Q&A with Carl Hoffman

Carl Hoffman is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler and the author of “Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art.” His second book, “The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World Via It’s Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains and Planes,” was named one of ten best books of 2010 by the Wall Street Journal and was a New York Times summer reading pick. His first book, “Hunting Warbirds,” was a selection of both the History and Military Book Clubs. Carl has won four Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation and one North American Travel Journalism Award. A veteran journalist, he has traveled to more than 70 countries on assignment for Outside, Smithsonian, National Geographic Adventure, ESPN The Magazine, The Wall Street Journal magazine, Wired and many other publications.

What’s the funniest/scariest/best interaction you’ve had with a fan?
Weirdest: The guy who wrote me to say that the minute he’d finished my book, he left his wife.  The best: The soldier who wrote from a bunker in Afghanistan, and shared his wonder at the world and then he donated $250 to my Kickstarter campaign.

What do you do when you have writer’s block?
I don’t have writer’s block; every single day I sit in a chair from nine til five and work.  It comes.

Do/did you have a day job? What was it and how did it influence your writing?
In my early 20s, when I was just starting out I worked construction off and on and it was so awful it drove me to never want to have a job again.

What one book do you wish you’d written? 
The Count of Monte Cristo; wow!  And Dumas wrote it without a laptop.

Why write?
To make sense of myself and the world.  To share my wonder.