By LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / Febuary 6, 1999

Would-be authors, like myself, are always told to write about what you know. Also, almost conversely, they are also told to write what you like toread. The way this works, if both are considered, is that a lawyer who isinterested in sports might write a novel about sports or about the law.

Then again, he might merge the two and write about lawyers and sports together.

I’m a journalist, interested in police work. I’ve never done police work butI’ve been around many who are. I’m interested in unsolved mysteries and Ihope to one day write a classic novel based on a true crime. It’s also aclassic technique – even Edgar Allan Poe did it.

I’ve read so many how-to books about writing the novel that I’m getting burned out before I start. I have written two yet-unpublished novels andhave too many ideas for more.

The real problem for me is that there are many things I’m interested in and it’s tough to find a focus. I’m also interested in comic books, serialkillers, silent-movie comedians, so-called “classic” badly-done cinema, ghost stories, Sherlock Holmes, fantasy fiction such as “The Hobbit,” alternative rock music, the 1960s hippie movement, Louisiana history, Howard Hughes, the CIA, 19th Century British history and numismatics.

This might be a complicated novel.

Copyright © 1998, Wick Communications, Inc.

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