Jonathan Santofler is a very successful artist whose old life went up in flames when a gallery fire consumed five years' worth of his work. He left New York for time in Rome and began to write fiction as a creative outlet. His first crime novel, "The Death Artist," came out in 2002, and he has since written four more.
Reuters asked him whether he had any advice for new writers and I think his response is succinct and useful:
"To the people who say they are going to write a book then never write it, stop saying it. It is very hard to write a book but if you make that commitment don't tell anyone. Write it for yourself and rewrite and rework it. Then use your six degrees of separation and go to every writing conference you can and meet people. You only need one person who will believe in your book."
You can read the full interview here, and for a free dose of inspiration every month, you can sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm ebulletin just by sending an email request to [email protected].
PS: For my loyal core of readers, I just wanted to let you know that I'm cutting back to five posts a week, on weekdays only. This gives me more time to work on some longer reports that I'll be offering you from time to time.