Each of the guest authors read selections from their work, many choosing passages from novels read by Times Book Club members. The book, which she's been working on for 12 years, grew out of her childhood in Los Angeles, she said. Moran, who doesn't like reading excerpts from his novels, decided instead to talk about the reasons that people write. Moran said his career in fiction began with a single sentence that seemed to appear out of nowhere, six years ago. A longtime journalist, Moran said he finds fiction-writing incredibly freeing, almost decadent.
Writing is simply pure pleasure.
In a panel discussion, the six authors answered questions about their work and how public attention has changed their writing. The novelists agreed that they do not map out plots ahead of time, but rather, wait to let the characters and stories develop naturally. I thought it was going to be scary, but it was such a receptive audience. The largest group she's read to before, she said, was about 100 people. Writers, said Yoshikawa, live a strange duality, both as public people and as intensely private people.