After hearing last year about Boris Johnson’s thriller, then about Saddam Hussein’s romance novels, I got thinking about why people from all sorts of backgrounds are drawn to writing fiction. Reading them, I’m struck by two thoughts, firstly by how easy lots of professional writers make writing fiction look, and secondly by how much you can come to understand a person by the way they write.
Are there any novels you know of from unexpected authors? Have you found any that are decent as books apart from their creators? What is it about novels that draws non-writers that’s missing from, say, pottery or interpretive dance?
You must log in or register to comment.
Hugh Laurie wrote a cheeky noir detective novel—The Gun Seller
David Duchovny wrote several literary novels including Bucky Fucking Dent
Hugh Laurie wrote a cheeky noir detective novel—The Gun Seller
David Duchovny wrote several literary novels including Bucky Fucking Dent
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has co-written three novels about Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock’s older brother.) Apparently he was a Sherlock Holmes fan as a kid.
He’s also written a bunch of nonfiction and was one of the writers in the Veronica Mars revival.
Stacey Abrams is most well-known for almost becoming the governor Georgia in 2018 and then working her ass off to fight voter suppression in 2020, which a lot of people credit with Biden winning the state in 2020.
But she also wrote Harlequin romance novels under a pen name since law school.
Many lawyers become writers - a few quite famous.
Gene Wilder wrote a romance novel called My French Whore.
Keanu Reeves wrote a comic book called Berserker, iirc.
Stumbled on Jimmy Buffett’s fiction in a bookstore a few weeks ago. Unsure if it’s any good.
A lot of famous people get novels published not because the novels are good, but because they are famous. They also have well compensated professional editors or even ghost writers to help them turn their pile of crap fiction into something at least publishable with a straight face.