Wednesday Writers Write

Last night, Book Club Extraordinaire discussed Michael Chabon’s novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Chabon’s incredibly innovative novel piqued my interest into where he finds inspiration. In an interview with Bryon Cahilll in 2005 for Writing, he says: "Reading a book that is just so wonderful that it makes me want to write a book as wonderful — that is the time when I'm most aware of being inspired."

The article goes on to tell how Chabon gets into the groove.  "When you are writing, you're so caught up in the world you're creating that everything else seems to fade away," Chabon answered. "Fiction and stories are one of the only ways we have of getting a sense of what it might be like to be somebody that we're not. This is something that we can really never know, but in fiction it becomes possible. And that is a kind of escape. You're escaping from your own self."

Chabon knew he wanted to be a writer since he was 10 years old after writing a short story about Sherlock Holmes. This was a turning point that convinced him he wanted to write. "I thought to myself, That's it. That's what I want to do. I can do this. And I never had any second thoughts or doubts."

Michael Chabon: A writer with many faces.Cahill, Bryon, Writing, Apr/May 2005 

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