Fired by 'The wonder of reading'

 

“I always read poetry before I write, to sensitize me to the rhythms and music of language. . . A novelist can get by on story, but the poet has nothing but the words.”—Janet Fitch

 

Born in Los Angeles on Nov. 9, 1955, Fitch is the author of White Oleander.

 

“My father was an engineer - he wasn't literary, not a writer or a journalist, but he was one of the world's great readers,” she said, “and he instilled that in me.  The wonder of reading. When you're a little kid, you are small, your life is small - you're terrifically aware of that. But when you read, you can ride Arabian horses across the desert; you can be a dogsledder."  That, she said, is what she strives for her own writing to do.

 

Planning to be a historian she found herself, instead, drawn to writing about things historical and so she did.   Among her other novels are the bestsellers Paint It Black, named after the Rolling Stones song and also made into a movie, and Chimes of a Lost Cathedral.  

 

“I write all the time,” she said, “whether I feel like it or not. I never get inspired unless I'm already writing.

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