Rebecca Sacks

How did you become a writer?

When the poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky was on trial in the Soviet courts for "social parasitism" in 1964, he gave his profession as "poet." According to the translated transcript published in the New York Times, the judge asked, "And who said that you were a poet? Who included you among the ranks of the poets?" Brodsky's reply: "No one. And who included me among the ranks of the human race?" 

 I wish I shared his certainty! I myself struggled to call myself a “writer” for quite a while. I knew I was someone who wrote. But what would make me a writer? Who would make me a writer? Who would include me among the ranks of writers? It turns out, Brodsky was right: a writer makes themselves. I became a writer by writing every day.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Oh gosh, I fear this question because I live in such debt to so many books and teachers that I know I will answer incompletely! I’ll attempt to list books and authors chronologically as I encountered them: Lang’s Fairy Books, D’aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths; the King James Bible; The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil; the Epic of Gilgamesh; Anne Carson; Averno by Louise Glück; Gilead by Marilynne Robinson; The Future of Nostalgia by Svetlana Boym; Orientalism by Edward Said; Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill; A.B. Yehoshua; Mahmoud Darwish; Terrance Hayes; Claudia Rankine; Edward Siken; Homegoing by Yaa Gysasi; The Known World and Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones; Look by Solmaz Sharif; Black Skin, White Masks by Franz Fanon; The Kingdom of Strangers by Elias Khoury; the Talmud, which I am encountering slowly as part of a queer yeshiva; Minor Detail by Adania Shibli; Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd.

The writers who have influenced me as teachers are Michelle Latiolais, Vu Tran, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Danzy Senna, and Amy Gerstler. I’m also grateful to my teachers of Talmud at the “traditionally radical yeshiva,” Svara. 

When and where do you write? 

I’m a morning writer. From the time I get up, I feel that an hourglass has been overturned and my time is running out as the morning slips by. I write at home. My desk is by a window.

What are you working on now? 

I am working on a novel about a love affair unfolding within political ideology.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

Shhhh, it can hear you. (Yes. When this happens, I forgive myself and try again the next day.)

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Vu Tran taught me that plot is a character device: it is a way to reveal a character by forcing them to make decisions; this changed the way I write. Michelle Latiolais taught me to build recovery time into my writing, as I give so much of my emotional and physical self to the work; this has allowed me to develop a sustainable writing practice.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Forget the fantasy that you’ll sit down and out of your fingers will pour a story ready for The Paris Review. Embrace the mess, embrace revision. Let the first draft be a story that you tell yourself. Then, lose yourself in the process of editing as that story becomes an act of communication with a reader. You got this. 

Rebecca Sacks is a graduate of the Programs in Writing at the University of California, Irvine. Rebecca, who uses both “she” and “they” pronouns, has been awarded grants, prizes, and fellowships from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Mellon-Sawyer Documenting War Seminar Series. A graduate of Dartmouth College, they worked for several years at Vanity Fair before moving to Tel Aviv to pursue an M.A. in Jewish studies. City of a Thousand Gates (HarperCollins, 2021) is her first novel. They live in Los Angeles.

Kellye Garrett

How did you become a writer?

I’ve known I wanted to write books since I was 5 years old but it still was a slow and winding 30-plus year journey to become a published author. Fear played a big role in that. I was on the high school newspaper and studied journalism in undergrad at Florida A&M. Then I spent three years in the field. I left for film school at USC right before print journalism collapsed. I spent 8 years in Hollywood developing TV projects and  working for a season on Cold Case. When my Cold Case contract didn’t get renewed, that’s when I finally decided to just write a book already. It helped that I had the idea for what would become my debut, Hollywood Homicide.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

For writers, I grew up reading and admiring Valerie Wilson Wesley, Walter Mosley, Barbara Neely, Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich, and Laura Lippman. My favorite all time writing book is Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron. She walks you through the entire process from idea to revisions and has some amazing tips. I re-read it before I start a new project. 

When and where do you write?

