Author Profile – Carlton Davis: Bipolar Bare
Q: Why did you decide to write this book?
A: I had to write this book. See my answer to the first interview question.
Q: Do you have any secret writing tips you’d like to share?
A: I don’t think there are any secret writing tips to be learned. Writing is keeping at it and rewriting what you write. See my blog response.
Q: Tell us a quirky or funny story about you!
A: Once when I was living in New York City just after finishing graduate school, I had a Japanese-American girlfriend. I dressed then in a mod style, had a Beatle-like haircut and wore wire-rim glasses. We called them Corbu glasses, after the great Swiss Architect Le Corbusier, who always wore them. One afternoon, Reiko and I were walking along a street near Bloomingdale’s, when we passed a couple who looked just like us. Both couples stopped and turned around and looked at each other. We nodded our heads, turned away, and walked on. I turned to Reiko and said “That was John Lennon and Yoko Ono wasn’t it?” “Yes,” she replied.
Q: Have you ever battled writer’s block? How do you deal with it?
A: I get writer’s block all the time. What I do is persevere. Sometimes I can’t write on the subject I intended to write about, but I can always write about something — yesterday’s events, world events, lunch, a book I am reading, a piece of art, or a drawing I have seen. I pick up my journal and I scrawl about anything at all just to break the block in my mind.
Q: What’s your favorite quote?
A: “Walk like an elephant. Play like a polar bear, React like a stone wall. Love all beings.” By a Zen Master
Q: Who inspires you the most?
A: Susan Sontag inspires me. She was a brilliant writer, and a courageous one. Cancer, which she so eloquently described and endured, has had no greater adversary than this writer.
