Q&A with 2012 Featured Author L.E. Modesitt, Jr

L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the New York Times best-selling author of 60 novels – primarily science fiction and fantasy, a number of short stories and numerous technical and economic articles. His novels have sold millions of copies all around the world. His latest book, “Princeps,” releases this May and is the sequel to “Scholar,” which was named by Kirkus Reviews as one of the ten best F&SF books of 2011.

Where do you find inspiration?
My feeling about “inspiration” is that it’s often a writer’s cop-out. As writers, our job is not to find inspiration, but to create it. Seeking inspiration is often a way to avoid doing the very hard work of creating. I try to come up with ways to make people think, to get them to wonder about the world, both the ones that I invent and the one in which they live. That, if you will, is where I find inspiration.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Writing, especially writing fiction, requires technical mastery of the language in which you write. There’s no substitute, and such mastery requires knowledge of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. Learning a foreign language helps, especially if you’re American, because the true study of the English language is taught in very few schools. Beyond the technical skill, a writer needs to have a wide enough knowledge base so that he or she can convey and make real the story at hand. Third, and most important, you have to be able to entertain if you wish to be a professional fiction writer.

What are you reading right now?
Right now, I’m writing, and I’m not reading when I’m writing. I read when I’m in places where I can’t write. The last book I read was “Glamour in Glass” by Mary Robinette Kowal, which will be released in April.

What’s your favorite opening from a book?
My favorite opening is from one of my books, “Of Tangible Ghosts.”

“One ghost in my life was bad enough, but when you have two, an inconvenience can become a disaster.”

What book has inspired you in some way?
Most likely every book I’ve ever read has inspired me in some way, either positively or negatively, but I tend to go back to the poetry of William Butler Yeats in his collected works.

If you could sit down at dinner with three other authors, living or dead, which three authors would you choose, and why?
I’ll pass on this, since any short answer would be flippant, and any thoughtful answer would become a lengthy treatise.