It's time to go out there and see what the most creative people of our generation think about these issues. I bet really creative people can offer insight into these issues that will be useful to almost anyone, including psychologists (not that psychologists aren't also creative people!).
I introduce here a new series on my blog called Conversations on Creativity. In this series, I will have discussions with creative people from as many different domains as I can find. Creativity can take place anywhere, and I hope to represent as much of it as possible throughout the course of this series. To kick things off, I had a conversation with best selling science fiction writer Piers Anthony. I found out a lot about Piers I never knew, including the fact that he is a late bloomer (read the current issue of Psychology Today for a full article on Late Bloomers, where I include a quote from this interview-you can view a snippet of the article here).
Piers Anthony is one of the most successful science fiction writers of our time, racking up twenty-one New York Times paperback bestsellers in one decade.Xanth, perhaps his most well-known and popular series, has reached levels of success most science fiction writers only dream of achieving. His first novel in the series, A Spell for Chameleon, won the 1997 British Derleth Fantasy Award. The fifth book in the Xanth series, Ogre, Ogre, was one of the first fantasy paperback novels to make the New York Time bestseller list. At least two other series of his--Incarnations of Immortality and Apprentice Adept-- have also become best-sellers. Anthony even novelized the Hollywood movie Total Recall, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. Let's begin our conversation.
S. Why in the world did you decide you wanted to be a creative writer? Were there any significant events in your early life that influenced your decision to be a creative writer?
P. In school my several potentials were blocked off, until midway through college I considered carefully and realized that my true ambition was to write. It was like a guiding light turning on, and I have followed it ever since.
S. Why do you think your potentials were blocked off? Do you think it was largely a matter of the right trigger being absent?
P. Some of it was the way I started late, learning to read. More of it was that when my math ability flowered - I loved algebra and trigonometry - I was required instead to take four years of foreign languages, at which I stunk. I went from Honor Student to almost flunking out because of it. By college it was too late to catch up on the math. So in effect I had to start over.
S. Have you ever had any quirky jobs that don't relate to creative writing that you care to share?
P. I had something like 15 early employments, ranging from logging to being an aide in a mental hospital, and didn't really care for any of them. Finally my wife went to work so that I could stay home and try to be a writer. That's when I made my first sale, after 8 years of trying.
S. Which work of yours are you most proud of, and why?
P. My historical novel Tatham Mound. My younger daughter was interested in archaeology, and we supported our children's interests, and when they discovered a major Native American burial mound in our county of Florida, we financed its investigation and study by the University of Florida. I based my novel on what they learned, animating the bones, as it were. The archaeological project contributed significantly to the present-day knowledge of the Tocobaga Indians, and I regard the novel as the major project of my career.
P. I was surely always a dreamer, but I don't remember fantasizing about other worlds. I just wanted to be out of this one.
S. Were you a good student in grade school? How well did you do in English classes?
P. I was not a good student in grade school. In fact it took me three years and five schools to make it through first grade. I had trouble learning to read. My elder daughter was diagnosed dyslexic, but in my day dyslexia didn't exist, merely stupid students. So I may have set a record for stupidity. I did not do well in English, being unable to spell correctly.
S. As a student, did you ever get in trouble for not conforming?
P. I have gotten in trouble for not conforming all my life. I was suspended from college for a week for being with the girl I later married - we remain married 52 years later - was denied promotion in the US Army despite being a Math instructor they could not spare, even for mandatory leave time, and was blacklisted for six years as a writer when I refused to back off when a publisher cheated me. In all cases I had the right of the case, and the other parties don't like to talk about it. Like the Romans, I simply would not bow my head to false gods.
S. I won't ask you to clarify why you could get in trouble for "being" with a girl (you accidently ended up attending an all-girls catholic college, obviously) but I was wondering if you could please elaborate on why you were denied promotion in the US Army?
P. I was in a lounge talking with my girlfriend and two other couples, 20 minutes after the lounge was ruled closed. The college lounges were administered by the community government, but the faculty arbitrarily pre-empted them and closed them. It was in violation of the college standards, and there was a massive student protest, but the college president said he would close the whole college unless the suspensions were honored. In effect, it was like a dictator making a coup, and shooting anyone who protested. Years later, when I became a major financial supporter of the college and reminded it of that injustice, it was totally mute. I suspect not willing to believe that any such thing had happened. The whip-hand had changed.
The US Army decided that soldiers should buy US Savings Bonds, at 2.5% interest, even if they needed the money to live on. I was one of two soldiers who declined. It took time, but they busted the other - that is reduced his rank on a pretext - and put me to work weeding and doing manual work, though I was a math and survey instructor, and barred me from ever being promoted beyond my then-rank of PFC - private first class. They also summoned off-post personnel - married men like me - to attend early morning revelie at 5:30 AM, to put pressure on me. It didn't work; the others appreciated the fact that I was doing what they had not dared to do. You won't find any of that illicit pressure in the Army records, of course.
S. Would you consider yourself a late bloomer?
P. Yes.
S. Nice one, me too. Well, I'm still waiting for the blooming, that is.
Talent
S. To what extent do you think practice and hard work can make someone a great creative writer?
