Don Waters is taking over this space today!
The terrific writer Daisy Fried, author of Women’s Poetry: Poems and Advice, as well as the amazingly titled My Brother Is Getting Arrested Again, tagged me to participate in The Next Big Thing, a self-interview project that’s currently getting passed from one writer to the next. I agreed to do it. Then, as per the rules, I asked five other writers to answer the same questions and post them next week. Since I don’t have a blog, Daisy kindly agreed to post my answers on her blog. Here they are:
What is the working title of the book?
Sunland. It will be published in the fall of 2013.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
The desert, the great, wide-open desert.
Years ago, I rode along with a water truck from Humane Borders, a humanitarian group in Tucson. Down rutted roads, through wash outs, we drove around in the middle of nowhere. We stopped the truck at each water tank and checked the water and chlorine levels. Each tank had a blue flag flapping above it. Over the course of the day we heard rattlers in nearby bushes, passed a group of Minutemen lounging on the side of the road in a Mercedes SUV, and dropped down into a tiny hamlet on the U.S./Mexico border, where we watched Border Patrol trucks on hilly lookouts. I knew, then, part of my story had to take place right here. Stretched out across thousands of acres was a sea of beautiful land pocked with cholla, barrel cactus, and scrub, a land that’s cut through with politics, a land on lockdown, but one that I was able to pry open through a little imagination.
What genre does your book fall under?
Fiction / novel
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Amy Adams and Alan Arkin. But maybe I’m only saying that because I just saw an advertisement for “Sunshine Cleaning.” I liked that movie. Also, maybe Ryan Gosling. He’s good.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Sunland is the story of a man who, in attempt to raise money for his grandmother’s living and healthcare costs, runs prescription pills over the U.S./Mexico border—and along the way he’s faced with numerous troubles.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
The first draft probably took me three years. The dozens of drafts that followed took an additional three years.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Isn’t this the same as the second question?
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The terrific novelist Robert Boswell has this to say about it: “Sunland by Don Waters is a seriously comic novel about the expense of good intentions in the twenty-first century -- a compelling, involving novel that made me laugh out loud.”
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I don’t understand this question. Represented by an agency? Yes. Self-published? No.
My tagged writers for next Wednesday are:
Dina Nayeri
Jen Percy
Pauls Toutonghi
R. Clifton Spargo
Rus Bradburd
The terrific writer Daisy Fried, author of Women’s Poetry: Poems and Advice, as well as the amazingly titled My Brother Is Getting Arrested Again, tagged me to participate in The Next Big Thing, a self-interview project that’s currently getting passed from one writer to the next. I agreed to do it. Then, as per the rules, I asked five other writers to answer the same questions and post them next week. Since I don’t have a blog, Daisy kindly agreed to post my answers on her blog. Here they are:
What is the working title of the book?
Sunland. It will be published in the fall of 2013.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
The desert, the great, wide-open desert.
Years ago, I rode along with a water truck from Humane Borders, a humanitarian group in Tucson. Down rutted roads, through wash outs, we drove around in the middle of nowhere. We stopped the truck at each water tank and checked the water and chlorine levels. Each tank had a blue flag flapping above it. Over the course of the day we heard rattlers in nearby bushes, passed a group of Minutemen lounging on the side of the road in a Mercedes SUV, and dropped down into a tiny hamlet on the U.S./Mexico border, where we watched Border Patrol trucks on hilly lookouts. I knew, then, part of my story had to take place right here. Stretched out across thousands of acres was a sea of beautiful land pocked with cholla, barrel cactus, and scrub, a land that’s cut through with politics, a land on lockdown, but one that I was able to pry open through a little imagination.
What genre does your book fall under?
Fiction / novel
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Amy Adams and Alan Arkin. But maybe I’m only saying that because I just saw an advertisement for “Sunshine Cleaning.” I liked that movie. Also, maybe Ryan Gosling. He’s good.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Sunland is the story of a man who, in attempt to raise money for his grandmother’s living and healthcare costs, runs prescription pills over the U.S./Mexico border—and along the way he’s faced with numerous troubles.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
The first draft probably took me three years. The dozens of drafts that followed took an additional three years.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Isn’t this the same as the second question?
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The terrific novelist Robert Boswell has this to say about it: “Sunland by Don Waters is a seriously comic novel about the expense of good intentions in the twenty-first century -- a compelling, involving novel that made me laugh out loud.”
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I don’t understand this question. Represented by an agency? Yes. Self-published? No.
My tagged writers for next Wednesday are:
Dina Nayeri
Jen Percy
Pauls Toutonghi
R. Clifton Spargo
Rus Bradburd