Stuff
Beverly Swerling: A Self Portrait
Beverly Swerling Revealed
Revealing Questions
- Q. What is your motto or maxim?
- A. All of writing is rewriting.
- Q. How would you describe perfect happiness?
- A. All the wounds healed.
- Q. What’s your greatest fear?
- A. Not believing or hoping to believe.
- Q. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?
- A. With my husband on the barge we used to have in France. Probably on the Canal de Burgogne.
- Q. With whom in history do you most identify?
- A. A scullery maid working for Virginia Wolfe in Bloomsbury. Or maybe V.W.'s cook.
- Q. Which living person do you most admire?
- A. Changes frequently, but at the moment I'm a huge adrmirer of Barack Obama.
- Q. What are your most overused words or phrases?
- A. "Just" and "that." I have to take a million of them out of every ms.
- Q. What do you regret most?
- A. The people I've lost and the things we didn't have a chance to laugh together about.
- Q. If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?
- A. I would love to play the cello.
- Q. What is your greatest achievement?
- A. Being loved by some pretty terrific people.
- Q. What’s your greatest flaw?
- A. Procrastination.
- Q. What’s your best quality?
- A. I think I'm empathic. Try to be, anyway.
- Q. If you could be any person or thing, who or what would it be?
- A. Me, but do it better.
- Q. What trait is most noticeable about you?
- A. My big mouth, probably.
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional hero?
- A. Far too many to name.
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional villain?
- A. Ditto
- Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
- A. I'mm far too smart to answer this question.
- Q. What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?
- A. Love to cook.
- Q. What’s your fantasy profession?
- A. Concert cellist.
- Q. What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?
- A. Intelligence, loyalty, laughter.
- Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?
- A. Fried clams from the Clam Box in Ipswich Mass.
- Q. What are your 5 favorite songs?
- A. Changes too frequently for me to be able to say. I usually have a "song" for every book I'm working on.
On Books and Writing
- Q. How did you come to write City of God?
- A. I was looking for a way into the early nineteenth century in order to take up the stories of the Devreys and Turners and came across the igniting of "new wave Prostestantism" the non-hierarchical sort on the American frontier. It was such a natural partner to the American exception - a government by and for the people - and so tied to the very forces that shape our country today. Lots of wow factor for me. When I discovered that there were indeed Revival Meetings on Broadway in the 1830's I was home free. (Except that it still remained to write the book!)
