You said before that you’ve always been able to tell a story, but that you had to learn how to write. Please explain how you went about learning.

I went to the poets. I read poetry, I listened to it on tape, I read it out loud. I tuned my ear to the music of language. Then I read my own prose out loud and could hear whether it cut the mustard. A couple of years ago, I read that you write every day—weekends not excluded.

Do you still write every day? What’s your schedule like?

I still write every day, although some days I write and delete, write and delete, it's not always the land of milk and honey. I take my kid to school, go to the library, work all day if I can, otherwise go for a walk and just read, then pick her up after school. Sometimes I do better work at night--I'm a morning person but this new book seems to be a night book.

What is your favorite part about writing? Your least?

When it's flowing, when the muse sings and it just comes out like a Miles Davis riff, that's my favorite part. My least favorite part is when you write and it just sits there like something the dog left on the sidewalk.

Describe your writing environment.

At home I write in a spare bedroom. My house is modern but I like my writing room to be old fashioned. I write on a little wooden secretary desk. At the library I work in a cubicle and everything's green and there's florescent light but there's no phone and no e-mail, and I can't take a nap unless I just put my head on the desk. I get a lot done there but can't get in as deep as I do at home.

What would you be doing if you weren’t a writer?

Artist? Historian (well, that's a writer too). I'd love to have been a dancer--not a star, but just part of it. I could have been a printer--was a typesetter for many years. Love print, love type.

Do you have a favorite writing book?

The Art of Fiction by John Gardner, and The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lagos Egri.

What are you working on now?

[A] new novel set in L.A. in the 1980's.

What advice would you impart to aspiring writers?

Care more about the quality of the sentences and less about getting published. You'll be a better writer and better published too.

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Jennifer Minar is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance writer and the managing editor of Writer's Break. She can be contacted at jminar@writersbreak.com.