Ideas

Ideas.
That's where it all starts, right?
This idea pops into your head and you have to drop everything to write it. Even if it means dropping out of the world and locking yourself in your studio for days at a time. Unless I'm traveling, this pretty much sums up my life.

The one question I get from both my fellow authors and readers alike?
"Where do you get you ideas?"
I don't get them like I get a can of soup at the grocery store. They come to me. Sometimes too many at once. I write the ones that interest me the most, whether they are marketable or not. I am not the writer so much as the conduit.

The idea can come to me when I mistakenly hit another shopping cart with my own in the supermarket. Or sometimes I don't have a clear idea at all. I just sit down with a title in mind and I start to write.

Jim Harrison once said starting a novel before it's ready to be written is an exercise in futility and can be accompanied by the worst anxieties. I say, waiting too long to start a novel can be accompanied by the worst anxieties.

Open up your mind, relax, and let the ideas comes to you.

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM

Pre-order THE EXTORTIONIST today at a special low price...It's the best Steve Jobz PI novel yet, or so says Siskel and Ebert!

Pieces of Mind

Fiction isn't my only shtick. I've been writing non-fiction and essays since I first picked up a pencil. The topics I've covered over the years range from fly fishing, to travel, to architecture, to hunting, to coping with a loved one's depression. I've also written about writing.

So many books exist on the Amazon shelves dealing with how to become a bestselling author or how to game the system that it's impossible to hear yourself think over all the noise. But few books actually deal with the what it's like to be a writer, how it affects your relationships, what it's like to be alone all the time on a day to day basis, making a living by making stuff up.

My new book (errr one of my new books), Pieces of Mind: Fictional Truths & Non-Fictional Lies about Writing and the Writing Life, is one of the only ones out there that not only attacks the subject of "on writing," but that also deals with the "writing life." Here's the official product description: 
  
Brand new from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Vincent Zandri comes a non-fiction volume that will hold special appeal for those writers, new or established, who've enjoyed books on writing by Stephen King, Charles Bukoswki, Scott Nicholson, Chris Fox, Wayne Stinnett, and more.

Featuring a brand new introduction by the author on how he willingly gave up his birthright as the heir apparent to a multi-million dollar commercial construction firm in order to pursue his writing passion, Pieces of Mind contains essays on topics as diverse as lost love, sex, divorce, coping with a child's severe depression, experiencing Carnival in Venice, to sharing a first beer with your teenage son. But every word is delivered under the umbrella of a full-time fiction writer and freelance journalist trying to make sense of the lush world that surrounds him.

You'll also find "how to" pieces on going indie, staying traditional, and even hybrid authorship. You'll discover how Zandri sold 100,000 books in a single month, and how to keep on writing when you don't even want to get out of bed in the morning. Originally featured in publications such as Conor Friedersdorf's Culture 11 Magazine, Literarily Speaking, Writer's Digest, and other now archived pieces originally written for The Vincent Zandri Vox, these essays will make you laugh, cry, cringe, and think. Most of all they will want to make you drop everything to write your own story, be it fiction, non-fiction, or a fictional truth.

From the ITW Thriller and PWA Shamus Award Winning author of the No. 1 Bestselling novels, THE REMAINS and EVERYTHING BURNS, as well as new bestsellers like THE ASHES, ORCHARD GROVE and THE EMBALMER, comes the first in a series of books ON WRITING.

If you love short, sharp vignette style essays that get right to the point, while kicking aside political correctness, you'll love Pieces of Mind.

WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM