Q&A with Garrett Peck
Garrett Peck is a literary journalist, local Washington-area historian, and author of four books – “The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America from Demon Rum to Cult Cabernet” (2009); “Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren’t” (2011); “The Potomac River: A History and Guide” (2012); and its sequel, “The Smithsonian Castle and The Seneca Quarry” (2013). Garrett leads tours of Seneca quarry and the Temperance Tour of Prohibition-related sites in the nation’s capital. This will be Garrett’s third time presenting at the Gaithersburg Book Festival, including the inaugural year in 2010. A native Californian and VMI graduate, he lives in Arlington, Va.
What are the best books you’ve read recently?
I’m a non-fiction kinda guy, so I always love finding new works that challenge and inform me, and broaden my thinking. Lately I’ve been reading Phil Greene’s “To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion.” I’m friends with the author, which may make me a little biased, but I also know how many years it took Phil to research this book, and so was particularly proud to see it published. Phil did a grand job reading through Hemingway’s life story and literature, pointing out just how often Hemingway referred to various cocktails. His is a cocktail book and then some. Greene makes it absolutely clear how much of Hemingway’s novels paralleled his personal life. Hemingway’s experienced served as his inspiration.
And I’m right in the middle of Hedrick Smith’s “Who Stole the American Dream?,” which is leaving me outraged at how the super rich have commanded an increasing portion of the nation’s wealth, and managed to steer the tax code in their favor while the middle class stagnates. Outrage is what the author intended.
What was your favorite book as a child?
“Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak.
The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another. (I used to have the whole thing memorized.)
Why do you enjoy attending book festivals, either as a presenter or audience member?
I enjoy being both an audience member and a presenter at book festivals. Like any other person, I circle the authors in my program who I want to hear from, and take in as many as I can. It’s wonderful hearing different authors speak about their work, about their inspiration, research and struggles. Just about every author I know has poured their heart and soul into a book, and so there’s this wonderful kinship among authors (even if we aren’t always the most sociable people).
It’s a lot of fun to be a presenter at a book festival as well. You have this great opportunity to really connect with readers, share stories with them, and to hear back from them. And as hope always springs eternal, to sign their books.
Have you been to the D.C. area before? If so, what is your favorite thing about it?
I live in the DC area (specifically, in Arlington, VA). It’s been my home since getting out of the Army in 1994, and I feel like a tree that has been planted with deep roots now. There are so many things that I love about the DC area. We have four seasons. Super intelligent, overly educated progressive people. A jaw dropping restaurant scene that just keeps getting better – and craft breweries opening everywhere. And so much local history – and a sense of preservation – that makes this area fun to research. We have a rich history and I’m always finding new things to explore.
On the downside, we have some of the nation’s worst traffic – even with one of the country’s most extensive public transportation networks.
What is the most difficult, or challenging, aspect of being a writer?
The most challenging part of being a writer is balancing writing with other life commitments. Like most writers you may meet, I have a day job, and I write on the side. Writing is enormously time consuming, so it’s like having two full time jobs. There’s a real opportunity cost. Writing isn’t a social activity – you need to spend your time alone in a room without distraction. That’s from a personal level.
From a macro level, the publishing market is in a long-term seismic change. Thanks to self-publishing and social media, everyone is absolutely swamped in information, and it is increasingly difficult to get your work noticed. Newspapers are in decline and are publishing fewer reviews. There are fewer bookstores, meaning fewer ways to connect with readers. And the readers themselves only have so much time. I assume I’m not the only one who has a big stack of unread books sitting on a table. Some of these we may never get to. I ask rhetorically, Who’s got time to read in this age of information overload?? It’s become very difficult for writers to make a living through writing, which is why I advise other writers not to quit their day job.