Judge Not That Ye Be

I Did Get Tired Of Hearing That Criticism Years Ago. That Is Not A Compliment. Being Labeled A "beach Read" Is A Put-down. So, I Did Deliberately Set Out To Write A Book, Camino Island, That Would Be Very Entertaining And Compulsively Readable And We Published It On June 6 In Time For Summer Vacation, Hoping That People Would Buy It And Take It To The Beach.

Very Few Writers Understand The Complex History And Maddening Social Order Of The Mississippi Delta. For Steve Yarbrough, Though, It's Home Turf. He Is Wickedly Observant, Funny, Cynical, Evocative, And He Possesses A Gift That Cannot Be Taught: He Can Tell A Story.

I Remember Stephen King Did A Fundraiser One Time With J.k. Rowling And He Was Very Impressed With Her. But We Talk A Lot About Publishing, Bookselling, And Book Writing. He's Been Around For Ten Years Longer Than Me And Was A Bestseller Right Off The Bat. And He's Seen And Done Everything. It's Rare To Be With Somebody Who Has Been Through All Of That.

One Thing That Drives Me Nuts... Well, Let Me Ask You, When Writers Write Do They Not Use Quotation Marks Anymore?

So Many Book Sections In Newspapers And Magazines Used To Be Lively And Vibrant Places. Now They Are Gone. You Just Don't See Many Reviews Anymore. I Can't Control That, So I Don't Worry About It. I Just Try To Do What I Do And Write Books That People Find Every Entertaining. I Don't Worry About The Critics.