John Berendt

John Berendt was in Skaneateles this past Sunday, I stumbled upon a local bookstores website and they were announcing that he was doing a book signing. So I grabbed my copy of City of Falling Angels and headed across the rolling roads of Central New York.
Upon my arrival I learned that not only was he doing a book signing but a presentation as well. He was an entertaining speaker, at times he did appear a little rehearsed, but then I assume when you talk to hundreds of people you might begin feeling a little dull.
What everyone wonders is how he gets people to tell him the things that they do. He said in Savannah everyone is odd and wants to be more eccentric than their neighbour, so to have someone talk to them and tell them they're writing a book, the stories started flowing in. In Venice, most knew about Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, because the movie plays on TV there all the time. They were skeptical that he would do a book about Venice, and when it took so long to write they felt he would never publish and so had no fears about talking. He says he carries things on as a conversation, not a typical interview, and jots notes down in a small notebook, in Italy he would often tape record the interviews as he is not fluent in Italian.
He talked about how he is a slow writer, that he makes sure a paragraph is as close to perfect as possible before moving on to the next. He is very critical of his work, even sharing a sentence that he dislikes in Midnight and what he would have changed just in that one sentence, but he is proud of his books and his writing. It was interesting to hear writers that have inspired him (Cormac & Wharton) and reasons why he enjoys their writing (use of words & creative , detailed, descriptions of people).
It was thrilling to hear an author and see them in person that I really admire. I highly suggest learning where authors you like will be speaking and trying to get to meet them. It's awesome to learn what they were thinking when they wrote a specific paragraph or their reactions when they met someone for the first time.