Louis Bayard
From Louis Bayard's Q & A about his latest novel, The School of Night, with Lenny Picker at Publishers Weekly:
How did you learn about the School of Night [an obscure Elizabethan society of poets and scientists]?Visit Louis Bayard's website.
Professor Google. Who, in addition to being a useful time-suck, is a very useful idea generator. Somehow or other, I landed on a page about the School of Night, and it was the name itself that captured my attention. And the more I learned, the more intrigued I was. Thomas Harriot, an author, astronomer, and mathematician, became my protagonist because, of all the school's purported members, he was the least likely to have his own book.
How has your work in politics and your current work as a critic affected your fiction writing?
I gave up working in politics a while back, and while I have strongly held beliefs, I try very hard not to let them seep into my work. By contrast, I think being a critic is pretty central to my fiction because...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: The Black Tower.
The Page 69 Test: The Pale Blue Eye.
The Page 69 Test: The School of Night.
--Marshal Zeringue
