Is writing harder than people like Cal imagine?
JC: Cal knows how hard it is, and that’s why he’s so careful never to try. TBR: Where did you get the inspiration for the fast-talking, rapacious literary agent, Blackie Yaeger? JC: Blackie is an amalgam of literary agents I’ve met and heard about and read about. I’d be disingenuous if I didn’t admit that he bears certain resemblances to a man named Andrew Wylie, whom I’ve never met but who got much publicity for being a shark in the 1980s and mid-1990s. But mostly he’s a figment of my imagination and bears no real resemblance to any agent that has ever lived. And if you believe that… TBR: Much of what motivates Cal is envy. What’s the source of this literary envy? JC: Literary careers are so incredibly precarious. To get published is greatly against the odds; for your work to be considered good is equally unlikely, and for you to sell enough books to become “successful” is virtually unheard of in all but the tiniest percentage of people who write. So given the fundamental insecurity
