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FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
Where do you find your pioneer stories?
In the first place, I have to credit my former French teacher
Albert Antrei for getting me interested in historical records. He
hired me to help him research his book “The Other 49ers” when
I was about 18 years old. When I got serious about writing my own
stories, I began reading records from the history cabinet at the
Manti Library. Now that people know what I do, they tell me their
family stories or direct me to books that have interesting
accounts!
How long does it take you to write a book? Not
counting all the time I spend writing plots and developing
characters in my head while I’m washing dishes or mopping floors
or cleaning the bathroom, it takes anywhere from seven to ten
months. I overlap my books, having some first drafts resting in a
file while I re-read or re-write or first draft other books.
When do you find time to write? I started out
writing early in the morning at four or five a.m. before my
children got up. Now I can catch a few hours writing time in the
morning after the boys go to school. I always carry paper with me.
I keep notepads in the car, in my pack, and sleep with paper and
pen under my pillow! After all, people have been writing stories
out longhand for a lot more years than they’ve been writing with
a word processor!
What do you do about writer’s block? I don’t
have it. At those times when there are lots of ideas crowding my
head and no clear-cut path, I just “write through the clog,”
spilling everything out on paper until I find the right track.
Is it hard to get published? Is it hard to build a
house and sell it? Is it hard to become a doctor and treat
patients? Is it hard to learn how to dance and win a competition?
It all depends on what you like to do, and what you think is hard.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing?
Interruptions.
You don’t have any daughters? No. We specialized
in sons. But I have two darling daughters-in-law!
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