Q&A: Brian Payton shares his fave books and writing habits

We asked Brian Payton 10 questions about his writing habits and favourite books.

We hope you’re reading along with the Cityline Book Club and enjoying The Wind is Not a River by Brian Payton! Our Cityline team has been enjoying this beautifully written novel, and we can’t wait to discuss it in our upcoming book club meeting! To help our book club get some additional insight into Payton as a writer, we asked him 10 questions about his writing habits and favourite books.

1. What was your favourite book as a child?

Honestly, I can’t remember much of what I read as a child, beyond the Hardy Boys mysteries, ghost-written by authors collectively known as Franklin W. Dixon. Then, as now, I loved being read to. I remember being mesmerized by my stunningly beautiful third grade teacher, who read E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web to the class. I was hooked on every word.

2. What’s your current favourite book?

I alternate between fiction and non-fiction and often find myself reading both simultaneously. Currently, I have three books on the go — each is excellent for vastly different reasons. Right now, my wife is reading Unconditional Parenting by Alphie Kohn aloud to me, because we have two children under the age of two and I am unconditionally confused. I am reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, for the relentlessly inventive language and fascinating historical period, and The Once and Future World by J.B. MacKinnon for a deep look at the nature of nature, and the possibilities of “rewilding” our world.

3. Was there a moment when you first knew you wanted to be a writer?

I read Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath when I was 14, and it shook me to the core. I vividly remember savouring the final scene while on the road, curled up in the hatchback of our Ford Pinto (infamous for having its gas tank behind the bumper) because there were not enough seats for all us kids. By the time I reached the ending, I was sobbing loud enough to require explanation. I knew then that I had magic in my hands and wanted to become a magician.

4. What is your favourite music to write to?

I listened to plenty of 1940s popular music — jazz, swing — as a warm up to writing several scenes in The Wind Is Not a River. And I remember listening to Gregorian chant each day while writing my first novel Hail Mary Corner. When I’m actually writing, however, I can’t listen to music. I listen to “light” classical piano concertos when I’m editing. Can’t have anything with lyrics, horns, or snare drums. To help focus on the possibilities of language, I often read poetry before I write. While writing The Wind Is Not a River, I read Seamus Heaney’s collection Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996.

5. What author do you wish you could write like?

I find coveting someone else’s style counterproductive. After all, the whole point is to find, define, and be true to your own voice. And I’m too easily influenced to give this too much thought! That said, I’ve admired the writing of John Steinbeck, Frank McCourt, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, Roddy Doyle, and Ian McEwan, for example. I don’t think I write like any of them.

6. Where is your favourite place to write?

Anywhere my two beautiful daughters (eldest aged 2 years, youngest 6 months) are not likely to find me or be heard through my earplugs. As you can imagine, I’m happily distracted at the moment and I’m not doing much new writing just now. I have an office across the street that I hope to visit next month, a place I think of as “The No Cry Zone.”

7. What time of day do you do your best writing?

Mid-morning and mid-afternoon. My ideal writing day involves an early start, real work in the two hours before lunch, a break for a run around Vancouver’s Seawall, then back up to speed mid-afternoon. Then I lose all steam. I can’t write at night and marvel at the rumors of writers who pound away on the keyboard until dawn. Who are these people?

8. What was your last great read?

Hans Fallada’s Every Man Dies Alone.

9. What is the last book you gave as a gift?

Choosing what to read is such a personal decision that I almost never give books. I give bookstore gift certificates to most everyone on my list to give them the freedom to choose. That said, I have given away a stack of Edward Hoagland’s Notes From the Century Before to people interested in British Columbia. It deserves a much wider audience.

10. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Spend every possible moment with my little girls and their mother. I’m a new dad and I still can’t get over my great good fortune. That, and running. I will run any chance I get.

Are you enjoying The Wind is Not a River so far? Share your thoughts in the comments – we can’t wait to discuss it with you. Stay tuned for a video of Brian Payton reading an excerpt from the novel, coming up right here in the Cityline Book Club next week!