, and finding models you admire are the keys. What inspired you to write your first book? My first book was a three-page, stapled booklet: "The Life of the Three Stooges," written when I was nine. My motives then were the same as they are now: to know more about people who interest me. Where do you write? I have a room in my home, a study, where all my books and resources are. I work there every day for six to eight hours.