290: Writing a Sequel Decades Later - Interview with Samuel Shem

Hey there word nerds!  Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Samuel Shem, a novelist, playwright, and activist. He is a Professor in Medical Humanities at NYU School of Medicine, and Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. His novels include The House of God, Fine, Mount Misery, In the Heart of the Universe, and The Spirit of the Place (which won two national "Best Literary Novel" awards in 2008 and 2009). He is coauthor with his wife, Janet Surrey, of The Buddha's Wife, and the award-winning Off-Broadway play Bill W. and Dr. Bob, about the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, and also We Have to Talk: Healing Dialogues Between Men and Women. Also, just a quick heads up, we have a teeny bit of explicit language towards the end of the interview. Due to the nature of the discussion I decided not to bleep anything out, but I wanted to let you know in case you have small children in the room or you, yourself, are not comfortable with explicit language. In this episode Samuel and I discuss: The desire that inspired the novel  Putting parts of yourself into a novel Fictionalizing true things Writing -- or not writing -- for a specific audience The necessity of character change How computers depersonalize medicine  Writing a sequel that still stands alone Plus, his #1 tip for writers. For more info and shownotes: www.diymfa.com/290