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Page 4
write? i.e. enjoyment, challenging, fear...what do you want people to
take away with them when they read your writing? Do you ever have a
message?
ANGELA: I hate being preached to. Well, unless I'm reading Carl Hiaasen. But since I can't write like Carl, no, I send no messages--consciously. My conscious goal is to entertain. I want readers to turn that page. Also I find people fascinating, good or bad, doesn't matter. So I write about people. Having studied under some pretty wise writing coaches, I now know that every writer has a theme he or she repeats over and over again, no matter the subject or genre, or even the medium. It takes a while to dig out your underlying theme from among the words, but it's an interesting quest. Some writers never 'find' their themes, and that's okay. It's not necessary to know what it is. I don't worry about mine, although I do know it. I consider fun important so I concentrate on that. To clarify, though, I consider drama as fun as comedy. Entertainment is not always a belly laugh. SUITE: What time of day do you find you are most creative? ANGELA: I have to write as soon as I wake up. I'm a night person, so that might mean late morning, but still, it has to be the first thing I do. I wear out easy. When I'm tired, I can't write. That's when I conduct the rest of my life, because nothing else I do is as draining or demanding. SUITE: Finally a night person. What sort of things do you do for fun? ANGELA: Can you hear me laughing? Somebody asked me that same question a few days ago. After I stared at him, perplexed, Barry politely told the inquirer I write for fun. He's right! I just hadn't noticed before. I used to scuba dive, studied Chinese martial arts, am a non-practicing gemologist--well, I'm a non-practicing everything now. Once upon a time, after fleeing my nightmare (former) marriage by running off to the East Coast, I decided to become a scuba diving instructor and write books in the dive shop's back room like Clive Cussler--that's how he started out. Just before I made it to instructor status, my advertising agency began to take off and I had to face that I could make much more money in advertising and I had people to support. That was a long time ago. Now, Barry and I--all four children grown, colleged, and gone--have lately moved to Manhattan. I sold my scuba equipment, gave away my golf clubs, packed up my gem lab, quit taking Kung
The copyright of the article Interview with Angela Zeman - Page 4 in Reviews of Mystery Books is owned by . Permission to republish Interview with Angela Zeman - Page 4 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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