[NOTE: The Bat Segundo crew is not responsible for the wretched music (in addition to a cleaner that we processed out in part) playing in the background during the interview. We apologize to our listeners for this. But we had to improvise to talk with Ms. Waters as long as possible.]

Author: Sarah Waters

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Wandering the Mojave Desert with Jorge.

Subjects Discussed: Waters’ novels as romps, Graham Greene, imagery, the influence of 1940s novels upon The Night Watch, on ventriloquizing voices, thighs as literary imagery and a pleasant thing to think about, watches and clocks, on devising the structure, the disadvantages of character development in a backwards structure, Tracy Chevalier’s Washington Post review, on maintaining the exuberance from the Victorian novels, food, why the characters are attracted to Helen, nature vs. nurture in relation to World War II, on being pigeonholed as a lesbian writer, on maintaining respect for those who lived during World War II, the role of research in writing The Night Watch, on pageturner plots, and writing without an outline.

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Authors: Gwenda Bond and Jeffrey Ford (LBC nominee, Spring 2006)

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Absent, abstaining from Bolshevik operations.

Subjects Discussed: On writing a book with “everything but the kitchen sink,” baroque vs. simple language, the influence of Hammett, Glen David Gold’s Carter Beats the Devil, Rex Stout, creative serendipity, eugenics, on “playing it safe” in light of the extraordinary research unearthed, the “literary” inspiration behind the character names, Rupert Thomson, auctorial voice, on being a student of John Gardner, confrontational vs. direct prose, Sturgeon’s law, Harlan Ellison, on young writers drawing attention to themselves, Chuck Palahniuk, beleaguered college students, Dave Itzkoff’s “reading list,” the influence of the New York Times Books Review, The Girl in the Glass being pigeonholed as a young adult novel, reviewers overanalyzing the word “mawkish,” and genre classification.

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Authors: Mark Sarvas and Sheila Heti (LBC nominee, Spring 2006)

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Absent, abstaining from Bolshevik operations.

Subjects Discussed: Perspectives, on writing an interior novel, research vs. devising Ticknor’s character, passive protagonists, environmental details, ambiguity, anxiety, on digressing from the historical record, masking fears, Ticknor’s ass fetish, writing an “epic” short novel and Canadian writers.

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