Over the last 30 years I have spent many hours in one of our local coffee shops in Yellow Springs. I have met a number of writers there. Of course these people were not wearing signs or name tags that identified them as writers. I am sure many authors have passed through that place and I never encountered them. Fortunately I have met a few. They will occasionally provide clues. For instance some of them will actually be sitting there writing. Of course I never know for a fact that they are writing anything, they could just be messing around on social media or something.
But some of them are definitely writing and now and then I will approach one to inquire if in fact there is some writing going on? I am always slightly reluctant to do this out of fear that I will distract them and impede the flow of words. But then I cannot imagine how anybody can actually concentrate enough to write while sitting there in a busy, noisy coffee shop. How do they do it? I couldn't!
One fellow I observed writing was someone I recognized. I knew him as an annual visitor to the village. Every year during late summer one would notice the arrival of performers who came through Yellow Springs to entertain at the Renaissance Festival near Waynesville. I knew that Christopher Buehlman made his living delivering insults at these gatherings. What I did not know is this; he is a writer of horror and fantasy.
There he was creating fiction in the coffee shop. I tracked down his work and was thoroughly impressed. Recently he published a new fantasy novel, "The Daughters' War." I hate to confess I found out about this when I noticed some posts about it on social media. I had the author on the program for his previous book and I got right to work trying to get him to return to the show. He came out and did a rare in-studio interview. Those are the best interviews. I am able to maintain eye contact with my guests and react to visual cues. This is a fabulous novel and he gives the best interviews.
I hope you like it!
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