The Identity Theory of Emerging Writers

Robert Birnbaum posts his latest Identity Theory interview, chatting with Don Lee about, among other things, writing his first novel, Country of Origin:

With my friends I kept on referring to it as the TFN, the fucking novel. But in retrospect, it really wasn't that hard. I was able to discipline myself so that--one decision that I made was if I was going to write this in any kind of reasonable amount of time, I had to make it a plot-driven book. It was the first novel I had ever attempted. And I knew I could get bogged down and it would take me eight or ten years or something if I didn't have it really relying on story. So that was a deliberate choice, to make it a quasi mystery or play with the mystery genre. That made it a lot easier for me. I was able to switch it on and off, so come Friday morning I was at my desk and was able to write.

Dan Wickett also talks with a first-time novelist, Dayne Sherman, who likes having gone with a smaller house, MacAdam/Cage, because "David Poindexter, the publisher, takes my calls, warmly. He answers my e-mail [and] practically everyone in the company knows me by personal association." And when the time comes, one assumes, they won't "forget" to submit his books to the National Book Foundation, like some of the major publishers do with their writers.