The Printed Page

I’d like to welcome Mr. James LePore to The Printed Page. His debut novel, A World I Never Made (my review) was released in April. Thank you Mr. LePore for taking time from your busy schedule to answer a few questions for me.

TPP: When and why did you begin writing?
JL: I began writing when was ten. I wrote the first paragraph of a story about a ten-year old boy who stows away on a ship to run away from home. After that I was stuck on what to say so I gave it up. Why? Probably because at that moment I really did want to run away from home.

TPP: When did you first consider yourself a writer?
JL: I write, but I don’t know if I consider myself a writer. To me a writer is someone who has written and published several books and makes a living from that endeavor. I’m just at the beginning of that process, or at least I hope I am.

TPP: What inspired you to write your book?
JL: I heard a story one night about a young woman who had committed suicide and left a taped message for each of her parents and siblings. The sadness of that story haunted me for days. What demons drove that young, seemingly happy woman to take her own life? What could be worse for a parent to have to confront? I started thinking about a suicide as a taking off point for a story, which has been done many times. And then it occurred to me that it might be a much more compelling story—to read and to write—if the suicide was faked. That was the beginning of A World I Never Made.

TPP: Do you have a specific writing style?
JL: I don’t think so. I try not to get too fancy.

TPP: What books have most influenced your life most?
JL: Too many to name. Many English (Waugh, Forster, Orwell, etc.), and Americans (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck). I read Catch-22 in college and it blew me away. I think the influence of books on us has as much to do with the book as it does with who and where we are when we read it.

TPP: If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
JL: I would choose Hemingway, who would probably tell me to get a good editor. The reason I say Hemingway is because of the story I read about an interview he did in which the interviewer asked him why he spent so much time re-writing a certain famous passage in one of his novels. His answer was: Because I wanted to get the words right.

TPP: What book are you reading now?
JL: I am just finishing Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

TPP:If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your book?
JL: No. I realize that in a thriller things have to move along. The short stories on my website, www.jamesleporefiction.com, gave me a great chance to fill in some details about the main characters that I couldn’t put into the book, and to live with them one last time.

TPP:Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
JL:Thank you for being my readers.