The American Plan - 2017
Mr. Weisberg ,
Thank you for taking your time for me ~
Who are your influences?
Thank you for taking your time for me ~
Who are your influences?
Patricia Highsmith. William Faulkner.
Dennis Johnson. Samuel Beckett. Frank Zappa. Philip Roth. Richard Price. Joseph
Conrad. Just to name a few. I read a lot.
When did you begin writing?
Very early. Probably in second grade. My
pal Wally and I would write send-ups of TV shows like “Hawaii Five-O” or
“Mission Impossible.” I would dictate, he would type and edit. Wish Wally were
around now. I could use an editor.
How do you come
up with your stories, characters, character names, POV, etc.?
That’s a large question. I like stories
of screw-ups, small people with huge ambitions, near-successes, folks who are
left out, but want in. POV is dependent on the story. In general, I prefer
third-person limited omniscience, over-the-should and always in-and-out of a
character’s mind. Character names I get by looking things up, lists of popular
names of the era, and so forth. Or I smash together a couple of well-known names.
My protagonist in “The American Plan” is Philip Narby – his name is derived
from a famous double agent in the Cold War: Kim Philby.
If you could actually meet one of your characters, who would it be? Why?
If you could actually meet one of your characters, who would it be? Why?
Willa Branton. She’s gorgeous, an artist,
a free-spirit, and very sexual.
Do you work
from an outline?
No. I make notes as I go along. And I do
a lot of drafts.
Tell me about
your favorite scene in your novel.
I love the opening of “The American
Plan.” It’s a moment of both panic and possible redemption for my main
character. He’s on the run, hooked on drugs, living in squalor in Havana, circa
1952, and while he’s waiting for his connection at a run-down sidewalk café he
see’s a well-dressed American approaching him. The man is either going to save
him, or kill him.
Can you tell us a little about your writing philosophy?
Can you tell us a little about your writing philosophy?
You’re a better writer today than you
were yesterday, more experienced, so don’t hesitate to throw away yesterday’s
pages and write them anew. Make sure there is always something at stake in
every scene. Characters should always be in some form of crisis, from the first
page to the last.
Have you ever tried writing in any other genres?
Have you ever tried writing in any other genres?
Yes. I’ve published literary criticism,
written three plays (all of which were produced), book reviews, song lyrics,
and a little journalism.
Do you have any interesting writing-related anecdotes to share?
Do you have any interesting writing-related anecdotes to share?
The first draft of “The American Plan”
was 2000 pages long. After years of struggle I broke it into three separate
novels and rewrote the first, which is, of course, “The American Plan.”
Do you listen to music as you write?
Do you listen to music as you write?
No. I always get drawn into the music if
it’s any good.
On the behalf
of my reader’s David, I thank you for your time.
No!, Thank you and thanks for having me
✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒
The inspiration
behind your book, the benefits of your book for the reader and any personal related
story compared with the world of your book ~
I’m a writer. I’ve been writing since I
was ten. Where the compulsion to write comes from, I have no idea. When I sat
down to work on my first novel, after more youthful forays into theater in N.Y.
and a career in academe, I knew I had to draw on my own experience growing up.
The material had to be that deep, that ingrained. But, I definitely did NOT
want to write about myself. As a great admirer of William Faulkner, I found
myself spinning a story of somewhat allegorical dimensions about the South I
grew up in: not the post Civil War south, but the post WW II South, the Sun
Belt, and most particularly, South Florida, a region ripe for grandiose
delusions. So, the inspiration came from
three places: first, a life long compulsion to write fiction in an
aesthetically satisfying way; second, the desire to tell a story that was both
close to my own experience and yet much broader, touching on defining
historical trends; and thirdly, my love of literature, especially 20th
century modernism, from Faulkner to noir fiction, Willa Cather to Patricia
Highsmith, Beckett to V.S. Naipaul, and many other writers.
About the author ~
 |
| Author David Weisberg |
Connect with David
David Weisberg is a teacher, playwright, critic and fiction writer. He has taught at Hunter College in New York City, the University of Delaware, and Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. He is the author of Chronicles of Disorder, a groundbreaking study of the works of Samuel Beckett in the context of the vehement cultural and aesthetic polemics of mid-century Europe. His shorter works have appeared in The Albuquerque Alibi, The Tennessee Review, The Mississippi Review, Nepantla: Views from the South, Libido, Nerve.com and other journals. His play, Totem and Taboo, premiered February 2016 at the Central Works Theater in Berkeley, CA.
The American Plan, his first novel, is the inaugural volume of a projected three- novel series chronicling the rise and fall of a fictional region of sun-belt America, from the Korean War through the financial debacle of 2008.
The American Plan, his first novel, is the inaugural volume of a projected three- novel series chronicling the rise and fall of a fictional region of sun-belt America, from the Korean War through the financial debacle of 2008.
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