An excerpt from my memoir: https://lithub.com/the-cold-war-love-story-of-a-would-be-travel-writer-almost-spy/
I recently saw my friend David, who is mentally preparing for his annual writing workshop at the end of the month. He explained that, because his last name begins with the letters ‘Be’, he is usually the first student up for critique. “And how better to impress the teacher,” he said, “than to attack the first story.”
I said to the photographer who was taking pictures at the event in Miami Beach: “I think it’s more difficult to make a living as a photographer these days than it is to make a living as a writer.”
“Yes,” he said. “You can’t buy an expensive pen and become a great writer.”
At a travel industry event in Miami Beach last night a young man asked me what I did.
“I’m a writer,” I told him.
“I hope I don't offend you,” he said, “but as a millennial I would call you an influencer.”
I laughed, thinking of my book sales. I told him that I not only don’t influence people, I have no desire to. I don’t care if people visit the places I write about; my sole intention is to capture their spirit – as I experienced it – in a way that both educates and entertains. My love is for words not – though I didn’t say this (l’esprit de l’escalier) – propaganda. “It’s all about the writing,” I said.
“Which we would call ‘content,’” he said.
The term ‘content,’ it occurred to me later, has turned the word ‘prose’ into the opposite of prosaic.
Used to be, when I sat down to write, the biggest question was: “How do I begin?” Now it’s: “Do I procrastinate on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram?”
A former colleague writes that he has become a “gentleman writer” – the literary equivalent of a “gentleman farmer.” Because of what publishing has become these days, he joins a growing population.