No, the tortoise didn't do the interview. A journalist friend did.

Here's what Faith had to say about working as a writer.

 

A: I won an essay contest in the third grade, and I was hooked. I've been writing things ever since.

 

 

Q: Why do you write?

 

 

 

A: It's in me. It's what I do. I've always felt driven to understand things. When I write, I read complex scientific research and try to translate it into terms that people who aren't scientists (and I) can understand. Writing fulfills my need to learn, grow, and share what I learn with others who may feel just as driven to understand as I do.

 

 

 

Q: Who or what influences your work?

 

 

A: Scientific research and the people who do it influence everything I do. I've read that knowledge doubles every three to five years. Much of that growth in knowledge comes out of scientific research. I always want to know what's new and what implications new knowledge has for how we live.

 

 

Q: What is your writing process?

 

 

A: I once took a learning styles test and discovered that I’m a "concrete random." I latch onto a fact or idea from some source and then find that I am thinking about it, asking questions about it. Then I go looking in other places for related ideas and answers to my questions. Gradually, I weave one strand in with another until I have what feels like a piece of "whole cloth."

 

As for how I manage my writing, when I get up in the morning, I go to work just like everybody else. Never mind that my office is just down the hall. I think 90 percent of writing is sitting down and doing it. I work every day including weekends and holidays. I start early in the morning and usually quit midafternoon when I begin to feel "brain dead." I follow Hemingway's advice. I know where I will begin the next day before I stop. I can't imagine a day without writing, although I accomplish more some days than others.

 

Q: What has inspired you to write on the subjects you have chosen?

 

 

A: When I went to college, they asked me to declare a major. I had no idea what to choose, but I had liked English and biology in high school. English seemed too easy, though, so I chose biology. I have never regretted that decision. I find the study of life infinitely fascinating, and my writing career has allowed me to combine my love of writing with science.

 

 

Q: When did you start writing about the brain?

 

 

A: The first book in my 101 Questions... series was about the brain. I wrote it in the mid-1990s. I chose the topic because I thought there could not possibly be anything more exciting than a brain trying to understand itself. I wrote the manuscript and gave it to an agent who seemed eager to represent me. She kept it for a year and returned it to me as "unpublishable." I wrote query letters on my own and ended up selling that manuscript to Millbrook. It subsequently earned a “Best of the Year” designation from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. That series now includes ten titles, and the brain book is in its second edition. I think there is a lesson here for other writers: perseverance.

 

 

Q: What prompted you to write the ten books in the 101 Questions... series?

 

A: Textbooks make science seem so static, so dull. I wanted to help young people participate in the excitement of science as it grows and changes with each new research effort. I wanted to show that science works to answer questions we encounter in daily life; and I wanted to show that answers are always open and tentative. They are invitations to still more questions. I have always defined science as a way of asking questions and looking for answers. I hope this series captured the essence of that definition.

 

 

 

Q: How has your writing process changed since you "quit your day job"?

 

 

 

A: The Internet has changed so much for me. All the research material that was inaccessible or difficult to find fifteen years ago now lies at my fingertips. I can get in touch with scientists in minutes, not weeks. And no more telephone tag! I hear people criticize the Internet because of all the trash that is on it. But it is full of treasures, too. You just have to know how to find them.

 

Other than the research angle, I think I become a better writer the more I write. I think we all do. Also, I've broadened my interests and I do quite a bit of freelance editing. I've learned mountains from that--including a lot of what's in The Chicago Manual of Style. Seeing things from an editorial point of view makes me a better self-critic, I think. I also do a fair bit of ghostwriting. There's nothing like trying to write in someone else's style to make you more aware of your own.

 

 

 

Q: What do you hope to achieve through the books and articles you write?

 

 

A: If even one person reads something I wrote and says, "Oh, yeah. I get it!" then I have achieved something worthwhile in my career.

 

 

Q: What advice do you give aspiring writers?

 

 

A: Don't write in generalities. It's the specific details that will make your writing engaging and memorable. Oh, and one other thing: Don't keep your rejection letters. You need the file space to store the research materials for your next project.

 

Q: How did your newest book, Brain Sense, come about?

 

A: When my 101 Questions... series went to a new publishing company after eight books, the game changed. The friendly and productive relationship I had enjoyed with the Millbrook staff was gone. The new staff of editors didn't like me or much of anything that I wrote, and when I suggested that the next 101... title should be on the senses, they flatly refused, saying that the topic was too juvenile, too elementary school. I had been reading a lot of very exciting research about how the brain handles sensory input, and none of it struck me as juvenile, but the publisher was adamant. Soon after that, the publisher terminated the company’s relationship with me. I think they thought I was difficult. The feeling was mutual, so I was more relieved than disappointed. I then wrote a proposal for an adult book about the brain and the senses--mostly just to prove to myself that there was nothing childish about the topic. My agent soon sold the proposal to an enthusiastic publisher, and the rest is history. Brain Sense is the book I'm most proud of, and it never would have happened if I had stayed with my former publisher. As for the new publisher, it's the best company I have ever worked with. When one door closes, another opens.

 

Q: How did you begin writing?

 

 

 

Interested readers will find an expanded interview

with Faith Brynie here.