Member Spotlight: Marc Cameron

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? I’ve been writing since I was a small boy growing up in on a small farm in rural Texas and read Wilson Rawls’ Where the Red Fern Grows. Reading, and later, writing, helped me imagine faraway places and great adventures–that eventually led me to my first vocation as a deputy US marshal. Throughout my law enforcement career, and for as long as I can remember really, I have been compelled to put words on paper. I was surprised to learn how many people I worked with kept journals or routinely wrote essays and short stories as a way to order their thoughts.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Stand up and do something else for a few minutes. Go for a walk. Do a chore I’ve been putting off. Observe people. Really listen to them. KEEP MY HEAD OUT OF MY PHONE. Then, sit down and write something. Even if it’s bad. I can’t fix a blank page.

What is your favorite time to write? I feel most productive in the early morning when I’m home. I travel quite a bit for research and though I usually prefer a quiet spot, I do a lot of writing in the evenings in bustling hotel lobbies, airports, and train stations.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? A college drama professor once pulled me aside and warned me that I had a tendency to procrastinate. He said–“Marc, you’re going places, but you will never reach your full potential until you learn to use those fifteen-minute segments of time that most people waste.” I’ve written a lot of chapters sitting waiting for planes while my friends were playing Angry Birds on their phones.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? I think writing (and reading) can keep us grounded. It connects us to the past and lets us dream about a future–giving others hope or warning against human foibles and weaknesses through our characters. I think the best writers of today, like the best writers of yesterday, are visionaries, seeing things in the world that others miss. I think of myself as a mollusk, filtering the interesting tidbits out of life and sharing them with my characters.

Marc Cameron’s Breakneck is out April 25 with Kensington Books.