How old were you when you first started writing?
I started to write for fun about 20 years ago. I had a file folder of ideas for stories, and finally I just started to write. I still have that folder, and I think that it has enough ideas in there to keep me writing until I’m about a thousand years old.
What was your inspiration for the book?
The inspiration for Amazing Arachnids came about by chance. First of all, I had been photographing and learning about arachnids as I built a database of species in my area. Macro photography is a lot like Alice going down the rabbit hole; there is another whole world to be discovered through the camera lens. Some of my co-workers saw a few of these early photographic portraits of spiders. Weeks afterwards, one or another of those co-workers would approach me and tell me that they had found a spider in their house, and had carefully relocated it outside rather than kill it. I realized that the chance to see a spider up close in a photograph allowed people to learn about them in a non-threatening way, allowing the person to overcome their fear. And so I decided to tell the story of the ultimate underdogs, arachnids, with the help of photographs.
What is the most challenging aspect of being a writer?
For this particular book, the most challenging part of the writing was attempting to distill thousands of pages of academic journal papers into something that would not be lethally boring for the general public. But the other really big challenge was trying to document in photographs behaviors that had never been photographed before. It took blood, sweat (lots of that!), tears and over ten years of effort to get those photographs.
Do you have a message for other aspiring writers?
If you are older (like me), buy a ruled notebook, some pens you really like, and just start writing. Don’t worry if you scratch out whole paragraphs; you are writing on paper, not on stone. Or, if you prefer typing, type it directly into your computer. The main point is, write! Writing is like walking; one word follows another the way that one foot follows the other. A book is a long journey of many small words leading you to new ideas. And the journey itself is sometimes more important than the destination.
What is the last book you read for pleasure?
Huxley, From Devil’s Disciple to Evolution’s High Priest, by Adrian Desmond.
Where can your book be purchased or read?
It can be purchased from Amazon.com or any other large bookseller. You can also purchase it from Princeton University Press on their website.
