Charles Baxter lets stories tell him when it’s time to write (and other literary tidbits) ‹ Literary Hub

Charles Baxter’s novel, Blood sampleis available now from Pantheon, so we asked him a few questions about writing, reading, organizing books, and more.

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Who would you most like to read your book? (Your boss, your childhood bully, etc.)
My ideal reader for Blood Test: A Comedy would be anyone who needs a good laugh and wants to be carried away by a story. I want to lift the spirits of the depressed, the brokenhearted, the uncomforted, the lonely and the troubled. I hope to make them smile and help them forget their worries while reading my book.

How do you deal with writer’s block?
I’ll wait and see. I’m trying not to worry. It’s good to forget yourself, to free yourself from insecurity and worries. I look at the world and observe it, and I try to help a little others who could use some help, and I work on other tasks. Your life doesn’t depend on you writing another book. If a story wants you to write it down, it will let you know.

I keep a little notebook and write down what people say and sometimes ideas come to me for something new. You can always watch out for your friends, help them and wonder what trouble they might get into. Or: What trouble could you get yourself into? There is always a story.

What book did you first fall in love with (why)?
The first book I fell in love with was a small drugstore paperback in 1963 that sold for fifty cents: The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb, a lyrical nightmare/melodrama novel about orphaned children and a mad preacher, Harry Powell. I read it in tenth grade and was surprised that good novels have beautiful sentences.

This thought had never occurred to me before. I didn’t even know what a beautiful sentence it was until I read this novel.

How do you decide what to read next?
Sometimes someone grabs me metaphorically and tells me about a great book that I need to read. I love hearing, “You have to read this!”

Sometimes I find a book that suits my mood, and sometimes I want to read about a specific topic: happy/unhappy marriages; identity theft; not knowing how to deal with it. And sometimes I just want to go back to a favorite author. And sometimes a book intrudes on me and wants to be read.

What non-literary piece of culture – film, television show, painting, song – couldn’t you imagine your life without?
Classical music and in particular the music of certain composers: Brahms, Ravel, Debussy, Myaskovsky, Virgil Thomson, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Alan Hovhaness, Caroline Shaw and many, many others. I couldn’t live without her. I wouldn’t want it.

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Blood Test: A Comedy by Charles Baxter is available through Pantheon.