Eric Griffith, interviewed by Eric Griffith

Here’s me interviewing myself, being asked all the questions I wish others would ask me. Enjoy. 

Eric: Eric, thanks for being here and answering some questions.

Eric: It’s my pleasure, Eric. We should try to say “Eric” a few more times. 

 

Eric: I know, right? So, Eric, let’s get started. What’s the first thing you ever wrote?

Eric: It was called “The Snidey Spider and Eric the Elephant” story. I was lucky to have a transcriber named “Mom” take down my words, since I couldn’t type yet. The first and only edition, complete with illustrations, is still in her possession.

Eric: That’s a tear jerking story. Did you always want to be a writer?

Eric: I went through a phase as a kid where I thought I’d want to be a photographer, but only because that’s what Spider-Man’s day job was. I also thought I’d be a comic book illustrator, but gave it up because I sucked. Writing seemed easier (at the time). Then when that got hard, I didn’t write fiction for a long time, even though my day job ended up being a writer! Just not about anything exciting. I fell back into writing in my 30s and continue to be tortured by the need to do it today.

Eric: Do you use a standard keyboard for typing?

Eric: I’m a split keyboard man. I love my ergonomic setup. That said, I still end up writing most of my fiction on a netbook with a keyboard little bigger than the one on my phone. Crazy. 

 

Eric: Who do you consider the greatest writers of all time, living and dead?

Eric: Well, the living one is probably Neil Gaiman – hard to find a better mix of great writer with massive popularity that’s well-deserved. Dead: I consider Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut the best book of all time (that I’ve encountered) but he’s probably not as good as Shakespeare, I guess. 

 

Eric: What’s the best book you’ve read this year?

Eric: “Let’s Pretend This Never Happened” by Jenny ‘The Bloggess’ Lawson. Hilarious. 

 

Eric: What advice would you give to writers who are out of steam, blocked, and just can’t get any words out?

Eric: I’ve been there. And what that means is: you’re not a writer. If you’re not writing, then you’re not trying hard enough. Stop thinking of it as requiring your creativity – treat it like a job and get the work done. Sometimes it’ll suck. You fix that later. You may even through a lot of it out. But guess what? That’s all part of it. Sorry, not every word you write is golden prose. 

 

Eric: Eric, thanks for taking time to chat. And might I say, you’re a good looking devil.



About the Author:
 

Eric Griffith is the author of the sci-fi novel BETA TEST from Hadley Rille Books, which Publishers Weekly called “an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale.”  By day he works as the features editor for PCMag.com. By night he sneaks out of the house to write fictions. He currently lives in Ithaca, New York. You can follow his online exploits daily via http://egriffith.info

http://www.hadleyrillebooks.com/betatest.html

https://twitter.com/#!/egriffith