We posted the first set of responses from Ben Mezrich last week. Following is the second and final Q&A (unless all of you come up with more fascinating questions!) Special thanks to Ben for answering so many of our questions.
Quick recap for first time readers: Ben (@BenMezrich) is the author of eleven books. His bestsellers include Bringing Down the House, a true story about M.I.T. students who swindled a series of Vegas casinos out of millions by counting cards and most recently The Accidental Billionaires about, as the subtitle explains, The Founding of Facebook a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal.
I look at someone like yourself who has been rejected 190 times and think that getting published is probably not likely. --ERNEST DEMSEY
Rejection is a noble part of the game. There’s nothing wrong with being rejected, you need to embrace it and use it as fuel. Every great writer out there has been rejected countless times. It’s a tough, tough business, but if you’re good, and you work your ass off, you can get published.
Do you still not drive and dislike flying, and why? Why do you also need to have a magazine open to a person with a "happy face?" --MERLE GORNICK
I drive now, but not very far! I’ve grown ok with flying, I do my magic rituals like staring at a happy face in a magazine on take-off and landing, and it seems to work! I haven’t crashed yet!
What 3 authors, dead or alive, would you like to have dinner with and why? --ZOE
Michael Crichton, because I really wanted to be him for the first half
of my career; Hunter S Thompson, because it would be a blast and I want
desperately to be him now, in the second half of my career. And Scott
Stossel, of the Atlantic Monthly, because he owes me a dinner.
After your considerable success, how do you keep it real? Do you ever worry about losing your edge? Do you do stuff to try to re-capture your hunger from your days when you struggled? And how do you find new ideas to write about? Do you actively search for stuff or do new ideas just sort of arrive? --JOHN
Ideas show up on my website or twitter or wherever, people come to me now. The key is searching through all the ideas and finding one that really turns me on. I don’t worry about losing my edge because I am pretty insane and have always lived vicariously through the stories I hear- so it’s not really my edge, it’s the edge of the people I write about. And there is no shortage of great stories!
You've written alot, and I was wondering how you found the inspiration to keep on writting? I write and write, but I tend to lose focus, do have any ways to keep focus? --MARGARITA CRUZ
It’s really an obsession for me. Focus has never been my problem- I can watch television for 40 straight hours, and I can write for 40 hours. The key is to make sure that what you are writing is something that someone else will want to read!
Have you ever had writer's block, and/or how did you recover from it? --ANONYMOUS
Yes and no. Writer’s block, for me, isn’t sitting there trying to write. It’s spending a month watching tv and going out and basically blowing off work. The key is to get excited about a project, and that all goes away.
Coming up in November: More bestselling authors on the blog. Get your questions ready!
Thank you for answering so many of the questions, Ben. I ended up finding the answer to my own question--sort of--in a less dramatic fashion. Hehe. Again, thank you, and good luck with your writing~
Speaking of that, I've never heard of you before this, but your books seem fairly intersting. I must take one of those out of the library (if it's there) after I un-ban myself for all the fines or maybe buy a few ^-^
Can't wait to see what else you'll have to say,
Misty Karen
Posted by: Misty Karen | November 05, 2009 at 03:57 PM
thanx ben! you're awesome for taking time to answer our questions!
From,
the nameless bear
Posted by: Somebody Bear | November 05, 2009 at 06:13 PM