Interview with Margaret Petrushevsky

Daisy Sheps: What books do you enjoy reading?

Margaret Petrushevsky: After years of reading eye-crossingly jargon-filled reports and agendas as a journalist, I now read only the daily news or something for fun. For many years fun has always meant some sort of mystery or crime fiction novel. War stories and espionage thrillers fit that category too. Maybe I’m an action junkie and don’t know it.

DS: What genre(s) do you dislike, and why?

MP: I despise “literature” for its pretensions. Story always trumps style and almost all books I’ve tried to read as supposedly important literature for today had a poor storyline and grandiose vocabulary. I can’t be bothered with memoirs either. While they may be fine people and great fun if you actually met them, the subjects of memoirs tend to come off as flat and preachy.

DS: What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

MP: I would put the fact that I don’t plan my novels at the top of my quirk list. When I get an idea I sit down and start to follow the ideas as they come to me always remembering that unless someone’s in trouble, the story’s dying. My friends/fellow writers, however, would probably say the big thing about me is that I can’t shut up. If you want a 1,500 word short story mine will be still running at 4,000 words and I’ll be asking a buddy for help to cull it to requirements.

DS: What makes writers different from other people?

MP: I used to think it was just me, but so many of our classmates seemed to share the characteristic, I now suspect that most writers are introverts. We’re focused on what we see and hear around us and put our reactions on paper or the Net rather than grabbing a bullhorn and leading the mob.