Q&A with 2012 Featured Author Pam Bachorz
Pam Bachorz is the author of the young adult novels “Candor” and “Drought.” She grew up in a small town in the Adirondack foothills, and draws inspiration from the places she knows best: she wrote “Candor” while living in a planned community in Florida, and set “Drought” in the woods where she spent her childhood summers. Currently she is working on a novel set in middle Appalachia. Bachorz resides in Silver Spring with her husband and son.
Where do you find inspiration?
I try not to chase inspiration; rather, I do my best to capture the odd scraps of ideas that may strike at any time. The best ideas sneak up when I’m not thinking about writing. It’s rather odd, but the most common time for me to be inspired is when I’m watching the opening credits for a movie–particularly in a movie theater. I have to pull out my cell phone and quickly capture the idea. Apologies to everyone I’ve irritated with the glowing screen just as the movie is beginning. I promise it’s for a good cause!
What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
The only way you can write a book is to actually sit down and DO it. So many people promise themselves that they will write a book someday. Why not start today? Even if you only write 100 words per day, you’ll have quite a lot done by the end of the year. My second piece of advice is to schedule the time to write. Commit to it and make sure your family and friends understand that commitment. Then DO it!
What are you reading right now?
My family is about to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Hawaii, so I’ve been reading Sarah Vowell’s “Unfamiliar Fishes.” I will enjoy knowing a little bit of Hawaii’s history when we land in Oahu.
What’s your favorite opening line from a book?
One of my favorites is from Gail Giles’ “Shattering Glass”: “Simon Glass was easy to hate.”
What book has inspired or affected you in some way?
My mother read “Anne of Green Gables” to me when I was nine or ten years old, and since then L.M. Montgomery has been my companion as a reader and as a writer.
If you could sit down at dinner with three other authors, living or dead, which three authors would you choose, and why?
Certainly L.M. Montgomery would be my first choice, followed by Ernest Hemingway and Charlotte Bronte. They’d be a fascinating and varied mix, and I admire their work greatly, even though all three authors are very different from each other. I’d like to talk about how they pushed through their personal demons, and how they polished their stories until they shone.