John Baker’s Blog

1. Why do you blog?
I need a readily available outlet to express/expose my writing. Like my previous and current obsessions/passions (art/music) I have to write, I am driven to write – If I don’t then I am stifled, a depressed malcontent, well, more than I usually am anyway, and like music this is not something that you keep to yourself, it is for myself that I write, but the shared experience is crucial, the feedback essential, going through the motions part of the process; setting these self imposed deadlines, structure, piece lengths etc. and keeping to these parameters helps me be a better writer.

2. Which author and/or book has most influenced you?
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott, was the book that influenced me the most. Incarcerated, practically illiterate, with no hope I picked her book up and was so impressed that I started writing that night in my cell with a pencil on the back cover and haven’t stopped since.
Other authors who’ve influenced me:
James Ellroy – My Dark Places/American Tabloid
Herbert Shelby Jr. – Requiem for a Dream
Anne Proulx – Accordion Crimes
Chuck Palahniuk – Survivor

3. Which three blogs do you most visit?
Go Fug Yourself - http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/
All that Glitters - http://spankyourcat.blogspot.com/
Bliss and the Color Pink - http://adrianabliss.blogspot.com/

4. Why do you read fiction?
I write creative nonfiction – reality gets a little too real sometimes and I need a break.

5. What makes you laugh?
Being called an American, living in America, the first morning glance in the bathroom mirror.

Patrick O’Neil blogs at Full Blue Moon Dementia, which can be found here: http://fromage_de_merde.blogspot.com/

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