About Peter Leonard
Peter Leonard lives in Birmingham, Michigan. His first novel, Quiver,
received wide-spread critical acclaim.
1. What was your biggest childhood ambition?
I wanted to be a professional football player or a racecar driver, but
neither panned out.
2. What is your fondest memory?
I have four kids, and seeing the birth of each was pretty spectacular.
3. What did you do for fun as a child?
Played baseball, and made tree forts and shot cans with my BB gun.
4. What was your worst job?
I cleaned chemical drums, dipped them in a bath of caustic soda,
wearing rubber gloves, apron and boots, making $4.11 an hour at Western
Eaton Solvents and Chemicals Company.
5. If you had another occupation than the one you are in now, what
would it be?
I'd be a rock guitarist in the mold of Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, or
Nels Cline of Wilco.
6. What inspired you to write?
Boredom. I'd written ads for 25 years and needed some other way to
express myself.
7. What was your biggest challenge when writing this book?
Finding the time to do it. I wrote Trust Me part time while I was still
working in the advertising business.
8. What do you dislike about writing?
Reading a manuscript over and over again during the proofing stage. It
becomes so familiar and repetitive you start to doubt yourself.
9. What book are you reading now?
I just finished Queenpin by Megan Abbott. Very entertaining. Megan's a
good writer.
10. Where is your favorite place to write?
I write in my bedroom. It's a big room with a lot of light and very
comfortable. I sit in a chair with my feet on an ottoman and write
longhand. Then I sit at my desk and transcribe the longhand to an Apple
laptop, or an iMac.
11. If your best friend was a celebrity, living or dead, who would
it
be?
Woody Allen. He's funny and entertaining and interesting, and also
quirky and neurotic. I think he'd be a good friend.
Copyright © 2009 Peter Leonard, author of Trust
Me.