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Don't Quit Your Day Job
(2010)Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs they Quit
A non fiction book by Howard Bahr, Rick Bragg, John Grisham, Winston Groom, Janis Owens, Daniel Wallace, Brad Watson and Steve Yarbrough
Contributory autobiographical essays by: John Grisham, Pat Conroy, Howard Bahr, Rick Bragg, Larry Brown, Connie May Fowler, Tom Franklin, Tim Gautreaux, William Gay, Winston Groom, Silas House, Suzanne Hudson, Joshilyn Jackson, Barb Johnson, Cassandra King, Janis Owens, Michelle Richmond, Clay Risen, George Singleton, Matthew Teague, Daniel Wallace, Brad Watson, Steve Yarbrough and Sonny Brewer. Cover picture by Barry Moser.
"Henry James once said that many people were vouchsafed extraordinary experiences in life, but only a few were blessed with the ability to competently relate them to the rest of the the world. In 'Don't Quit Your Day Job,' the experiences - whether simple, profound, funny, colorful, dangerous or tragic - and this ability are met, with pleasing results." John Sledge, Mobile Press-Register
"I’ve been asked a thousand times... It will be a perfect chance to answer the question for my readers..." JOHN GRISHAM, bestselling author and former underwear salesman.
P.J. O’Rourke said, “Creative writing teachers should be purged until every last instructor who has uttered the words ‘Write what you know’ is confined to a labor camp…The blind guy with the funny little harp who composed The Iliad, how much combat do you think he saw?”
Like O’Rourke, William Faulkner had his own take on the Other Commandment for writers, the one that goes, “Thou shalt not quit thy day job.” Faulkner, who won the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature, had, twenty-five years before, worked at the post office in his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi.
Mister Faulkner was known to say, “One of the saddest things is that the only thing a man can do for eight hours, is work. You can’t eat eight hours a day, nor drink for eight hours a day, nor make love for eight hours.”
He must have been determined to give something else (writing, we may assume, perhaps a glass of whisky on the side) a whirl when he tendered his resignation to the postmaster. “I reckon I’ll be at the beck and call of folks with money all my life,” he said, “but thank God I won’t ever again have to be at the beck and call of every son of a bitch who’s got two cents to buy a stamp."
"The authors in this book have tried their hands at some of the same jobs you have held, or still keep. They’ve worked on the railroad, busted rocks with a sledgehammer, fought fires, wiped tables, soldiered and carpentered and spied, delivered pizzas, lacquered boat paddles, counted heads for the church, sold underwear, and delivered the mail. They’ve driven garbage trucks.
“And like William Faulkner before them they have quit those day jobs. And like Faulkner they write. They tell good tales.
If you wonder what work preceded their efforts to produce a great pile of books, if you would like to know how they made the transition to, as William Gay said, “clocking in at the culture factory,” then this is the book you’ve been waiting for.…”
SONNY BREWER, Editor and former... (well there doesn't seem to be much Sonny hasn't done...) Singer in a Rock Band.
“I just wonder why no one has done this before. The truth is that this book will allow writers to do the one thing we tend to strive for most: build a bridge between ourselves and our readers. It will connect us, fiercely, with the people who love to read, and those who dream about writing as they work at their own jobs…” RICK BRAGG, bestselling author and former sledgehammer operator
"Henry James once said that many people were vouchsafed extraordinary experiences in life, but only a few were blessed with the ability to competently relate them to the rest of the the world. In 'Don't Quit Your Day Job,' the experiences - whether simple, profound, funny, colorful, dangerous or tragic - and this ability are met, with pleasing results." John Sledge, Mobile Press-Register
"I’ve been asked a thousand times... It will be a perfect chance to answer the question for my readers..." JOHN GRISHAM, bestselling author and former underwear salesman.
P.J. O’Rourke said, “Creative writing teachers should be purged until every last instructor who has uttered the words ‘Write what you know’ is confined to a labor camp…The blind guy with the funny little harp who composed The Iliad, how much combat do you think he saw?”
Like O’Rourke, William Faulkner had his own take on the Other Commandment for writers, the one that goes, “Thou shalt not quit thy day job.” Faulkner, who won the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature, had, twenty-five years before, worked at the post office in his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi.
Mister Faulkner was known to say, “One of the saddest things is that the only thing a man can do for eight hours, is work. You can’t eat eight hours a day, nor drink for eight hours a day, nor make love for eight hours.”
He must have been determined to give something else (writing, we may assume, perhaps a glass of whisky on the side) a whirl when he tendered his resignation to the postmaster. “I reckon I’ll be at the beck and call of folks with money all my life,” he said, “but thank God I won’t ever again have to be at the beck and call of every son of a bitch who’s got two cents to buy a stamp."
"The authors in this book have tried their hands at some of the same jobs you have held, or still keep. They’ve worked on the railroad, busted rocks with a sledgehammer, fought fires, wiped tables, soldiered and carpentered and spied, delivered pizzas, lacquered boat paddles, counted heads for the church, sold underwear, and delivered the mail. They’ve driven garbage trucks.
“And like William Faulkner before them they have quit those day jobs. And like Faulkner they write. They tell good tales.
If you wonder what work preceded their efforts to produce a great pile of books, if you would like to know how they made the transition to, as William Gay said, “clocking in at the culture factory,” then this is the book you’ve been waiting for.…”
SONNY BREWER, Editor and former... (well there doesn't seem to be much Sonny hasn't done...) Singer in a Rock Band.
“I just wonder why no one has done this before. The truth is that this book will allow writers to do the one thing we tend to strive for most: build a bridge between ourselves and our readers. It will connect us, fiercely, with the people who love to read, and those who dream about writing as they work at their own jobs…” RICK BRAGG, bestselling author and former sledgehammer operator
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