INDIGO EXCLUSIVE WITH LINWOOD BARCLAY
What’s your most unusual writing habit?
“I must work on my eccentricities. After 30 years in newspapers, writing is task-oriented and absent of any kind of romanticism. It’s just work. But I need a relatively tidy desk. If my work area is cluttered with papers and bills and various other bits of junk, I can’t get going. I can’t keep a complicated plot straight in my head if my desk looks, as my wife would say, ‘a dog’s breakfast.’”
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever researched for your writing?
“One of my novels had a car salesman as the protagonist, so I took two friends who had retired from that profession and asked for their best stories and what really goes on when the salesperson says, ‘Let me talk to the manager.’ Best story: the guy who wanted to test drive a pickup truck but actually used it to pick up a load of manure.”
What book title best describes your life?
“Fear the Worst—that sums me up perfectly. If there’s any chance something can go wrong, that is exactly what I expect to happen. I am a glass-half-empty guy as opposed to a glass-half-full.”