I’m not one of those authors who writes every day – at least not putting words on the page. I will think about my book every day though. Since the pandemic especially, sprinting with friends has worked really well for me. We’ll pomodoro so we’ll do 25 minutes with a break. I’ve also started doing Zoom writing sessions with friends as well, which makes it feel more collaborative. It’s like how you’re at work where you spend a few minutes talking with your fave coworker then you both go off and do your own work a bit. You can also help each other brainstorm.

What are you working on now?

My next standalone about a black woman who goes on vacation in the tri-state New York City area. She comes downstairs one day to find her boyfriend gone and a missing white woman dead in her foyer. Like with Like A Sister, it has a very strong social media element.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

When do I not? 

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Writing is rewriting. I hate the blank page. It scares me. But I love rewriting. I have to force myself to spew words on the page – I call it the vomit draft – so I can clean it up later.

What’s your advice to new writers?

Celebrate every victory because they can be few and far between. Finished a draft? Celebrate. Sent off your first query? Celebrate. Get an agent offer? Celebrate. Get a R&R from an editor? Celebrate.

Kellye Garrett is the author of the suspense novel Like A Sister (Mulholland Books) about a black woman in New York City looking into the mysterious overdose of her estranged reality star sister. She also wrote the Detective by Day lightweight mysteries, which have won the Anthony, Agatha, Lefty and IPPY awards and been featured on the TODAY show as a Best Summer Read. She serves on Sisters in Crime’s national board and is a co-founder of Crime Writers of Color. Learn more at KellyeGarrett.com.

Joe R. Lansdale

How did you become a writer?

When I was four, comic books made me want to write them and draw them. I was a better writer than an artist. But they introduced me to storytelling. I wasn't, of course, at that age thinking of it as a career. I didn't know what a career was, but I knew I wanted to tell stories. This was compounded by TV shows, then stories and books. When I read Edgar Rice Burroughs at about the age of eleven, I knew I had to be a writer, and I had begun to understand what a career was. By the time I was eighteen I knew where I was going, but I thought it would be after a degree, perhaps a job as a professor. It didn't shake out that way. I went into writing much more quickly, and I'm glad I did. I loved it then, and love it now.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).

Too many to be thorough. But early on Edgar Rice Burroughs, comic writers like Bill Finger and Gardner Fox, though I didn't know Bill Finger was the writer for a lot of Bob Kane Batman stories at the time, but I loved his work. Kipling, Robert Louis Stephenson, Mark Twain, Jack London, Stephen Crane, Robert E. Howard, Keith Laumer, primarily because he led me to Raymond Chandler. James Cain, Dashiell Hammet, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flannery O'Connor, Harper Lee, Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont,
William Goldman, Fredric Brown, Henry Kuttner, Cyril Kornbluth...I mean, really, this list is long, so I'll stop there.

When and where do you write? 

I write in the  mornings shortly after I wake up. Toast and coffee, and then I write. I write about three hours a morning, three to five pages a day most days, and some days I get a lot more. I'm steady. I spend the rest of the time reading, watching movies, etc., and I still teach Martial Arts once a week. Most of the time I work seven days a week. Sometimes I'll write a little extra, but less lately. I have to, I can write traveling, and have a lot. Hotel rooms, planes, airports, you name it. The key for me is showing up.

What are you working on now? 

A screenplay.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? 

No.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Put your ass in a chair and write. My own advice is that, and write like everyone you know is dead. Write for yourself, and then hope others like it.

Joe R. Lansdale is the internationally-bestselling author of over fifty novels, including the popular, long-running Hap and Leonard series. Many of his cult classics have been adapted for television and film, most famously the films Bubba Ho-Tep and Cold in July, and the Hap and Leonard series on Sundance TV and Netflix. Lansdale has written numerous screenplays and teleplays, including the iconic Batman the Animated Series. He has won an Edgar Award for The Bottoms, ten Stoker Awards, and has been designated a World Horror Grandmaster. Lansdale, like many of his characters, lives in East Texas.