He often makes final revisions to his books on the veranda of his French home, with only oak forests, vineyards and sunflower fields to distract him. It's difficult to imagine a place farther from the pulsating streets of Bangkok.
"The distance forces the imagination to work," Mr. Burdett said. "It becomes an imaginative exercise rather than a factual research exercise. It's a good mental trick to play if you can."
--from a profile of author John Burdett,
whose mystery thrillers are set in Thailand but who owns a "villa" in France.
whose mystery thrillers are set in Thailand but who owns a "villa" in France.
I guess that helps explain why it's easier for me, and perhaps most people, to write about an experience long after it's happened. For example, when I was in Japan teaching English, I found myself writing copiously about San Francisco. After I got back to SF, I found myself setting stories in Japan.
technorati: writers, John Burdett, writing
1 comment:
I think the same thing was said of Hemingway, writing in Paris. It's nice when you have a choice about where you write and from whence you write it; I keep thinking about the hundreds of writers in exile who have no choice but to write of their homeland from a distance.
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